'America First' buckles under 'transactional' Trump: 'Key question is whether MAGA continues after 2029'

22 June

White House photo

Conservative political commentator and Hoover Institution historian Victor Davis Hanson is explaining why President Donald Trump’s military action against Iran on Saturday surprised many in the media, telling the Sunday Times “Trump is neither an isolationist nor an interventionist, but rather transactional.”

“The media fails to grasp that, so it is confused why tough-guy Trump is hesitant to jump into Iran, or contrarily why a noninterventionist Trump would even consider using bunker busters against Iran,” Hanson said. “The common thread … is his perception of what benefits the US middle class — economically, militarily, politically and culturally.”

Trump on Saturday announced via a Truth Social post that his administration “completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran.” The move came after Trump, on Thursday, suggested “a two-week window and ‘a substantial chance of negotiation’ with Iran,” The Atlantic reports. That two-week window, Atlantic reporters Michael Scherer, Missy Ryan, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Shane Harris, and Jonathan Lemire write, was a “smoke screen.”

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

As the Sunday Times reports, Trump last week told reporters he’s “the one that decides” what “America First” really means. “Faced with a backlash from parts of his base over the prospect of the US supporting Israel in military action in Iran, the president said his word is final — ‘after all, I’m the one that developed America First’ — adding that ‘the term wasn’t used until I came along.'"

Of course, it’s not at all true that Trump is first to use "America First," as the Sunday Times points out with an extensive history of the slogan. But “he has driven the term back into usage,” Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer acknowledged. And that means “he has the most power to shape what it actually includes.”

But as a “transactional” president shapes the “America First” movement, members of the movement also shape the president's policies. As the Sunday Times wonders, “Is the president in control of the agenda — or is it the base that now owns it?”

“Enter the MAGA-verse — the network of former advisers, informal advisers and influencers free to speak, exerting varying degrees of influence on the president,” the Sunday Times reports. “One figure close to the White House says: ‘There are a bunch of people that we look to to see how things are landing.’ Indeed, the administration last week reached out to key figures as they tried to control the narrative. Now such efforts are required to contain the fallout.”

READ MORE: How an escalating crisis exposes Trump's fear of 'accountability': conservative

As AlterNet previously reported, some of Trump’s staunchest supporters — including former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon — warn the president’s military escalation risks alienating his base.

“There’s a lot of MAGA who are not happy about this,” Bannon said on his podcast shortly after Saturday’s strikes.

And Bannon’s opinion definitely matters among MAGA devotees.

“Everybody just folds to whatever big corporate interest there is and this administration is only slightly different to that,” an insider told Sunday Times. “Steve keeps a check on it.”

READ MORE: Why Trump 'should be careful what he wishes for' with 'shameless' DOJ push

But Trump's allies won’t turn on the president on a whim, the Sunday Times reports.

“For now, most agree — at least publicly — that Trump is king,” according to the Sunday Times. “Yet privately what is making the base so jumpy is this idea that Trump is being forced by the deep state into the default establishment policy position. If it happens to Trump, what chance does his successor have?”

For Hanson the historian, the mantra “Trump decides” rings true.

"Almost everyone who tried to redefine MAGA or take on Trump has mostly lost rather than gained influence,” Hanson said.
But it appears interesting times lie ahead in the battle for the soul of MAGA.

“The key question is whether MAGA continues after 2029, given Trump’s unique willingness to take on the left rhetorically and concretely in a way that far exceeds the Reagan revolution, and in truth, any prior Republican. Trump’s bellicosity, volatility, and resilience — his willingness to win ugly rather than lose nobly — ensure him credibility and goodwill among the base that in turn allows him greater latitude and patience,” Hanson explained.

Read the full report at the Sunday Times.

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