MAGA Brawls Over Prospect of Trump Joining Strikes on Iran

In recent days, White House officials have quietly reached out to MAGA influencers, according to people familiar with the matter, aiming to explain Trump’s possible shift away from a diplomatic solution.

Some prominent conservatives have toned down their rhetoric, but discontent has continued to burst into public view, as longtime Trump supporters voice concerns that the president is abandoning his campaign-trail pledge to extract the U.S. from foreign entanglements.

President Donald Trump speaks as a flag pole is installed on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The fierce debate—unfolding online, across conservative media and on Capitol Hill—has pitted the more isolationist wing of Trump’s coalition against hawkish Republicans who have called on the president to step in to ensure Iran doesn’t develop a nuclear weapon. It marks the strongest challenge to Trump’s iron grip on the Republican Party since he regained power in January. And it comes as Trump’s base is also divided over immigration, with the administration wavering over whether to exempt farm and service workers from deportations to insulate the economy.

Some of the sharpest objections over Iran have come from avid Trump allies such as Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. “Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA,” she wrote on X. Appearing on former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz’s television show, Greene said, “A Middle Eastern war will pull America back 20 years.”

Gaetz, a Trump ally, said in an interview that he believed Trump wouldn’t drag the U.S. into a prolonged conflict. But, he added, “President Trump rescued the Republican Party from the doom of neoconservatism. I think it’s a fair question to ask those folks who want to entangle themselves in an Iranian war, what’s your plan for the day after?”

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., speaks with reporters as he departs after a Republican caucus meeting in which they dropped Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as their nominee for speaker, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the House Judiciary chairman and staunch ally of Donald Trump lost a third ballot of the whole House today. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was among those who heard from the White House, according to the people familiar with the outreach.

As Israel prepared to attack Iran last week, Kirk polled supporters about whether the U.S. should get involved. Nearly 90% said no. In recent days, as Trump has moved closer to military action, Kirk urged his five million followers to have faith in the president’s ability to handle the crisis. “His whole life has led to this moment,” Kirk wrote Monday on X.

He has also at times echoed White House messaging and defended the president, arguing that Trump is trying to make sure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon. “It’s totally FALSE to say that Trump ever wanted regime change,” Kirk wrote on social media.

Trump is under pressure to launch U.S. strikes on Iran from allies such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) and Fox News host Mark Levin, who said on his show this week, “This is good vs. evil. You’re either a patriotic American who’s going to get behind the president of the United States, the commander in chief, or you’re not.”

Levin has been publicly fighting with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox personality who, after Israel began its strikes, accused Trump of being “complicit in the act of war.” Trump hit back on social media, saying “Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”

Vice President JD Vance jumped in to defend Trump against what he called a “lot of crazy stuff on social media.” He said people are “right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy. But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue.”

Vice President JD Vance talks on his phone as he departs the White House, Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Steve Bannon, a leading conservative podcast host who opposes military intervention, said Wednesday that Trump needed to articulate his views “not just to MAGA, but to the American people of why we would get involved in another war over there as a combatant.” He called on supporters to pray for Trump, and he predicted that the MAGA movement wouldn’t fully splinter over Iran.

“We don’t like it, maybe we hate it, but, you know, we’ll get on board,” he said.

Steve Bannon pleads guilty to a fraud charge related to the “We Build the Wall” scheme, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, at the state court in New York. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP)

That is the view inside the White House as well, where red MAGA-style hats on desks read “Trump was right about everything.” White House aides argued Trump can manage the crisis and his supporters will come around. Trump has built a broad coalition and disagreements have flared up before—over tariffs, for instance—but his supporters have largely stood behind him.

“America First has never meant America only, never meant isolationism, and there are people who are part of the MAGA base who are isolationist—I understand that—so it’s complicated,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.). “But I have no doubt Donald Trump will do what he thinks is best.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Trump has “never wavered in his stance that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon and repeated that promise to the American people since his victorious campaign.”

Trump conceded Wednesday that opinions on U.S. involvement in Iran were mixed, but insisted, “My supporters are more in love with me today than they were even at the election.”

Military action on Iran isn’t the only issue that has threatened to divide the president’s coalition.

The administration’s short-lived guidance to exempt workers in key industries from deportation also triggered frustration among allies of the president who have advocated for stringent immigration restrictions. After facing backlash from supporters, including inside the White House, the administration said there was no longer blanket guidance pausing immigration raids at farms, hotels and restaurants.

Asked if some exemptions would stay in place, Trump said Tuesday, “Everyone is being looked at.” He also called for an expansion of ICE operations in Democratic-controlled cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

But some of the president’s backers said the damage to his immigration agenda had already been done because the possibility of exemptions muddied the administration’s message.

“It’s guaranteed to sabotage any efforts at self-deportation,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a group favoring immigration restrictions. “It also increases the incentives to come illegally because you’ve heard they aren’t going after restaurant employees anymore.”

Rosemary Jenks, co-founder of the Immigration Accountability Project, said there was widespread disappointment with Trump siding with businesses over his backers on deportations. “It’s essentially an amnesty for the employers,” Jenks said.

Even before the recent back-and-forth on exemptions for certain industries, many Trump allies were already frustrated with the slow pace of deportations. Some have been privately concerned for months that the president was watering down his campaign-trail pledge to oversee the largest mass deportation in American history.

“While the president remains focused on immediately removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens from the country, including those given safe harbor in Democrat-run sanctuary cities, anyone who is here illegally is liable to be deported,” said Jackson, the White House spokeswoman.

Write to Alex Leary at [email protected], Tarini Parti at [email protected] and Lindsay Wise at [email protected]