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Tina Nguyen

Puck’s resident MAGA expert and insider, chronicling the transformation of the G.O.P. and the egos and intrigues within Trumpworld. Tina was previously a political correspondent at Politico and Vanity Fair.

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WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 25: U.S. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks to reporters outside the Speakers Balcony at the U.S. Capitol Building on July 25, 2023 in Washington, DC. McCarthy held the media availability with reporters to discuss a potential impeachment inquiry against U.S. President Joe Biden that would focus on the Biden family's alleged financial misconduct. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON • September 20, 2023
McCarthy’s Chaos Caucus
Beneath the façade of a unified opposition to the compromise G.O.P. spending plan, the hardline bloc is really a confederation of “caucuses of one,” as a House Republican insider put it, each with their own individual incentives, which McCarthy could use to break them apart—if they don’t get rid of him first.
Matt Gaetz promised to start “every single day in Congress with the prayer, the pledge and the motion to vacate,” unless Kevin McCarthy meets his alleged commitments.
WASHINGTON • September 13, 2023
Tucker’s World Tour & Gaetzgate
News and notes on Vivek’s primary conundrum, Carlson’s journey to the Middle East, and McCarthy’s barbarians at the gates.
Kevin McCarthy faces migraine-inducing dilemmas from the likes of M.T.G. and Matt Gaetz, who’ve threatened to kick rocks in the gears if an impeachment inquiry doesn’t materialize.
WASHINGTON • September 7, 2023
McCarthy’s Impeachment Theater
The speaker is pinned between pro-impeachment hardliners who want to shut down the government, vulnerable moderates whose fate will determine control of Congress, and maybe the outcome of the 2024 election, too.
The qualities that have insulated Ramaswamy from the usual MAGA backlash were all on display during last week’s debate.
WASHINGTON • August 30, 2023
Vivek & Bake
The Ramaswamy Show is reconfiguring the essential dynamics of the Republican primary, threatening to push DeSantis out of the right-of-Trump culture warrior lane into the moderate-ish territory occupied by MAGA milquetoasts like Nikki Haley and Tim Scott.
The deck seems stacked against Ron DeSantis, who has the most to prove, and the most to lose.
WASHINGTON • August 16, 2023
Is DeSantis ’28 Already Toast?
As Milwaukee beckons, big questions loom: Will Trump and Tucker counterprogram the stage? Is Vivek really a MAGA player? And is DeSantis truly cooked—not just this time around, but for the next cycle, too?
In the MAGA-fied G.O.P., Frank Luntz has found himself on the outside for criticizing Trump and Trumpism, as well as for trying to prop up the conservative principles that once defined the party.
WASHINGTON • August 9, 2023
The Passion of the Luntz
The legendary G.O.P. pollster apostate discusses the party’s latest apocalyptic turns: the martyrdom of Mike Pence, why voters are souring on DeSantis, and whether Tim Scott (or Joe Manchin!) can win Iowa.
The DeSantis campaign can fire as many people and hit as many reset buttons as they’d like, but DeSantis campaign watchers are pessimistic that things will improve unless the attitude at the very top changes.
WASHINGTON • August 2, 2023
The Closing of the Florida Mind
The DeSantis campaign was supposed to be executing the “reset” it promised donors after weeks of gut-punch headlines. Instead he’s spending his time talking about purging the Justice Department—and still getting labeled a squish. Can anyone but Casey reach him?
Ron DeSantis’s boosters have frequently invoked McCain’s come-from-behind, early-primary-state-targeting, momentum-slingshotting strategy as their new lodestar after his national polling faltered.
WASHINGTON • July 26, 2023
DeSantis Blame Games & Witch Hunt Mania
News and notes on the political erogenous zones of the modern right: Is Jeff Roe or Generra Peck to blame for the DeSantis slump? And Is Kevin McCarthy really going after the president?
At the outset of his campaign, Ron DeSantis made a conscious decision to bring as much of his political apparatus in-house as possible, avoiding vendors and other third parties.
WASHINGTON • July 20, 2023
The DeSantis Surveillance State, Revisited
Amid the recent reckoning over expenses and cutbacks, some close to DeSantis wonder if he and Casey can get past their paranoia and let the political pros do their jobs—so that the candidate can do his.
Capitol Hill has been consumed by the internecine drama surrounding the status of MAGA darling Marjorie Taylor Greene.
WASHINGTON • July 13, 2023
Fried Greene Tomatoes
M.T.G.’s ouster from the House Freedom Caucus over the Boebert spat, among other things, has become a telling reflection of the G.O.P. (and the MAGAplex) during the Trump interregnum.
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