The war in Iran deepened the disagreement between Mr. Trump and MAGA

“This is Israel’s war, not America’s,” Tucker Carlson, former Fox News radio host, said on March 3 in the weekly political podcast he founded.

“No one deserves to die for another country,” Megyn Kelly, another former Fox News host with a huge following on social networks, commented on March 2.

Matt Walsh, podcast host of the Daily Wire media company, earlier this week urgently called on fellow conservatives to stop supporting President Donald Trump’s attack campaign against Iran.

“I can’t stand this manipulation of public opinion anymore. I really can’t,” he wrote on X, referring to conservatives’ claim that “Iran has been at war with the US for the past 47 years.”

“So why has none of you ever called for an attack on Iran?” Walsh continued. “Why didn’t you make the argument that Mr. Trump was ‘ending the war, not starting it’ until the very moment he decided to act?”

Wave of protest

When President Donald Trump ordered the US military to conduct air strikes against Iran last weekend, he immediately faced a wave of direct opposition on social networks from his strongest supporting voices in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

MAGA members said they did not see any characteristics of Mr. Trump’s campaign consistent with the “America First” principle that the President and his supporters always promote.

“I think for them, this really feels like a betrayal of the founding principles of Trumpism,” said Matthew Dallek, a professor at George Washington University’s School of Political Management.

In response to mixed opinions, President Trump denied that this group of critics could represent the MAGA movement. “MAGA is Trump,” he said in an interview with independent reporter Rachael Bade on March 2.

Dallek assessed the level of public disagreement within US conservatives on the Iran issue as suggesting that this could be a “tipping point” for some of President Trump’s most influential supporters.

Carlson, Kelly and Walsh combined have more than 13 million subscribers on YouTube, with millions of followers on X and other platforms.

President Trump asserted that only he has the right to represent MAGA after Bade asked about the wave of reaction among his supporters. “MAGA wants to see our country prosperous and safe. And MAGA supports what I’m doing, in every way,” he said.

White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales echoed the President’s comments in a statement on March 3. “President Trump is MAGA and MAGA is President Trump,” she wrote. “With Operation ‘Fantastic Fury,’ President Trump is putting America first, eliminating the threat to our people and protecting our country and the world for generations to come.”

Since his first election, Mr. Trump has always opposed military interventions abroad by previous US presidents. In 2016, he called the Iraq war a “disastrous mistake”. In his confrontation with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in 2024, he called himself “the candidate of peace” and affirmed in his election night victory speech: “I will not start a war.”

Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, warned that the ongoing U-turn on MAGA could become a serious political problem for the President. Bannon criticized the campaign in Iran after a guest on his podcast over the weekend said the conflict could be “a tough fight”.

“Frankly speaking, such things cannot be brought up in the 2024 election campaign. Simply not. We will lose support if we do so,” he said.

Whitney Phillips, professor of information policy at the University of Oregon, assessed that the President is challenging the loyalty of his supporters when deciding to take military action in Iran.

“Mr. Trump has pushed them into a corner,” she said. “He’s not just asking them to make some concessions, he’s forcing them to change into something completely foreign.”

Walsh, who has long urged Mr. Trump to take a tough stance on immigration, transgender people and ethnic diversity policies, is one of the influential members of MAGA who is determined not to change his stance.

In a post on X on March 2, Walsh criticized the inconsistent messages from the Trump administration about the reasons for carrying out the attack on Iran. This post was later responded to by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, listing what she called “clear targets” of President Trump’s military campaign.

An online war of words broke out regarding Walsh’s response. Some X users speculate he may be fired by Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro. Shapiro opened his podcast on March 1 by praising the campaign to kill Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Despite the controversy, Walsh continues to promote his online campaign against Mr. Trump’s decision and even those in the MAGA movement who side with the President.

“We all know that almost every influential conservative in this world opposes conflict with Iran,” Walsh wrote.

Warning signal

Although President Trump returned to the White House thanks to strong support from leading conservative voices online, political media experts say that within just a few days, the campaign to attack Iran has begun to test his influence.

According to AJ Bauer, a journalism professor at the University of Alabama, the wave of protests is spreading partly because the administration is having difficulty delivering a clear message on Iran that the right can rally support for.

This leaves influential conservatives to chart their own course based on personal beliefs, loyalty to Mr. Trump and their assessment of the risk that the conflict could be unpopular with MAGA voters.

A quick poll conducted by the Washington Post over the weekend showed that 52% of Americans opposed Mr. Trump ordering air strikes on Iran, 39% supported, and the remaining 9% were unsure.

Sam Rosenfeld, a political science professor at Colgate University, said the critical stance from influential people on the Iran issue also shows a broader problem arising for Mr. Trump. His approval rating currently stands at a low level of just 39% before his State of the Union address last month.

“There is a growing feeling that Mr. Trump’s central role in right-wing politics will come to an end in the not too distant future,” Rosenfeld commented. “All of that is contributing to shaking the President’s symbolic power over right-wing ideological currents.”