The Beta Brigade: Trump’s Faux-Alphas and the Crisis of American Manhood

They pose as tough guys—but follow Trump like lost puppies. Our sons are watching, and it's time for better role models.

Let me say something that’ll probably ruffle a few camo-covered feathers:
A lot of the self-proclaimed “alpha males” in today’s MAGA world aren’t leading anything. They’re following. Hard.

And not following in the way a soldier follows a chain of command with discipline and moral clarity. No—this is blind, sycophantic, almost adolescent worship of a man who wouldn’t return their loyalty if they were bleeding out on the side of the road.

You’ve seen the aesthetic. The selfie in the truck cab—sunglasses on, hat pulled low, a stoic expression that says “I mean business,” even though it’s a Tuesday and they’re sitting in a Wendy’s parking lot. Their social feeds are filled with the same hashtags, the same memes, the same angry rants about “the libs,” the same “Trump 2024” flags flapping behind their pickups like badges of masculinity. They probably have pronouns like come/take it.

But none of that is strength.
None of that is leadership.
That’s cosplay.

What passes for “alpha” in the Trump movement is little more than a caricature—loud, shallow, reactive. And all of it, let’s be honest, is built around following a single man: Donald J. Trump.

Trump posts, they repost.
Trump rants, they echo.
Trump lies, they defend.
He calls someone a traitor, and they fall over themselves to repeat it.

That's not dominance. That's dependence. That’s performative masculinity with a weak foundation.

Real strength doesn’t need constant affirmation. Real men don’t need someone else’s approval to know who they are. And real leaders don’t follow populist strongmen around like political fanboys. They think for themselves. They stand up when it’s hard. They have a moral compass that isn’t recalibrated by the next Truth Social post.

And let me get personal for a second.

When I served in Iraq, I saw real leadership up close. It looked like calm under pressure. It looked like putting your team’s safety before your own. It looked like humility. You could spot the posers a mile away—the guys who talked tough but melted down and pouted. The ones who needed attention. Who needed to be seen. Who needed someone else to make them feel important.

That’s what I see when I look at this new “tough guy” MAGA culture.
The tribal loyalty. The groupthink. The worship of one man over principle, over country, over character. It’s weak. And deep down, I think a lot of them know it.

The tragedy is that this isn’t just a private identity crisis. It’s a generational problem.

Our boys are watching. They’re learning what it means to be a man from the examples we put on pedestals. And when the loudest voices in our culture tell them that manhood is about dominance, cruelty, and blind loyalty to a demagogue, we are planting the seeds for a broken future. When Andrew Tate is abusive to women, and men cheer, the acid pours out.

Masculinity isn't about screaming louder or winning every argument. It’s about having the courage to do the right thing when it’s hard. It’s about responsibility. It’s about protecting the vulnerable, not mocking them. It’s about punching up, not down. Or if you do, it’s about making those strikes on behalf of a greater cause, exposing the falsehoods of faux masculinity.

And it’s about standing alone when necessary.

Look, I’ve stood alone. It’s not easy. When I broke with my party to stand against Trump and his attacks on our democracy, people called me every name in the book. They sent threats. They tried to cancel me. But I did it because it was right. Because real leadership demands sacrifice. And because my son, and your sons, deserve to see a better version of manhood than what’s being peddled to them online.

So if you’re reading this and you’ve got that flag waving from your truck—ask yourself: is it because you believe in something? Or because you’re afraid of being left out of the tribe? If you truly believe this, ok. But if this is a way to feel you “belong” to something, there is only an emptiness that will follow.

It’s okay to change. It’s okay to wake up. It’s okay to stand on your own two feet. In fact, it’s the most masculine thing you can do.

Because the next generation doesn’t need more rage-fueled imitators screaming into their phones.
They need men who live with purpose.
Men who fight for what’s right.
Men who don’t need to cosplay alpha because they already are.