confusing pointer error while implementing linked list - pointers

Question

#define _CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define MALLOC(p,s) {\
if (!((p) = malloc(s))) { \
fprintf(stderr, "insufficient memory");\
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);\
}\
}
#define IS_EMPTY(first) (!first)
typedef struct listNode* listPointer;
typedef struct listNode {
int data;
listPointer link;
}listNode;
void printList(listPointer first);
int main(void)
{
int x;
int tmpData;
listPointer first = NULL;
listPointer tmpLink = NULL;
FILE* fp = NULL;
if (!(fp = fopen("in.txt", "r"))) {
fprintf(stderr, "cannot open the file");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
while (!feof(fp)) {
fscanf(fp, "%d", &tmpData);
MALLOC(tmpLink, sizeof(listNode));
if (IS_EMPTY(first)) {
MALLOC(first, sizeof(listNode));
*tmpLink = *first;
}
tmpLink->data = tmpData;
tmpLink = tmpLink->link;
}
printList(first);
}
void printList(listPointer first)
{
for (; first; first = first->link) {
printf("%d ", first->data);
}
printf("\n");
}
We know that we can implement the insert function.
But I'm really curious about why this doesn't work.
What "first" refers to and what "tmpLink" refers to is the same
After implementing the link list while updating tmpLink,
I'm going to use "first" to print later.
I've spent almost a day just thinking about this, and I've tried debugging it, but I don't know why.