The prospect of President Donald Trump entering the United States into another foreign conflict is a significant source of tension among his base of supporters.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the interventionist wing of the Republican Party and the "America First" MAGA faction of the GOP have been increasingly combative with each other since Israel new offensive against Iran (and the resulting Iranian counterattacks). MAGA podcaster Candace Owens recently expressed concern that Trump was widening the rift in the party by flirting with a new foreign entanglement.
"Trump just fractured his base, I believe he just fractured his base," she said. "Effectively, MAGA was a declaration of war on neocons, right? On the people who always come up with a reason for us to send our sons and daughters overseas."
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Recently, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) fired back at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) after the latter raged against those in the GOP who were "slobbering" at the prospect of another war. The South Carolina Republican insisted that Iran was too dangerous to ignore, and that the U.S. had a responsibility to stand by its top Middle Eastern ally.
"I like Marjorie, but to be honest with you, she doesn't understand the threat, in my view," Graham told Fox News host John Roberts on Tuesday. "If you don't understand that Iran, a religious theocracy, religious Nazis, would use a nuclear weapon to kill all the Jews, you don't listen to what they say."
But the MAGA wing of the GOP has appeared to draw a line in the sand when it comes to the prospect of a new war with Iran. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) recently cosponsored a War Powers Resolution with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) with the intent of preventing Trump from unilaterally declaring war. Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk — an Arizona-based political organizer aligned with the MAGA movement — opined that "regime change in Iran would be a catastrophe." And far-right social media personality Jack Posobiec warned that Trump would no longer have the political capital to accomplish his domestic policy agenda if he committed the U.S. military to helping Israel topple the Islamic theocracy.
"A direct strike on Iran right now would disastrously split the Trump coalition," he tweeted.
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Click here to read the Times' full report (subscription required).