MAGA infighting explodes as Trump allies rally around resurfaced Charlie Kirk comments

Donald Trump with Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk in Phoenix, Arizona on December 22, 2024 (Gage Skidmore)

Donald Trump is facing renewed backlash from his own MAGA base, with CNN reporting that several prominent voices have rallied around past comments from the late far-right activist Charlie Kirk that conflict with the president's latest military action.

On Saturday, the U.S. military began conducting joint strikes against Iran alongside Israel, marking the start of another major combat operation abroad after Trump pledged on the campaign trail to avoid getting into more foreign wars. In response to this development, several prominent conservatives resurfaced past comments and posts from Kirk — the founder of Turning Point USA, who was killed last fall — in which he voiced specific opposition to U.S. involvement with a conflict in Iran.

As highlighted in a report by CNN, Rob Smith, "an Iraq War veteran and conservative commentator," shared an informal poll Kirk conducted on X last June, in which he asked followers if the U.S. should join "Israel’s war with Iran." Just shy of 90 percent of the 489,000 respondents chose "No."

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former GOP congresswoman and Trump ally-turned-critic, reposted a clip of Kirk from around the same time last year in which he decried the idea of a U.S. war against Iran for the purpose of regime change as "pathologically insane," and criticized the likes of Sen. Lindsey Graham for encouraging the idea. The clip currently has over 2.8 million views.

The Hodgetwins, a conservative comedy group, shared a clip to X in which Vice President J.D. Vance credited Kirk with talking Trump out of a conflict with Iran. Right-wing cleric Calvin Robinson shared the same clip, and including the message, "God bless Charlie Kirk. We are worse off without him."

Laura Loomer, meanwhile, took issue with the use of Kirk's past comments, decrying those who "never miss a beat exploiting his death to say our entire foreign policy has to be dictated by the opinions of Charlie Kirk, who is dead. Of course it’s sad, but Charlie Kirk was wrong about a lot. Just like he was right about a lot."

Loomer, an outspoken anti-Islam advocate, has been noted for her close relationship with Trump and her ability to influence his decision-making process.

"The public feud is a reminder of the uncertainty among many of Trump’s most-engaged online supporters over how to reconcile his repeated pledges to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars with his aggressive actions in Venezuela and Iran," CNN's report explained. "It’s also a sign of Kirk’s enduring influence over Republican politics — an influence that has, in some ways, grown in the six months since a gunman killed him during an event on a Utah college campus."

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