On this episode of Virtual Sentiments, Kristen Collins talks with Laura K. Field about the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and her recent book, Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right. The conversation traces how Field came to chronicle the intellectual architecture behind Trumpism between 2016 and 2024. She explains that beneath the populist energy of the MAGA movement lies a smaller but highly influential network of intellectuals who built a deliberate ideological case against postwar liberal internationalism and fusionist conservatism. Together, they explore the different intellectual camps within this "New Right" and their varying and sometimes conflicting visions of the American founding.

Dr. 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. She is the author of Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right (Princeton University Press, 2025).

**This episode was recorded on May 29, 2026**

Show Notes:

An Introductory Overview of Furious Minds

Laura K. Field, “The Intellectual Edgelords of the GOP” (The Atlantic, 2026)

Laura K. Field, “The Closing of the MAGA Mind” (NYT, 2025).

Thomas W. Merrill, “Wrestling With the Founding in the Culture Wars” (Law & Liberty, 2024)

Lincoln, Speech at Springfield, June 26, 1857

If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgram

Learn more about Academic & Student Programs

Follow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatus