Tina Nguyen

An explosive, first-person account of the alt-right from acclaimed political journalist Tina Nguyen who got her start in conservative media and is now using that access to blow the top off the fringe right’s recruiting machine. Between 2008 and 2012, Tina Nguyen was a politics-obsessed college student and right-wing activist at Claremont McKenna College. Swept up by conservative rhetoric and promises of paid internships and scholarships, Nguyen was privy to the early days of the movement now known as MAGA. Now, Nguyen is pulling back the curtain not just on her own story within the alt-right but the full history of the movement, exposing how the right recruits, trains, indoctrinates, and builds entire networks of power to bend America to its nativist will. Based on years of dogged reporting and interviews with countless people—from downing margaritas with the first Breitbart writers to pouring over conspiracy theories sent by COVID-19 deniers and even working for Tucker Carlson in the early days of The Daily Caller — The MAGA Diaries paints a shocking picture of a shameless movement that will do anything to triumph over the left, even if it means destroying every mechanism of government this country holds dear. In The MAGA Diaries , Nguyen blows the whistle on these dangerous extremists for the first time, shining a light on the systematized on-ramp for young Republicans. These are the new leaders of the right, and it’s urgent we start paying attention.