Will Iran Split MAGA Forever?

The question of attacking Iran is creating fault lines in the coalition that elected President Trump. Novi Zhukovsky reports in The New York Sun:

Could President Trump’s next move in respect of the Israel-Iran conflict spell the end of MAGA as we know it?

The 47th president’s support for Israel’s targeted strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities brought to the surface long-running tensions between MAGA and its isolationist wing. Now, as speculation rises that Mr. Trump may call up the American military to deliver a final blow to Iran’s nuclear program, MAGA infighting threatens to boil over.

“If he pulls the trigger, it’s all over for MAGA,” the director of Big Data Poll, Rich Baris, predicted. “Kiss the Republican majority goodbye … For the next decade,” Mr. Baris, whose polling company was recognized for its accuracy in the 2020 election, added.

Mr. Baris’s stark warning comes as the president has dropped mixed messages on whether America will directly assist Israel in its effort to obliterate Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Namely, Israel has sought to convince the president to help Israel destroy an Iranian uranium enrichment site in Fordo that may be buried too far underground for the Israeli military to reach.

With direct American involvement in the war emerging as a real possibility, members of the MAGA right — including some of the president’s most loyal supporters — have turbo-charged their opposition both online and in Congress.

A former Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, was among the first MAGA supporters to break with the president on the issue, publishing a newsletter just hours after Israel’s initial attack in which he accused Mr. Trump of being “complicit” in Jerusalem’s “act of war.” Over the weekend, the president responded on Truth Social by branding Mr. Carlson “kooky” and insisting that “IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”

By Monday, Mr. Carlson took an even stronger stance. “I think we’re gonna see the end of the American empire,” Mr. Carlson said, referring to the possibility of direct American involvement in the war, while appearing on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. While Mr. Carlson softened the blow of his criticism by praising the president — who he said “I actually really love” — he predicted that Mr. Trump’s next move could “effectively end” his presidency.

Read more here.

Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon on how the president’s enemies are working to destroy MAGA with the war on Iran.

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(15:30)… pic.twitter.com/PdUZFiUNNZ

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 16, 2025