A firework explodes near officers during an immigration protest on June 7, 2025, in Paramount, California. | Apu Gomes/Getty Images

When President Donald Trump and Elon Musk had their dramatic falling-out last week, it appeared the right was on the brink of civil war — with Musk’s allies in the “tech right” poised to battle Steve Bannon and his faction of populist tribunes. The battle lines reflected deep disagreements between the right’s factions about the nature and purpose of government, divides made increasingly salient by Trump’s policies in areas like trade.

But now, after several days of protests and unrest in Los Angeles, everyone is once again reading from the same hymnal — condemning disorder and calling for a harsh crackdown. Even Musk is back to retweeting Trump like nothing happened.

Why this intra-right ceasefire? Because what’s happening in LA reminds every component of the modern right why they’re in coalition together: They believe that progressives in general, and the “woke” left activists in particular, represent an existential threat to everything good about the United States.

This vision has deep philosophical roots on the right, which has always positioned itself around defending elements of the status quo from its enemies on the left. But the 2025 American right tells itself a very particular version of that general story, one that focuses on the events of summer 2020.

In their minds, the combination of Covid restrictions, mainstream calls for wide-ranging social change, and mass street upheaval was the terrible terminus of modern progressive politics. Whatever their internal disagreements on issues like trade or spending or even immigration, the modern right agrees that the left must never be permitted another year like 2020 — and that Trump is the best vehicle for stopping it.

The Trump coalition has appeared fractious for much of 2025 because the big policy moves, like tariffs, have made areas of disagreement in the coalition more salient.........

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