A US non-profit launched in 2024, Leaving Maga, is setting out to help people who are starting to question the political movement built around former President Donald Trump by framing leaving as more than changing opinions.
Founder Rich Logis said the group is designed to provide an “exit ramp” for people who have become caught up in the Maga identity and its surrounding community. The organisation’s approach treats the shift as akin to leaving a high-control environment, drawing a comparison to recovery from addiction or a disease, rather than a standard debate about politics.
An “Exit Ramp” For People Leaving Trumpism
Leaving Maga’s work focuses on rebuilding belonging and identity. It runs weekly online support meetings for the friends and family of people still inside Maga, and monthly in-person meet-ups for those who have already left. The group also operates a nationwide billboard campaign and a media literacy programme aimed at helping people recognise disinformation.
The organisation said it wants to avoid confrontation. Its materials are intended to offer a place to land once people are ready to step away, rather than to persuade those who remain committed.
Billboards, Online Support And Media Literacy
Logis said the group is reaching out through Instagram livestreams and TikToks, alongside appearances on cable news. One of its most visible efforts is billboards, with nearly 40 placed across 27 states this year carrying the message: “Having doubts? You’re not alone.”
Leaving Maga says more than half a million people visited its website last year, with a similar number visiting so far this year. Through the site, supporters can sign up for a newsletter featuring accounts of leaving Maga, access guidance on talking with relatives or friends who are still engaged with Trumpism, and join online group chats and monthly meet-ups.
From Maga Supporter To Organiser
Logis described a near decade as an active Maga figure, voting for Trump in 2016 and 2020. He said he helped write the campaign’s call script for a presidential election, took part in voter registration, donated to the movement and appeared on Fox News as a Maga commentator. He said his break came after the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, when he decided he could no longer reconcile his values with the response he believed was coming from Trump supporters.
Months after the Texas attack that killed 19 children and two teachers, Logis published a public apology for supporting Trump and for what he described as harm caused by his rhetoric. He said the reaction came from both people who praised him and those who criticised him, and he concluded others had also left and wanted a way to repair the damage.
Stephania Messina, another founder, said her path out was shaped by experiences inside a conservative Christian community that she later described as “Christian nationalism”. She said she was not permitted to speak about politics in her church and was told her role was to submit to her husband. She said her doubts intensified in the early Covid pandemic as Trump altered his stance on the vaccine and lockdowns, while her pastor promoted conspiracy claims about the measures being driven by a “deep-state” effort.
Messina said she sought mental health support, began questioning what she called a “religious psychosis” fuelled by fear, isolation and control, and left the church in 2021. She later connected with Leaving Maga and said the movement’s work mattered because, in her view, many people are starting to recognise that they are “in so deep”.
A Recovery-Style Support Model
For families, Leaving Maga’s weekly online group is led by therapist Julianna Forlano, who said the ruptures she sees are often about behaviour as well as ideology. She said the programme borrows a framework used in addiction and recovery: it treats the psychological grip of constant fear-based media and conspiracy narratives as a pattern that can become neurobiological, encouraging a “with us or against us” mentality and affecting how people treat loved ones.
Forlano said the group does not encourage supporters to cut ties. Instead, it promotes patience and a strategy of “holding the door open”, staying present if cracks begin to appear without repeatedly pushing arguments or sending material that could deepen division. She said the work is also about grief and rebuilding a sense of self.
Life After Leaving
Logis said he now supports Democrats. Messina said she has become a Democratic socialist and joined the Democratic Socialists of America. She described supporting Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Michigan, and said several people close to her changed their views in the past two years.
Leaving Maga, the founders said, is still grappling with questions about forgiveness and whether abandoning the movement should bring punishment or reconciliation. Logis said he understands hostility from those who view forgiveness as unearned, while Messina said she was not seeking approval or forgiveness, but urging others to consider what she learned.
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1 September 2026
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