SUNDAY, MAY 15 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

BY ASHLEY PARKER

AND MICHAEL SCHERER

Last Wednesday, during a
speech on the economy, Presi-
dent Biden coined a new phrase
— “ultra MAGA.”
“Let me tell you about this
ultra MAGA agenda,” Biden said,
using former president Donald
Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan —
“Make America Great Again” —
as a pejorative. “It’s extreme, as
most MAGA things are.”
Then, in the subsequent days,
Biden and his team continued to
hammer Republicans in aggres-
sive terms, attacking them as
“MAGA” and “ultra MAGA.”
Biden even dismissed his pred-
ecessor at one point as “the great
MAGA king.”
It took scant time for Republi-
cans to gleefully seize on the
moniker as their own, trium-
phantly elevating it as a brand
worthy of celebration. “I am ultra
MAGA, and I’m proud of it,” said
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the
No. 3 House Republican, after a
reporter Wednesday noted that
she was “being called ultra
MAGA.”
The same day, Trump’s Save
America super PAC sent out a
fundraising email featuring a
$45 T-shirt bearing the image of
Trump as Superman — a Trump
“T” stretched across his chest
rather than Superman’s iconic
“S” — flying below the banner of
“SUPERMAGA” in a red-and-yel-
low comic book font.
“Did you hear what Joe Biden
called us? He said we were an
EXTREME POLITICAL OR-
GANIZATION. He said we were
ULTRA MAGA,” read the email
pitch. “Well ... If loving your
Country and wanting to put
AMERICA FIRST makes you UL-
TRA MAGA, then yes. WE ARE
ULTRA MAGA.”
And Wednesday night, Trump
also blasted out a meme featur-
ing himself as Aragorn — a
selfless hero of “The Lord of the

Rings” trilogy — complete with

the caption, “The Return of the

Great MAGA King.”

“This is something that admits

the power and influence of the

MAGA movement and President

Trump’s strength over the party,

and for some reason Biden

thinks that’s an insult,” said

Trump spokesperson Taylor Bu-

dowich. “I don’t understand

what he’s trying to achieve, espe-

cially given that right about now,

whether you’re a mother trying

to feed your child who needs

formula or someone trying to fill

up your car, ultra MAGA sounds

pretty good.”

Trump himself “absolutely

loved” the great MAGA king

meme and has privately mocked

Biden and his fellow Democrats

as bad branders who do not

understand the art of marketing,

said a person briefed on his

thinking, speaking anonymously

to share private details.

Trump and his fellow Republi-

cans’ embrace of “ultra MAGA”

reflects the former president’s

skill at co-opting would-be in-

sults or even random phrases. In

2016, for instance, when Hillary

Clinton, then the Democratic

nominee for president, said that

half of Trump supporters be-

longed in what she termed a

“basket of deplorables,” Trump

and his base quickly embraced

the term, turning it into a rally-

ing cry.

More recently, in October, a

“F--- Joe Biden!” chant broke out

at Alabama’s Talladega Super-

speedway while an NBC reporter

was interviewing NASCAR driver

Brandon Brown live on air. Hear-

ing the cry, the reporter said,

“You can hear the chants from

the crowd — ‘Let’s go Brandon!’”

The exchange quickly went viral,

with Trump supporters re-appro-

priating the chant — “Let’s go

Brandon!” — to convey anti-

Biden animosity.

“You can’t fake grass-roots

support, and there is a real

ecosystem of Trump supporters,”

said Cliff Sims, who was a senior

administration official under

Trump. “Part of the power of the

online movement for Trump is

they’re just having a great time,

they’re making fun of people,

they’re trolling, they’re creating

funny memes to get a laugh or

get retweets.”

Asked what the administra-

tion makes of Trump supporters

co-opting a phrase that Biden

intended as pejorative, White

House press secretary Jen Psaki

said that if these Republicans

“are embracing their opposition

to a woman’s right to make

choices about her own health

care, if they’re embracing a plan

that will raise taxes on 75 million

Americans, if they’re embracing

the importance of fighting Mick-

ey Mouse over virtually any other

issue, I guess that’s their plat-

form.”

“Good for them,” Psaki con-

cluded. “We’re happy to have a

debate about that.”

