The historian Niall Ferguson was in many ways typical of the high-level defectors to Trumpism. He found himself driven to MAGAdom only in extremis: over Biden’s plans to pack the Supreme Court, and over insufficient “deterrence” in the Democrats’ foreign policy.
Last month, however, Ferguson tested the limits of this new coalition. He took to X to rebuke Trump’s handling of negotiations with Russia. Soon popped up no less a figure than J.D. Vance. “Moralistic garbage,” the vice president shot back. Ferguson felt obliged to clarify his position to the MAGA faithful.
The episode was abrupt, unexpectedly heated, and revealing: for all the talk of a new…