Donald Trump maintains for the moment the overwhelming support from Republicans in Congress for the Iran war. The closing of ranks on Capitol Hill was evident again this Wednesday as conservatives seemed aimed at stopping a vote to limit their war powersas they have already done seven times since last June. What was anticipated to happen in the Chambers, however, is not a reflection of a gap that the conflict has opened within the MAGA movement. This fracture is very real and problematic for both the president and his party and had previously been felt with divisions and criticism over the Administration’s role in the publication of the files of Jeffrey Epstein, for the operation in Venezuela or for the aggressive and lethal federal operation against immigrants in Minneapolis.
Prominent and extremely influential figures in that movement, Make America Great Again, They have been harshly criticizing the war and Trump for days. Both because they feel betrayed by his constant promises to put ““USA first” and not put the country in “expensive” and “eternal” military interventions abroad, such as weight of Israel’s interests in White House decisions.
“The decision was made by Netanyahu”
“This It is Israel’s war, It is not the US war,” he said this Tuesday in his podcast Tucker Carlsonthe former Fox News host who has become one of the most powerful voices in the conservative movement. “It’s hard to say, but The US did not make the decision on this, he did it Benjamin Netanyahu”Carlson denounced.
Also Megyn Kelly, who, as Carlson was a former Fox News host, is now an online force thanks to a massive number of followers, as well as one of Trump’s staunchest defenders, distanced herself from the president on Monday on her podcast by pointing out that “no one should die for a foreign country.” “I don’t believe these soldiers died for the United States,” he said, referring to the six Americans killed in an attack in Kuwait. “I think that They died for Iran or for Israel.”
Another important voice, the podcaster of the ultra publication ‘Daily Wire’ Matt Walshhas criticized the “confusing” message of the Administration on the justification for war. In a message on X, Walsh highlighted on Monday the contradictory arguments that the Administration has given about whether or not it is a war of regime change, on whether the Iranian nuclear program represented a imminent threat or if there was also an imminent possibility of attacks on the United States.
Walsh also referred to statements that the Secretary of State, Marco Rubiohe made on Monday, and of which he has later tried to reverse, in which he said that Trump authorized Operation Epic Fury because he knew that Israel was going to attack Iran and feared an Iranian retaliation against US bases in the region.
The list of critics does not end there and includes the YouTube star Benny Johnson, al controversial influencer Andrew Tate already Erik Princethe founder of the Blackwater mercenary companywho has been “disappointed”. “I don’t like this at all, I don’t think it is in favor of US interests, it is going to open a significant thunder box, chaos and destruction in Iran. “I don’t see how it fits with Trump’s MAGA commitment,” Prince said on War Room, the podcast of Steve Bannon.
The one who was Trump’s strategist for much of his first term and who remains a confidant of the president has also warned Trump. “I’m going to be brutally frank: this It is not what was offered in the campaign of 2024, it simply wasn’t. “We are going to suffer a loss of support.”Bannon said on his program, who remains a firm ally of Trump and vital in his liaison with the bases.
“MAGA is Trump”
The White House has reacted defensively and since Saturday has been immersed in a campaign on social networks and the media trying to denying any fracture and attacking critics. own Trump has tried to minimize the gap and has responded to criticism in its own way. On Monday, in an interview with independent journalist Rachael Blade, the president proclaimed: “MAGA is Trump, MAGA is not those two,” referring to Carlson and Kelly. And Blade also said that the president told him: “MAGA wants to see our country successful and safe and MAGA loves what I’m doing, everything.”
Trump still relies on important allies, from the network Fox News, where practically all presenters repeat a message of total support for the warup to a majority of the conservative media ecosystemwhere he continues to be supported. This has been confirmed by an analysis that ‘The Washington Post’ has done of 5,000 online messages, podcasts and newsletters from 79 conservative politicians and commentators.
The president maintains the 77% of Republicans support the war in Iran, According to a recent survey of CNN. And it also has ultra allies like Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer who has a direct line to the president and who has spent since Saturday attacking conservatives who criticize Trump. Carlson, Kelly and politicians such as Republican Congressman Thomas Massie or former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene Loomer have called “communist democrats.”
“It puts them in an impossible position”
The weight and influence of the figures who criticize him, however, cannot be disregarded, nor can the potential negative impact, even more than Trump has historically shown its ability to overcome similar crises.
Matthew Dallek, a professor at George Washington University, explained in a statement to the ‘Post’ that many Trump followers see the war “as a betrayal of a fundamental principle of Trumpism,” especially when Trump has been criticizing wars like Iraq as a “big mistake” at least since the 2016 campaign and when in his victory speech in 2024 he bluntly proclaimed: “I am not going to start a war.”
Whitney Phillips, professor of information politics at the University of Oregon, has also argued in the capital newspaper that Trump “has put those people (his followers) in an impossible position”. “It doesn’t ask them to contort a little, but to completely reconfigure themselves as if they were a new balloon animal.”
Subscribe to continue reading
