The Nelk Boys’ “Full Send” podcast was one of the many platforms seized by US President Donald Trump to reach younger, conservative, male audiences as he successfully ran for re-election last year.
It was also the platform that the White House recommended Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu utilize when the Israeli premier’s office sought guidance on whom he should be interviewed by in order to reach those same audiences on his trip to Washington earlier this month.
The interview itself went smoothly for Netanyahu, who was given an unchecked platform to present his views on the war in Gaza, the regime in Iran, anti-Israel protesters on college campuses, New York mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, and why he prefers a Whopper over a Big Mac. (Hopefully, his Orthodox coalition partners didn’t hear that part).
Reception of the episode, however, was disastrous. The podcast’s YouTube channel lost over 10,000 subscribers within a day. The hosts received an outpouring of vicious criticism for platforming Netanyahu amid what commenters and fellow influencers repeatedly described as the “genocide” in Gaza. In an apparent attempt at damage control during a livestream the next day, one of the Nelk Boys nodded at a “good point” from a critic who commented that hosting the Israeli premier was “like having a modern-day Hitler.”
The Nelk Boys then proceeded to platform for their millions of followers a series of anti-Israel influencers who tore into Netanyahu and Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza.
While many of the episode’s critics were likely left-wingers piling on against Netanyahu and Israel, the ordeal pointed to a growing problem the prime minister and Israel have with Trump’s base of supporters, particularly with younger conservatives.
Trump also recognizes the problem, reportedly telling a prominent Jewish donor recently: “My people are starting to hate Israel.”
A CNN poll this month found the share of Republicans who believe Israel’s actions have been fully justified has dropped from 68 percent in 2023 to 52%.
A Pew Research poll from April, meanwhile, found that while Republicans over age 50 have remained staunchly pro-Israel since 2022, the Jewish state’s unfavorability among Republican young adults climbed from 35% to 50% over those three years.
The distaste with Israel has reached other parts of Trump’s base — from isolationists upset with the disproportionate amount of foreign aid that the US gives to Israel, to Christian conservatives who may have been silent about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians more broadly but are now speaking out when their coreligionists are harmed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The far-right One America News Network and the Christian Broadcasting Network have both recently aired segments shining a light on rampant Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, an issue that until recently has not typically been discussed in such media circles.
The anchor for the OANN was former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz, who was Trump’s initial pick for attorney general before he withdrew his nomination amid mounting scandals.
Gaetz remains loyal to Trump in his new role, which he is also using to repeatedly criticize Israel.
The animosity is beginning to extend to sitting Republican lawmakers as well.
GOP lawmakers in the Senate voted unanimously to defeat resolutions introduced by progressive Bernie Sanders aimed at blocking arms sales to Israel, which were backed by a majority of Democrats.
But the breakdown would have surely been different if those votes had been held in the House, where Republicans such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie have been no less critical of the Jewish state than some of the most progressive Democrats.
While Massie has come within Trump’s crosshairs in recent months, Greene is one of his biggest supporters and was given a seat in Trump’s box along with a primetime speaking slot at last year’s Republican National Convention.
The MAGA lawmaker’s animosity toward the Jewish state may also be an attempt to settle scores with pro-Israel organizations who long accused her of employing antisemitic rhetoric, but Greene appeared to go a step further this week, becoming the first Republican lawmaker to refer to the Gaza war as a “genocide.”
There are also less extreme examples that indicate a shift within the MAGA wing of the GOP.
Earlier this week, Republican Rep. Lance Gooden tweeted, “Standing with Israel means eliminating every barbaric Hamas terrorist. It also means rejecting the killing and starvation of children in Gaza.”
“We must allow aid to enter Gaza. Ending this hunger crisis will not only spare the lives of children but will strip Hamas of its ability to use innocent children as pawns in their depraved acts of barbarism,” the Texas lawmaker added.
Trump has used similar rhetoric to that of Gooden’s in recent days, and has publicly broken with Netanyahu over whether reports of starvation in Gaza are real.
That led to a flurry of media reports declaring a rift between the two leaders that may have been more hyperbolized by journalists hoping there is one.
The president also avoided criticizing Greene when asked if he agreed with her “genocide” determination, sufficing instead with: “It’s terrible what’s occurring there.”
Trump has more brazenly feuded with Netanyahu before, even cursing him out for congratulating Joe Biden on winning the 2020 election.
But that was after Trump had left office, and he quickly changed his tune once he became the Republican frontrunner again.
A growing portion of his supporters, though, aren’t as diplomatic and aren’t balancing the same, sometimes competing, interests as the president of the United States.
“Whether it realizes it or not, Israel has made itself the villain of the world in letting this [Gaza war] go on so long,” conservative media personality Megyn Kelly said during an interview this week with Israel-defender-turned-critic Piers Morgan.
“They have lost support among their dearest friends, the entire Democrat party here in the United States has turned against them, and they’re losing Republicans by the day here in America,” she added.