When even Newsmax guests start telling Donald Trump to cut it out, you know something’s shifted.
Two Republican commentators used a Monday panel on the conservative network to call out the president’s latest broadsides against women in his own camp, warning that his habit of publicly trashing allies is starting to hurt the MAGA brand more than it helps.
Republican strategist Melik Abdul told host Shaun Kraisman he was fed up with Trump’s insults after the president took a swipe at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, reportedly calling the Georgia Republican a “dumb person,” and slammed a CNN reporter as “nasty.”
“Donald Trump is going back down the road of attacking Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Abdul said per Raw Story. “And I just wish that Donald Trump would spend more time talking about the people who actually support him.”
Abdul stressed that Trump can disagree with Greene, but questioned why the president’s harshest language seemed reserved for women on his side rather than powerful men who have crossed him.
“He can have issues with Marjorie Taylor Greene, but I noticed that Donald Trump didn’t have the same language about Elon Musk, who really is a person who suggested that Donald Trump is a pedophile,” Abdul pointed out. “He campaigned against Donald Trump’s agenda. And at the end of the day, this is somebody who has been supportive of Donald Trump.”
The strategist then delivered the kind of simple advice Trump almost never takes.
“I just wish Donald Trump would stop all of the name-calling because it’s unnecessary,” Abdul said. “I just wish he would stop.”
Sitting alongside him, former Delaware Trump state chair Rob Arlett agreed that the president’s insults were doing more damage than good.
“Other than, I think it’s silly middle-school optics, to be honest, it does not help the Republican movement,” Arlett said. “It does not help the MAGA movement. And certainly does not really help the American people.”
Arlett urged Trump and his allies to put the focus back on substance instead of schoolyard taunts.
“Let’s focus on great policies that can win the American people,” he said, “and next November, and I think all of the good quality policies that deliver to the American people matter more than the middle-school optics.”
The pushback came after days of headlines about Trump turning his fire on Greene, one of his most reliable MAGA warriors on Capitol Hill, and continuing his long-running pattern of belittling women who cross him, from journalists to former aides. The criticism from Abdul and Arlett marked a rare moment where loyalists on friendly media openly questioned that behavior rather than cheering it on.
Newsmax host Shaun Kraisman, though, was not nearly as bothered. He jumped in to defend Trump’s unfiltered style, arguing that many viewers actually like hearing every thought that pops into the president’s head.
“You want to put Trump in this box, right?” Kraisman said. “This political box. Here’s how you fit. Here’s what you don’t say. Here’s what you can say. I kind of like knowing what he thinks.”
He added that having that constant window into Trump’s mind is part of the appeal for his base, even if some of the rhetoric makes people uncomfortable.
“Like, you have access to the president of the United States as every thought,” Kraisman said. “You may not like his every thought. There’s things that he says that I don’t like everything that he says, but I have access to it.”
The exchange captured a growing tension inside MAGA world. On one side are operatives and former campaign hands who worry that attacking Greene and snapping at female reporters looks ugly and alienates voters they need. On the other side are die-hard loyalists who insist Trump’s raw, often harsh language is exactly what makes him authentic — and makes them feel like they’re seeing the “real” president.
For now, Trump shows no sign of changing his approach. But when Republican strategists are going on Newsmax to call his behavior “unnecessary” and “middle-school optics,” it is clear the unease is no longer confined to Never Trump circles.
