Does MAGA Want Unity and Peace—or Vengeance?

The Republican Party has toned down the rhetoric about the deep state and any talk of vengeance against former President Donald Trump's political enemies in this year's Republican National Convention. With Trump in a commanding polling lead following a near-assassination, the convention's theme is "unity." 

"Just like our ancestors, we must now come together, rise above past differences. Any disagreements have to be put aside, and go forward united as one people, one nation, pledging allegiance to one great, beautiful—I think it's so beautiful—American flag," Trump said in his closing speech.

The Trump supporters Reason spoke to at the convention weren't particularly heated, and many genuinely seemed to want both sides to tone down their rhetoric after the attempt on Trump's life.

"I'm hoping that some of the things that have been going on are way scaled back going forward," Glenn "Kane" Jacobs, the libertarian mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, told Reason. "Because it's horrible for our country, the situation that we're in. My fear is that a few weeks from now, we're right back here, and I hope that doesn't happen."

But will Trump's actions match his supporters' words? The statements and policy positions of those around him give us some clues. His former chief strategist and popular radio host Steve Bannon made it very clear that vengeance is on his agenda.

"We're being oppressed by an illegitimate regime that usurped power here, and that's what we have to break," Bannon told Tucker Carlson on a June 11 appearance on his show. "You see [former FBI deputy director Andrew] McCabe and these guys wetting themselves, 'They're going to come after us.' Damn right, we're going to come after you…within the rule of law."

Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation—a major sponsor of the conference and author of a 900-page policy brief called Project 2025—called for a "second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless, if the left allows it to be" on Bannon's show on July 2.

Bannon and conference sponsor Heritage Foundation aren't directly involved with the Trump campaign, but his new running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio), is no stranger to heated rhetoric either. He once told The American Conservative that "our people hate the right people." Vance has also suggested that the right shouldn't necessarily reduce government power but rather "just seize the administrative state for our own purposes" and ignore any court rulings trying to stop that from happening. Trump has vowed to overhaul the Department of Justice (DOJ), and two of his former appointees authored a piece titled "The US Justice Department is Not Independent" that argues for the president's power to dismiss any DOJ lawyer who doesn't strictly "obey" the president's demands.

Watch the full video above to see Trump supporters react to these clips and share their thoughts about heated rhetoric, the weaponization of government, and plans for "unity."

Photo Credits: Carol Guzy/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Anthony Behar/Sipa USA/Newscom; Dominic Gwinn/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Andrew Roth/Sipa USA/Newscom; Andrew Roth/Sipa USA/Newscom; Tom Williams/Roll Call/Newscom

Music Credits: "On the Prowl" by Max Hixon via Artlist; "Blueburst," by Max Hixon via Artlist; "The Ride Out," by Max Hixon via Artlist.

• Video Editor: Regan Taylor
• Camera: Justin Zuckerman