The MAGA Guide to Deflection: When in Doubt, Blame Beyonc

Donald Trump is many things — indicted, delusional, sweaty — but subtle has never been one of them. So when he took to Truth Social and called for the prosecution of Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, Kamala Harris, and Al Sharpton over “totally illegal” 2024 campaign endorsements, the stench of desperation wasn’t just obvious — it was basically its own weather system.

According to Trump, these Black public figures were secretly paid millions of dollars to throw their weight behind Kamala Harris. Never mind that FEC records show nothing of the sort, or that Beyoncé’s “eleven million dollars” turned out to be a reimbursed production cost of around $165,000. Facts are not the point here. The point is to create just enough smoke to keep people from looking at the four-alarm inferno that is Trump’s name appearing multiple times in the Epstein files.

This is not just projection. It’s not even garden-variety misdirection. This is political arson. Trump and his allies are throwing names like Beyoncé and Oprah into the fire because they know exactly what it does — it triggers a base that responds to racial panic like Pavlov’s dogs respond to bells. MAGA doesn’t want justice for Epstein’s victims. MAGA wants to be told that a cabal of rich Black liberals stole their country, and Trump is happy to give them that bedtime story, again and again, in slightly dumber packaging each time. He’s betting that if he feeds his base enough racial resentment, they’ll forget he was partying with a known child trafficker.

Some mornings, I wake up and feel like I barely recognize this country. And then there are days when a Talking Heads lyric loops in my head — “And you may find yourself … living in a shotgun shack.” Those are the days I realize maybe I know America all too well. Maybe we all do. We know it through its cycles of outrage and amnesia, its ability to normalize absurdity with astonishing speed. The outrage cycle is so predictable now it might as well be pre-programmed. Beyoncé performs at a rally and it’s a national emergency. Trump gets caught rubbing elbows with Epstein, and it’s Tuesday. The sheer transparency of this hypocrisy would be funny if it weren’t operating with deadly precision.

https://www.lincolnsquare.media/p/the-maga-guide-to-deflection-when