Is the rights era of good feelings and unity coming to an end?For the past year, the many factions of the GOP have been united around the cause of restoring Donald Trump to the White House. But now that theyve done that, tensions are spilling out into the open on several different issues.The most intense criticism has come on Ukraine. In the past week, administration officials have made major concessions to Russian demands, while publicly berating Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy, cutting him out of negotiations, trying to strong-arm him into handing over mineral rights to the US, and even absurdly claiming Ukraine started the war.Many of the rights more traditional internationalists or hawks on the right are utterly appalled by this, viewing it as Trump throwing Ukraine to the wolves. Criticism has poured in from leading figures at National Review, the Free Press, and the Murdoch-owned entities Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post criticism that has spurred Vice President JD Vance to respond in long-form X posts defending the administrations approach.Others on the right have felt uneasy about Trumps handling of the Justice Department. The attempt to dismiss the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams was condemned by some longtime stalwarts of the conservative legal movement, who view it as blatantly political. Activist Ed Whelan even said Trumps Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove should resign over it.Finally, theres a broader concern among some more moderate factions of the right that the movements worst elements have been unleashed and should be resisted. The Free Press was founded in 2021 as a protest to what ex-New York Times editor Bari Weiss saw as groupthink and overreach in the mainstream media and among progressives most broadly. But in a recent speech, Weiss signaled a potential shift in focus, worrying that the far right may well devour what remains of the center-right.Its important not to overstate the importance of these tensions. The right overall remains deeply invested in Trump, congressional Republicans are doing little to check him, and the president remains very popular among GOP voters. Many of these outlets, such as National Review, have criticized Trump in the past to little apparent impact. Dont expect Trumps GOP support to collapse anytime soon or probably ever.Still, this does amount to a vibe shift of sorts, as parts of the rights intelligentsia who spent years mainly fired up about the terrible things Democrats and the woke were doing are shifting more of their attention to things they dont like about Trumps governance. And hes only been back in office one month.Trump and Vance are doing MAGA foreign policy and making traditional Republican hawks unhappyOn Wednesday, after Trump posted a Truth Social tirade trashing Zelenskyy as a modestly successful comedian and A Dictator without Elections, Vance reposted it on X, and added: I just wanted to make sure no one missed it.The message was clear it was about which faction within the GOP was calling the shots on foreign policy now. That is: The MAGA America Firsters (who loathe American involvement in Ukraines war) were running the show, and the GOPs traditional internationalist hawks (who view that war as righteous and Russia as a dangerous aggressor) were out.This wasnt inevitable. Last year, the internationalists thought they still had a good shot at influence in the Trump administration, with the hawkish Marco Rubio, Trumps secretary of state pick, and some believing Mike Pompeo to be the frontrunner for defense secretary.But a crucial shift happened near the end of last year Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump Jr., and Vance intervened to shift Trumps thinking on future appointments, arguing that he should avoid empowering disloyal neocons again. This appears to have been decisive Pompeo got no appointment (and in fact Trump revoked his security detail in apparent punishment), while America First supporters scored key gigs.The hawks had little to complain about at first, but Trumps hard shift against Ukraine in the past week has horrified them. Historian Niall Ferguson wondered on X why a Republican president had stopped clearly condemning the invasion of a sovereign state by a dictator.Vance then responded with a lengthy post calling Fergusons statement moralistic garbage, adding that was unfortunately the rhetorical currency of the globalists because they have nothing else to say. Like cheering Trumps humiliation of Zelenskyy, this is factional behavior, designed to insult critics and dismiss their concerns, while thrilling the hardcore MAGA faithful.But the reality is that the internationalist hawks remain a significant part of Republicans coalition, with strong support in Congress (especially the Senate) and in parts of conservative media. So by spurning them so blatantly by not even pretending to take their concerns seriously Trump and Vance are dividing the right.Other sources of tension on the right relate to ethics and the rule of lawTensions on the right are simmering about other topics as well.Most on the right had converged around the belief that Trump was within his rights to make major changes at the Department of Justice, deeming the investigations and prosecutions of Trump politically biased and improper.But at least some still have ethical standards against blatant corruption, as shown in the saga of Trumps appointees acting to dismiss the case against Mayor Adams. Notably, two of the DOJ officials who resigned over this Danielle Sassoon and Hagan Scotten had clerked for conservative Supreme Court justices. When their resignation letters were published, Whelan cheered them on, harshly criticizing acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove and suggesting it is Bove who should resign next. Fox News analyst Andy McCarthy also criticized Bove and called his claims ridiculous. Then, on Friday, the judge handling Adamss case announced that hed asked former US solicitor general Paul Clement to present arguments against the Trump DOJs position. Clement is a pillar of the conservative legal establishment, so his agreement to do this is in itself a message to the Trump administration.There are broader fears as well. Weiss warned in her recent speech that if a political movement does not police its ranks and defend its sacred values, it cannot long endure. Those values, she continued, included the rule of law and a rejection of mob violence but, she worried that online these days, power is celebrated instead of principle, and it is quickly becoming the only principle.Weiss continued: If that continues without being challenged, we may wind up spending the next few years watching the same story we just lived through on the other side, as the far right (not the one defined by cable news, which includes most of us here today) devours what remains of the center-right.The MAGA faithful did not respond well. It seems like this entire crewmost of whom joined the right like 5 minutes agohave launched a full-scale containment/gatekeeping op, right-wing activist Nate Hochman posted on X. Really bizarre.None of this in the near term is too much of a problem for Trump. He and his appointees can run the executive branch as they see fit, the GOP Congress will likely do little to check him, and he retains solid approval from the MAGA base.But the bigger picture takeaway is that his honeymoon already appears to be over and the vibes, which famously shifted in Trumps favor in 2024, appear to be shifting again. See More: