President Donald Trump’s rapid transformation of the GOP into a majority-MAGA base may end up costing the Republican Party in future elections, according to a new report.

In just four years, then share of Republicans who identify as MAGA — “Make America Great Again,” Trump’s political slogan — has jumped from 38 percent to 62 percent, according to YouGov/Economist surveys.

“It’s a change that has occurred with remarkable speed,” Brookings Institution senior fellows Elaine Kamarck and E.J. Dionne Jr. wrote in a new analysis, The Independent reports.

As Trump tightens his grip on the party, non-MAGA Republicans are increasingly becoming opposed to MAGA’s positions on some key issues and appear to be more in line with America’s independents. While non-MAGA Republicans now comprise a minority of the GOP, they represent a share that “will play a crucial role in determining the GOP’s future” — and could swing the vote in future elections.

“A clear majority of his party wants him in charge,” the report’s authors write, “but the tighter his grip becomes, the farther he drifts from the rest of the country.” And non-MAGA Republicans are increasingly “unwilling to cede the GOP to Trump,” as they grow “steadily more rebellious.”

“That could prove costly in future elections as the nation, overall, is evenly split between the two parties,” The Independent observes. “Seeing other Republicans vote more like independents or Democrats could swing elections in that party’s favor. Democrats could also benefit if non-MAGA Republicans also skip voting and drag down turnout numbers.”

There are some stark contrasts on policy and beliefs between MAGA and non-MAGA Republicans.

On the economy, for example, YouGov found that just 18 percent of MAGA Republicans say the economy is worsening. For non-MAGA Republicans, it’s 65 percent — in keeping with the 67 percent of independents who also see the country on the wrong track.

And on Trump’s Iran war, 83 percent of MAGA Republicans support the president’s efforts — but less than half, just 43 percent, of non-MAGA Republicans, do. When it comes to the Epstein files, The Independent notes, just 5 percent of MAGA Republicans believe Trump was involved with the convicted sex offender’s crimes — but 29 percent of non-MAGA Republicans say he was.

“The widespread disillusionment of non-MAGA Republicans presents the party with a serious mobilization challenge this fall,” the authors conclude, according to The Independent. “Trump has converted most of the GOP to his way. But those he has not brought along are increasingly restive; they can abandon their party or simply stay home. We’ll know in November.”

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Economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has pinpointed a series of events that have led to the rest of the world seeing America as “inessential.”

Just weeks after President Donald Trump was sworn into his second term in office, he held a televised Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which he and his top administration officials berated the leader fending off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal war.

“You don’t have the cards right now,” Trump told Zelenskyy. But according to Krugman, Zelenskyy has “quite a few cards, while Trump has far fewer cards than he imagined.”

Krugman calls that Oval Office dressing-down “a spectacle that shamed America,” with Trump “engaging in petty bullying of the leader of a nation fighting for its life against tyranny.”

The Oval Office attack was just the start of what would make the world start to rethink its relationship to the U.S.

Trump then cut off all financial aid to Ukraine and blocked weapons sales to the battered nation — even when other nations were paying the bill.

Trump later met with Putin, where, “as the Russians see it, he offered to broker a deal that would give Russia control of a crucial fortress belt on Ukrainian soil.”

Krugman calls that “a shocking betrayal of a democracy fighting for its freedom — and, in so doing, fighting for the freedom of Europe as a whole.”

And while 18 GOP senators Thursday voted to restore aid to Ukraine, against the will of their leadership, should that bill come to Trump’s desk, it is doubtful he would sign it.

Despite Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine, Ukraine turned the war in its favor, and by doing so, taught the world a lesson.

“Before Trump, we were also a nation almost universally regarded as essential,” writes Krugman. “Nations believed that they needed access to U.S. banks to do business, access to U.S. markets to prosper, access to U.S. weapons to defend themselves.”

“But by breaking decades’ worth of international agreements — not to mention threatening allies and betraying Ukraine — Trump quickly forfeited the world’s trust.”

Trump “failing so spectacularly against Iran, a far weaker military power,” has also “dispelled much of the world’s fear,” Krugman says.

The world is “managing economically” despite Trump’s tariffs and his abandonment of Ukraine — and Ukraine is “surviving despite Trump’s attempt to cut it off at the knees,” says Krugman, revealing that America is “much less essential than everyone assumed.”

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A House Republican is drafting legislation to try to bypass Senate rules and advance President Donald Trump’s push to require enhanced voter identification. The bill would cost taxpayers $250 million over five years.

According to Politico, U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak (R-ND) is working on the “SAVE America Through REAL ID Act,” which would provide funds for lower-income voters to obtain a REAL ID, while encouraging states to require a REAL ID to vote.

“In order to address that one issue, we’ve created this grant program for states to use to help people who meet the income qualifications … to be able to get a free REAL ID,” Fedorchak told Politico.

Fedorchak hopes the $250 million price tag will make the legislation eligible to pass in the Senate under the reconciliation process, which requires only a simple majority — thus likely bypassing the need for any Democratic votes.

Fedorchak’s bill would be “an alternative to the proof-of-citizenship and voter-ID mandates in the original SAVE America Act that would likely be excluded from a party-line bill by the Senate parliamentarian,” Politico reports.

Politico’s Meredith Lee Hill reported that House GOP leaders were “scrambling to find ways to squeeze pieces of the SAVE America Act into their next party-line bill.” That would include “using funding carrots instead of policy mandates to clear the Senate parliamentarian.”

Despite repeated pressure from President Trump, as recently as Thursday afternoon, the SAVE America Act has stalled in the Senate. Trump wants that legislation to require all voters to show voter ID and proof of citizenship, while sharply narrowing the use of mail-in ballots. Trump is also pressing for the bill to ban “men in women’s sports,” and “transgender mutilization [sic] surgery for our children.”

Back in February the president vowed the SAVE America Act would pass into law, “one way or another.” Critics see the controversial bill as voter suppression legislation.

Democrats oppose the bill in part because it requires a passport or birth certificate to register to vote — something tens of millions of Americans do not currently have, according to voting rights groups. It also narrows generally accepted forms of photo ID to vote.

Others oppose it because it requires states to run their voter rolls through federal immigration databases, which reportedly have a high error rate. Critics also say that it creates a large unfunded administrative burden for states.

In April, Trump told Republicans that enacting the SAVE Act would “guarantee the midterms” — while claiming that was not the reason he was pushing the bill. “I don’t think you can politically exist if you’re not going to do voter ID and these things.”

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