President Donald Trump is facing a MAGA firestorm over Israel’s deadly strike against Iran, with some of his staunchest supporters warning that U.S. involvement could split the base that got him elected.
In a stunning operation, Israel launched what it described as a “preemptive strike” on Iran’s nuclear program on Thursday, hitting Tehran’s long-range missile facilities and aerial defenses and killing several military commanders.
While the U.S. says it was not involved in the attack, Trump on Friday reiterated his support for Israel and described the strikes as “excellent”. He also warned that there’s “a lot more to come.”
But the escalation in the Middle East has ignited a war within MAGA ranks and put the president under growing pressure to keep America out of the conflict.
As the prospect of an Israeli attack began to escalate on Thursday, MAGA activist Jack Posobiec took to social media to warn that “a direct strike on Iran right now would disastrously split the Trump coalition.
“Trump smartly ran against starting new wars, this is what the swing states voted for – the midterms are not far and Congress’ majority is already razor-thin. America First!”
Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene also came out strongly against the president’s policy of defending Israel against Tehran.
“Americans don’t want to bomb Iran because the secular government of Israel says that Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb any day now,” she said.
And Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk raised concerns that the issue could cause “a massive schism in MAGA and potentially disrupt our momentum and our insanely successful Presidency.”
Moments after the strike, Kirk went live on air to pose the MAGA dilemma Trump now faces: “How does the America First foreign policy doctrine and foreign policy agenda … stay consistent with this right now?”
GOP war hawks such as Fox News host Mark Levin, who has been pushing for the U.S. to abandon nuclear talks and give the green light to strike, took a different view.
“The Iranians are about to get their asses kicked and it’s been coming since Jimmy Carter,” he said on Hannity as the strikes took place on Thursday evening.
As tensions between MAGA isolationists and war hawks escalated on Friday morning, conservative firebrand Laura Loomer asked on X: “Explain it to me like I am 5 years old. How is it not AMERICA FIRST to congratulate those who just made sure Islamists who chant “DEATH TO AMERICA” and who openly plotted to assassinate President @realDonaldTrump never have an opportunity to have a nuke?”
Israel’s strike was a humiliation for Trump, who had spent weeks asking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off in order to find a diplomatic solution.
On Thursday, hours before the attack took place, Trump even told reporters at the White House that “I don’t want them going in” because it could “blow it”.
“I want to have an agreement with Iran. We’re fairly close to an agreement,” he said. “Whether or not we get there, I can’t tell you but it will happen soon.”
Trump took to the airwaves on Friday morning with a somewhat different tone, blaming Iran for bringing the destruction on itself.
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal,” he wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
“I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done.”
However, critics accused the president of trying to save face.
“Trump is scrambling to spin this,” said Democrat Senator Chris Murphy.
“Netanyahu wasn’t trying to help diplomacy; he was trying to destroy diplomacy. How do we know? They reportedly targeted and killed Iran’s chief negotiator.”
