On Thursday night, Israel attacked multiple targets inside Iran, reportedly focused on military leaders and missile sites. Iran responded by sending drones into Israel.
Israel’s decision to launch a military attack against Iran is having the side effect of highlighting fissures among the pro-Trump MAGA political coalition. One faction of hawks are endorsing more attacks, while another group who bought into Trump’s spin about being pro-peace, are expressing doubts and concerns.
President Donald Trump told CNN in a brief phone call Friday morning ”that the U.S. ‘of course’ supports Israel and called the country’s strikes on Iran overnight ‘a very successful attack,’ while warning Iran to make a nuclear deal.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a high-profile Trump backer who has built his name over the years supporting multiple wars and military incursions, praised the attack.
“Game on. Pray for Israel,” he wrote on X.
Speaker Mike Johnson echoed Graham, writing, “Israel decided it needed to take action to defend itself. They were clearly within their right to do so.”
Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said, “We stand with Israel tonight and pray for the safety of its people and the success of this unilateral, defensive action.”
But other MAGA conservatives expressed reservations and concerns.
“I’m sad to say but some members of Congress and US Senators seem giddy about the prospects of a bigger war,” Ohio’s Rep. Warren Davidson wrote.
Conservative activist and hoaxster Jack Posobiec worried that a “direct strike on Iran right now would disastrously split the Trump coalition” and argued that “Trump smartly ran against starting new wars, this is what the swing states voted for.”
Pundit Mollie Hemingway noted, “Trump knows in his gut that this would be a strategic policy mistake, but decision makers in the White House should understand that a proactive decision to initiate massive escalation (or greenlight it) would be seen as an unforgivable betrayal by millions of American voters.”
Pro-racism conservative activist Charlie Kirk said, “No issue currently divides the right as much as foreign policy. I’m very concerned based on every [sic] I’ve seen in the grassroots the last few months that this will cause a massive schism in MAGA and potentially disrupt our momentum and our insanely successful Presidency.”
Trump has spent his time as a political figure posturing as a peace candidate: one of his failed Day 1 decrees was to end the Ukraine war. He even received a boost from New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who infamously penned a column headlined “Donald the Dove, Hillary the Hawk” in 2016.
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The truth is that Trump is very much in favor of military action—he even recently floated the idea of invading Greenland and has previously called for taking Iraq’s oil, which experts said at the time would be a war crime.
But many in the MAGA coalition bought into the false peace narrative anyway. Trump needs MAGA types unified behind him as the rest of America abandons him following his military incursion of Los Angeles.
What he continues to say in response to Israel’s decision (he has basically given them a free hand since taking office) could generate significant political blowback for his presidency.