Trump’s MAGA base balks at war with Iran versus ‘America First’ promise : NPR

In this file photo, then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) puts on her Make America Great Again hat while addressing a campaign rally with Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump March 9, 2024 in Rome, Georgia. After Trump ordered strikes against Iran on March 1, 2026, Greene sharply criticized the president for abandoning his “America First” foreign policy and promises of “no new wars.”

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The Trump administration’s justification for the war in Iran is exacerbating tensions within the president’s political coalition and highlighting growing disagreement over what “America First” means.

In the hours since the United States and Israel launched attacks that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and gave rise to an ongoing conflict that has so far seen the deaths of six American service members, a vocal contingent of Trump supporters has increased its criticism of the operation and the man who ordered it.

Among them are figures like conservative commentator Matt Walsh, who claimed in a series of articles on

As Congress prepares to vote on bipartisan war powers resolutions this week aimed at curbing operations in Iran, the administration’s explanations for the new war have sparked discontent among many of the president’s supporters who say the country should focus on domestic issues.

Comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday evening further fanned the flames, suggesting that it was Israel’s plans to attack Iran that influenced US involvement.

“We knew there would be Israeli action,” Rubio told reporters Monday evening at the Capitol. “We knew that this would precipitate an attack on U.S. forces. And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively pursue them before they launched these attacks, we would suffer greater casualties.”

Many blame US-Israeli relations

For many Trump supporters breaking with the president, the country’s military and economic ties with Israel are a dominant factor of disappointment.

Take former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has long criticized military action in Iran and other countries.

Speaking on The Megyn Kelly Show on Monday, Greene reiterated her view that Trump has strayed from the principles behind an “America First” worldview, resulting in the deaths and killing of American soldiers for foreign countries.

“‘Make America Great Again’ was supposed to be America first, not Israel first, not any foreign country first, not any foreign people first, but the American people first,” Greene said.

Tucker Carlson, a former cable news host and longtime critic of U.S. foreign intervention, used his podcast Monday to blast the Trump administration for waging war “because Israel wanted it to happen.”

“This is Israel’s war. This is not America’s war,” Carlson said. “This war is not being fought in the name of American national security goals of making it safer or wealthier.”

In response to Rubio’s remarks, Walsh wrote: “This is basically the worst thing he could have said.” »

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Walsh’s previous criticism in a lengthy

A growing trend of MAGA discord

The online backlash against the Iran war aligns with early public polling that suggests limited support for the attacks — including from Republicans who are normally willing to give Trump considerable leeway to adopt policies that sometimes conflict with conservatism.

For example, one of Trump’s main election promises was “no new wars.” He created a “Peace Council” to oversee a ceasefire plan in Gaza and received a new FIFA Peace Prize for his efforts to “promote peace and unity.”

At the same time, he green-lighted a military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, authorized strikes in Syria, Nigeria, Somalia and other countries and threatened to “take back” the Panama Canal, among other places.

Entering the second year of his second term, other high-profile feuds with key elements of Trump’s coalition have erupted over his administration’s handling of domestic issues such as the Epstein files, sweeping tariffs, immigration enforcement priorities, H1-B visas and more.

Some, like Greene, argue that while Trump helped create the “America First” worldview, he is not the sole arbiter of what it looks like.

“I think it’s time for America to rip off the Band-Aid,” Greene told Megyn Kelly. “And we need to have a serious conversation about what is happening to this country and who the hell these decisions are being made for, and who is making these decisions.”