Reign of Error with Sarah Posner 004: DHS, Nazi Propaganda & the MAGA New Right: Inside Trump’s Intellectual Takeover
This week on Reign of Error, host Sarah Posner examines the Department of Homeland Security’s use of neo-Nazi and white nationalist imagery in ICE recruitment ads—and what it reveals about the deeper ideological currents shaping Trump’s second term. In conversation with political theorist Laura K. Field, author of Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right, Posner traces how once-fringe intellectual movements have consolidated power inside elite conservative institutions, from the Heritage Foundation to Project 2025. Together they unpack the factions driving this transformation—national conservatives, post-liberals, Claremont theorists, and the hard-right underbelly—and explore how their rejection of liberal democracy, embrace of nativism, and intellectualized misogyny are reshaping federal policy and political culture.
The episode also probes fractures within the movement, including rising antisemitism, tensions with Christian Zionists, and the growing influence of t “groyper” networks inside government ranks. As Trump attacks universities and doubles down on culture war politics, Posner and Field consider whether the MAGA intellectual project has reached its limits—or is simply playing a longer game.
Plus, this week’s “Anti-Doom” highlights the MAGA backlash to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show as evidence that, for all its institutional power, the movement may be losing its grip on American culture.
Laura K. Field is an associate with the Illiberalism Studies Program at George Washington University, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, and visiting scholar in residence at American University. A political theorist by training, she holds a PhD in government from the University of Texas at Austin, and has held faculty positions at Rhodes College in Memphis, Georgetown University, and American University in Washington, DC. In addition to her academic work she has written for The New Republic, Politico, The Bulwark, Le Monde, and The New York Times. Her book Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right is now out with Princeton University Press. She lives in Washington, DC.
Bluesky: @lkatfield.bsky.social
Instagram: @laurakfield
X: @lkatfield
https://lkfieldnotes.substack.com/
Additional Resources:
Laura K. Field, Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2025)
Laura K. Field, “The Intellectual Edgelords of the GOP,” The Atlantic, February 5, 2026, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/ice-trump-new-right/685854/?gift=stxZIT1Prmsx1l9n8DO7DHaVw4CxSAZatLqXbtIvRyg
Dean Robbins, “Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one.,” Wisconsin News, February 10, 2026, https://news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad-bunny-needed-a-puerto-rican-history-scholar-uw-madison-had-just-the-one/
Doug Bock Clark, “The Conservative Researcher Being Linked to the FBI’s Seizure of Election Records in Georgia,” Pro Publica, February 9, 2026, https://www.propublica.org/article/kevin-moncla-election-researcher-fulton-county-georgia?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=propublica-bsky
Hunter Walker, “A Conspiracy Fueled Report Preceded ‘Black Pill’ Tulsi Gabbard’s Fulton County Election Raid,” Talking Points Memo, February 6, 2026, https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2020-election-report-tulsi-gabbard-fulton-county
Austin Campbell, Lawmakers Call on Meta to Stop Running ICE Ad Featuring Neo-Nazi Anthem, The Intercept, February 5, 2026, https://theintercept.com/2026/02/05/dhs-ice-ad-facebook-meta-instagram/
Evan Gorelick, “Administration Social Media Posts Echo White Supremacist Messaging,” New York Times, January 27, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/us/politics/white-supremacy-trump-administration-social-media.html
Hannah Gais, “DHS, White House shared white nationalist song in ICE recruitment posts,” Hatewatch, Southern Poverty Law Center, January 15, 2026, https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/white-nationalist-song-ice-recruitment-posts/
Roger Severino, Jay Richards, PhD, Emma Waters, Delano Squires, Rachel Sheffield and Robert Rector, “Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation for the Next 250 Years,” The Heritage Foundation, January 8, 2026, https://www.heritage.org/marriage-and-family/report/saving-america-saving-the-family-foundation-the-next-250-years
Drew Harwell and Joyce Sohyun Lee, “ICE plans $100 million ‘wartime recruitment’ push targeting gun shows, military fans for hires,” Washington Post, December 31, 2025,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/12/31/ice-wartime-recruitment-push/
Caleb Kieffer and R.G. Cravens, “Homeland Security deploys white nationalist, anti-immigrant graphics to recruit,” Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch, August 28, 2025, https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/dhs-white-nationalist-anti-immigrant-social-media/
Creator: Sarah Posner: https://www.sarahposner.com/
Producer and Engineer: Dr. Ger FitzGerald
Executive Producer: Dr. Bradley Onishi
Production Assistance: Kari Onishi
Generous funding provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.