Biden’s attempt to appropriate

the “MAGA” brand as a political

attack was hardly accidental. It

arose from a six-month research

project to find the best way to

target Republicans, helmed by

Biden adviser Anita Dunn and

by the Center for American

P rogress Action Fund, a liberal

group.

The polling and focus group

research by Hart Research and

the Global Strategy Group found

that “MAGA” was already viewed

negatively by voters — more

negatively than other phrases

like “Trump Republicans.”

In battleground areas, more

than twice as many voters said

they would be less likely to vote

for someone called a “MAGA

Republican” than would be more

likely. The research also found

that the description tapped into

the broad agreement among vot-

ers that the Republican Party

had become more extreme and

power-hungry in recent years.

“All of that extremism gets

captured in that brand,” said

Navin Nayak, president and ex-

ecutive director of CAP Action

Fund. “We are not trying to

create a new word. This is how

they define themselves.”

Nayak also said “MAGA” is a

versatile epithet, allowing Biden

and the Democrats to convey the

same message whether they are

talking about the economy, cli-

mate change or abortion.

Psaki on Tuesday described

“ultra MAGA” as “the president’s

phrase,” saying Biden personally

added “a little ‘ultra’ to it — give

it a little extra pop.”

Biden has repeatedly tied the

term to Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.),

chairman of the National Repub-

lican Senatorial Committee, who

in February released a controver-

sial 11-point policy plan. Its pro-

posals include taxing many

Americans who currently pay no

taxes, as well as “sunsetting” all

federal laws every five years,

apparently including those au-

thorizing Medicare and Social

Security.

Although Scott’s plan been

disavowed by some Republican

leaders, Biden regularly de-

scribes it as the “MAGA agenda”

of the “MAGA Republicans.”

Since the Republican leadership

has not offered any other plan,

the White House argues, the

public platform of its Senate

campaign chief is fair game.

“I call it the 'ultra-MAGA’ plan

— Make America Great Again

plan,” Biden said Wednesday,

speaking to electrical workers in

Chicago.

Other Democrats have fol-

lowed Biden’s lead in pushing

the phrase. On Thursday, the

Twitter account for the Senate

Democrats shared a story about

a Republican lawmaker in Idaho

pushing to remove exceptions for

rape and incest to the state’s

abortion ban, writing, “No excep-

tions for rape or incest. This is

what MAGA Republicans sup-

port.”

Biden’s decision to dub Repub-

licans as “ultra MAGA” — like

another new Biden quip, “This is

not your father’s Republican Par-

ty — represents a turnabout from

his campaign persona. He ran as

a unifier, promising that under a

Biden administration Republi-

cans would have an “epiphany”

and bipartisanship would return

to Washington.

Instead, partisan vitriol has

continued to consume the na-

tion’s capital, a reality Biden

seems to acknowledge with his

“ultra MAGA” descriptor — a

wing of the Republican Party

that he described as “petty,”

“mean-spirited,” “extreme” and

“beyond the pale” at a fundraiser

in Chicago Wednesday night.

Asked how Biden’s recent

rhetoric aligns with his desire to

be a bipartisan healer, Psaki said

“the president’s view is you can

do both” — work with Republi-

cans on shared priorities while

spotlighting what he views as

destructive policies or behavior.

“He’s also not going to stand

by and not call out what he sees

as ultra MAGA behavior, ultra

MAGA policies that are out of the

mainstream of the country and

are not in the interest of the

American people,” Psaki said.

Not everyone is convinced

Biden has stumbled upon a polit-

ical winner, however. Sims, the

former Trump adviser, warned

that Democrats may have more

trouble than they realize taking a

Trump slogan and turning it into

an insult.

“It’s stunning how out-of-

touch Biden and his folks are

about how to brand this stuff

when they’re taking the most

iconic, successful political slogan

of all time and trying to turn it

into something derogatory,”

Sims said. “I mean, who doesn’t

want to make America great

again?”

Biden sees a new threat: ‘Ultra MAGA’ Republicans

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST

A supporter listens to President Donald Trump speak Jan. 4, 2021, in Dalton, Ga. President Biden’s

effort to appropriate the “MAGA” brand as a political attack arose from a six-month research project.

Many in the GOP have

eagerly co-opted moniker

as a badge of pride

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