'It’s supposed to be America First': Trump backers revolt as US strikes spark MAGA infighting

22 June

Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 12, 2024 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Followers of the Make America Great Again movement, including vocal supporters of President Donald Trump, are voicing their frustration with the president after he launched a strike Saturday on Iranian nuclear sites.

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Saturday. “All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

As Financial Times reports, former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon told his podcast listeners “shortly after the strikes” that “an overwhelming majority of the people [in the US] don’t want to get involved in any of this.”

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Bannon accuses Israel of “essentially [forcing] President Trump’s hand” in the escalating conflict.

“A lot of people I know that are Israel supporters are going to say — why are we doing the heavy lift here and why are we engaging in combat operations in a war that’s a war of choice?” Bannon asked.

Rightwing podcaster Theo Von told his followers “it just feels like we’re working for Israel,” Financial Times reports.

“I felt like it was supposed to be America First,” Von said. “… I think to a lot of people it’s . . . you just start to feel very disillusioned pretty quickly . . . in our leaders.”

Matthew Boyle, Washington bureau chief of rightwing populist news website Breitbart, said Trump had a lot of explaining to do supporters in his MAGA base who would have preferred the US to stay out of the war.

“He’s got to win this movement over and bring them with him, and take proactive steps to do that,” he said. “He’s got to win that trust back from people.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who Politico reports "has clashed with Trump and is one of the most vocal Republican detractors of U.S. involvement in Iran," said the president's attack "is not [c]onstitutional."

Still, as Politico reports, some “Republican skeptics of U.S. military action against Iran [are] largely falling in line” with the president.

“Iran gave President Trump no choice,” conservative Charlie Kirk wrote in a tweet. “For a decade he has been adamant that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon. Iran decided to forego diplomacy in pursuit of a bomb. This is a surgical strike, operated perfectly. President Trump acted with prudence and decisiveness.”

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Former Trump attorney general pick Matt Gaetz likewise praised the president as “the Peacemaker.”

“President Trump basically wants this to be like the Solimani strike — one and done,” Gaetz claimed. “No regime change war. Trump the Peacemaker!

Read the full report at the Financial Times.

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