MAGA splits over Trump's backing of Israel

TOI correspondent from Washington: MAGA isolationists are up in arms against US involvement in the Middle-East even as President Donald Trump has ostensibly bowed to pressure from the powerful pro-Israel lobby to throw Washington's support behind the Jewish state.

Several Trump-supporting MAGA surrogates, including conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, former Trump aide Steve Bannon, and Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor-Greene, have broken ranks to oppose American involvement, saying it is betrayal of Trump's pledge to keep US out of foreign wars.

Carlson has been vocal in his criticism, accusing Trump of being “complicit” in Israel’s attack on Iran and arguing that US funding and weapons supplied to Israel, which Trump boasted about on Truth Social, has placed Washington at the center of the conflict.

"The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians. The real divide is between warmongers and peacemakers," Carlson said on Friday, bluntly naming former Fox News colleague Sean Hannity, commentator Mark Levin, media baron Rupert Murdoch, and Jewish billionaires Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson, among the provocateurs.

Steve Bannon, a former Trump White House aide, also urged Trump to keep US out of the war, while Congresswoman Green questioned if Iran and its proxies are a danger to US national interests, saying "I don't think we should be fighting wars on behalf of israel...I have never seen a Houthi, or however you pronounce it, in my life..."

However, many MAGA Trump acolytes, including Hannity, Senator Lindsey GRaham, conservative radio host Mark Levin, and social media gadabout Laura Loomed, backed the President's support for Israel because of its pursuit of nuclear weapons, although Trump's intelligence czar Tulsi Gabbard, another anti-war figure, testified in March that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.

“The IC [Intelligence Community] continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003,” Gabbard said, while noting, however, that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels, unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.

While hardcore white Christian nationalists in MAGA are typically anti-Jew ("Jews will not replace us," is one of the chants heard in their rallies), the broader MAGA base is distinctly anti-war, blaming US involvement in foreign wars under both Republican and Democratic administrations among reasons the country has racked up a massive $ 36 trillion debt. Polling by some MAGA principals shows isolationist sentiment is still strong in the MAGA base, and President Trump's support for Israel is not shared among the rank and file.