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That sort of rhetoric was often echoed by conservative media celebrities. In August of 2010, Ted Nugent called Obamas agenda Islamic, Muslim, Marxist, communist and socialist and said the president was a secret Muslim pretending to be a Christian so he can continue his jihad of America-destroying policies.

But at least on the surface, the Tea Party claimed to care deeply about government spending, deficits, and debt. Democrats: Dont Make ME Pay For Your Wasteful Spending, read another sign.

Over the next few years, the conservative Republicans who insisted they were concerned about government spending would actually shut down the government, and no GOP event was complete without charts warning about the exploding debt.

And then they stopped caring.

There are still groups out there that claim to be part of the Tea Party. But, for the most part, they have been co-opted by Trumpism.

As Biden pushes ahead with his transformative progressive agenda, its worth asking: What happened to the Tea Party?

One obvious answer is that the fiscal conservatism was never real; Republicans only pretended to care about it when Democrats were in office. And the Tea Party was less about freedom and spending than it was about denouncing the nations first Black president.

But the more immediate answer is simpler: Donald Trump killed it.

There are still groups out there that claim to be part of the Tea Party. But, for the most part, they have been co-opted by Trumpism more invested in a cult of personality and culture wars than anything resembling fiscal conservatism.

Although the GOP continues to hail him as a champion of the right, Trump is and has always been a man of no fixed principles who succeeded in draining the GOP of much of its political policy priorities.

No one really ever knew where he would come down on any particular issue: Socialism for farmers? Check. Unilateral tax increases for consumer goods? Check. Massive increases in the deficit? No problem.

Trump presided over the ballooning of the national debt from $19.9 trillion to around $28 trillion a staggering increase of over 35 percent.

In his final chaotic days in office, Trump wanted to push it even higher. Even as he was fighting to steal the presidential election, Trump demanded that Congress increase the second round of stimulus checks to $2,000 per person.

In a video posted to Twitter days before Christmas, Trump said I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000, or $4,000 for a couple.

His bid for fatter checks was overshadowed by the sedition that followed, but Trumps demand helps explain why the GOP is having such a hard time getting its base fired up over Bidens spending plans. After four years of Trump, the rights credibility on spending and the debt has been shredded. So the focus has shift to other grievances.

If there are rallies later this year, they are far more likely to be MAGA or Stop the Steal events than protests over deficit spending, or even health care.

That also reflects the ways in which the center of political gravity has shifted.

Polls suggest that Bidens spending plans are widely popular and the GOPs flirtation with populism has blunted its opposition to raising taxes on corporations and the rich. The stock market continues to boom despite dire warnings of socialism.

So, perhaps it is not surprising that the GOP would rather wage culture war and that the Tea Party is just a distant memory.

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The Tea Party's silence on Biden highlights Trump's lasting impact - MSNBC