Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers, officially broke ranks with President Donald Trump over the Iran war, declaring that he was "no longer" part of the MAGA movement.
Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers in 2009, with the intent of creating a network of far-right militias to combat government overreach. Over the years, he had been a staunch supporter of Trump and his political agenda, playing a major role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. He was later convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy and evidence tampering in relation to the attack, and given the longest sentence of any Jan. 6 defendant, 18 years, though his sentence was commuted when Trump returned to office.
Despite that, during a Monday interview with Alex Jones, Rhodes declared that he was leaving the MAGA movement altogether over Trump's cooperation with Israel in the assault on Iran, decrying "the obvious role of the influence of Zionism in our government, of the Israeli people, intelligence services, Mossad, and others in our government."
"So that’s why I no longer call myself MAGA," Rhodes told Jones. "I am an America-only patriot. I’m a Christian nationalist, an American Christian nationalist. I have to open my eyes to the reality in front of my face, and it’s caused a division inside of MAGA, and it’s caused a division on the political right. But so be it."
He continued: "I don't want any foreign influence in our government whatsoever. And so, that's where we are. There's a lot of Americans that are now becoming red-pilled and even black-pilled on the influence of Israel in our country and also on what's happening inside the Trump administration."
Rhodes still plans to visit Mar-a-Lago on Friday, after being invited by the Palm Beach Republican Party chair, in the hopes of receiving a full pardon for his Jan. 6 conviction. He told Jones that he does not intend to let that stop him from speaking out against Trump's handling of Iran and Israel.
“I can’t let that shut me up about calling out what I see happening in our country,” Rhodes added. “And so if I lose my pardon because of that, then so be it. That’s where my mind’s at. And I think I owe that to everybody who ever swore the oath like I did.”
