What the Iran Strikes Reveal About MAGA

For the column of the lines of this week, Jon Allsop replaces Jay Caspian Kang.

Since Donald Trump came into office, in January, a certain number of controversies seemed to expose tensions in his Maga Movement, or to alienate the key members of it: visas for skilled workers (in fact, this dispute has flared Before Trump returned to the post); the decision to bomb Yemen; the fact that managers of his administration added the editor The Atlantic To a group group on the bombing of Yemen, then tried to dodge the blame; Prices; expenses; THE Expulsion of a gay makeup to a mega-prison Salvadoran; Trump’s acceptance of a luxury jet as a gift from Qatar; The conspiracy theory that Jeffrey Epstein was not really murdered; The conspiracy theory that files relating to Epstein crimes have not been released because Trump appears there.

Recently, the media speak of a “Maga The civil war “has reached its summit on the question of whether the United States should bomb Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. The former animator of Fox Tucker Carlson, who opposed such an operation, was disputed with two boosters: the current Fox host Mark Levin, and the republican senerator Ted Cruz, that Carlson revealed to be the ignorant of basic facts on a clip and Trump who has become viral. seemed more and more eager to join, Maga Personalities like Charlie Kirk have expressed their fear that it could deeply fracture the movement of Trump; Kirk questioned his X followers on the question of whether the United States should get involved and, out of almost five hundred thousand respondents, ninety percent said “no.” Candace Owens, an far -right commentator, accused Trump of betraying his promise not to enter the foreign wars. In response, Laura Loodor, another far -right commentator, who, earlier this year, persuaded Trump to dismiss various national security officials, said that she “flourished was everyone’s messages” and “was going to deliver them to a package to President Trump, so he sees who is really with him and who is not”. She added: “I am responsible for loyalty.”

However, some observers have found that the story of the “civil war” was over-type. Vice -president JD Vance – In the past, a vocal critic of American interventionism – has filed a model for any Trump member seeking to put on the needle, writing on X who, although “people are right to worry about the foreign tangle after the last 25 years of silly foreign policy”, Trump “won a certain confidence” to act in a responsible manner. Later, Vance would say, on “Meet the Press”, that the difference between this campaign and the past wars is that “at the time, we had stupid presidents”. Trump had bombed Iran the day before Vance’s appearance in the series, and at that time, the big titles suggested that Maga had mainly fallen online. “Opinions are like assholes,” wrote Loomer, taking a victory tour. “Everyone has one. Some are cleaner than others, but if you get too closer to the hole, you will end up with shit all over your face. ” Kirk awarded Trump a “historic mastery”. After Iran indicated that it did not worsen, Carlson posted “Thank God”, then returned to the soaking of Levin.

There are several reasons, it seems to me, why Maga was not finally torn in two above Iran strikes. The way the story has gone by offered something for everyone: the Movers’ hawks had to say that Trump acted in a decisive way to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat, while the doves, if it is the right word, said Trump has been restrained and, after Israel and Iran (possibly) engaged in a cease-up. (This dynamic is familiar-this it a reflection of political savvy or incoherence-as I explored in a recent column about How Trump has managed simultaneously to throw meat to traditional “small-government” republicans and to those who see a more expansive role for the state.) Above all, perhaps, Maga The pure and hard understands that Trump is both the charismatic glue holding a movement otherwise disparate together and its wrathful executor – which he says. (While the history of Iran took place, he waged the social media war on Thomas Massie, a member of the republican congress opposed both strikes and Trump spending plans.) Two weeks ago, two weeks ago, The Atlantic Asked Trump about the criticisms who said that support for the War of Israel with Iran was not in accordance with its “America First” program, and he replied that the term “was not used before my arrival”, so he can define it. As is often the case with Trump, this statement was both literally false – the term dates back at least up to eighteen years – and actually true.

The controversies that I listed at the top of this column did not decisively divided Maga Either for two reasons. First of all, taken together, they did not generate coherent factions: Loomer and Levin, for example, strongly criticized Qatari-Jetgate, but enthusiastically supported Trump’s decision to bomb Iran. Second, the extent of the controversies has often been exaggerated: a handful of Trump supporters stuck their heads above the parapet, the media sniff the drama and wrote stories on friction, and nothing has finally changed. It is not really surprising that the large ideological coalition brought together by Trump last year has internal disagreements, or that the macho energy of the movement would occasionally lead to a whim. (Piece A: Elon Musk, who fought with Steve Bannon, the consiglier of Trump became Podcasther; Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent; and, of course, Trump himself.) Maga has been remarkably unified for a long time, through all kinds of huge political stress tests.

Fortunately forever, then? I’m not so sure. If the story of the civil war among the prominents Maga Influencers are often exaggerated. Maga The project like the imperative post-electoral behavior of Trump has suggested. As The numbers Will Sommer recently noted: “The political threat that Trump could face the attack on Iran will not come from the traditional Maga movement but the most recent people he has brought to it.” This includes “comedians and hardworks” – like the podcaster Joe Rogan and the comic strip Theo von – who “tend to be anti -war” and “depend on their audience feeling authentic, which partly means that they are not linked to any political party”. Von, Rogan and others like them have often been described as apolitical, and this evaluation, true or not, added a great weight to their trump approvals. If Maga Influencers do not agree on things sometimes, they all cares a lot about politics. The schism they can really need to worry, I think, is between obsessive and occasional.

It is too early to say how Iranian strikes played with this last group. But we already have some clues, and they are not uniformly positive for Trump. Last year, the exceptional moment of his tour of so -called “Manosphere” podcasts, widely interpreted as crucial in his considerably improved performance among young male voters, came when he sat with Von for a conversation that plunged Trump for a long time as dependence on dependence – von, but also to Brother’s from Trump – and presented Trump. The interview also allowed Trump to bathe in most of vanity that he is not part of the establishment. (“It is quite clear that the establishment does not love you,” said Von, in an extremely nose exchange; Trump replied: “I think the people Like me. ») Last week, Von, who interviewed the Democratic Congress member, Ro Khanna, said that no one he knew supports Iran hitting.” I don’t want the people I know, my friends, be called; I don’t want my friends to be called to die, “he said.” I don’t even understand how it is an option. “”