A new poll breaking down Republican support for the U.S. strikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities showed the Make America Great Again base was fully on board with President Donald Trump’s decision to get militarily involved, despite claims they were not.
The NBC survey found 84% of Republicans who identify as MAGA voters supported the strikes, including 70% who strongly supported them. That number is compared to just 72% of card-carrying Republicans who supported the strikes.
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The poll appears to disprove allegations from prominent political leaders closely associated with Trump’s MAGA movement, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, and Tucker Carlson, that the president’s base would feel he betrayed the “America First” agenda if he authorized military force against a foreign country.
As the world speculated whether the United States would rise to Israel’s aid after it embarked on a military effort to wipe out Iran’s nuclear facilities, Greene slammed what she called “fake” MAGA supporters who back U.S. involvement in Israel’s war with Iran.
“Everyone is finding out who are real America First/MAGA and who were fake and just said it [because] it was popular,” Greene wrote. “Unfortunately, the list of fakes are becoming quite long and exposed themselves quickly.”
Carlson, an outspoken Iran hawk, had further festered a rift in the GOP by going after other Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who support using the U.S. military to target the regime’s nuclear capabilities. During an interview with Bannon, in which the men criticized America’s involvement in the conflict between Israel and Iran, Carlson said the MAGA coalition “kind of feels like it’s being blown up over this war in Iran.” As someone who has been close to the president in the past, Carlson claimed intervention from Trump would violate “the promise of the last election,” which he said was, “Hey, let’s focus on my country, where I was born, where my family’s been for hundreds of years.”
Trump appeared unfazed as his surrogates battled among themselves over how rank-and-file MAGA supporters viewed the situation. He espoused a more pragmatic approach than ideological supporters such as Carlson and Bannon, arguing influential confederates leave it to him, the creator of the “America First” movement, to determine how the conflict should play out.
“Considering that I’m the one that developed ‘America First,’ and considering that the term wasn’t used until I came along, I think I’m the one that decides that,” the president said. “For those people who say they want peace, you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon — that’s not peace.”
Although Bannon later backed Trump’s ability to win over noninterventionist MAGA supporters, Carlson and Greene continued to doubt that the base supported any military action.
Although Trump refrained from publicly addressing Green’s criticisms, he called out other Republicans who questioned the strikes.
“I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him get a television network and say it so people listen,” said the president, adding, “Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”
“Of course, people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy,” Vance said one day after Bannon and Carlson ganged up on Trump during their joint interview. “But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue. And having seen this up close and personal, I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people’s goals. Whatever he does, that is his focus.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was pressed on the speculated uprising in the MAGA base against possible U.S. action against Iran shortly before the president announced the U.S. had targeted the regime’s nuclear facilities.
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She suggested during a new conference that supporters wouldn’t be surprised by actions from the president to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon in response to allegations that the president’s supporters believed he would betray campaign promises not to entrench the U.S. in “forever wars.”
“He’s been unequivocally clear about this for decades,” Leavitt said in a message to Trump supporters: “Trust in President Trump. President Trump has incredible instincts, and President Trump kept America and the world safe in his first term as president in implementing a ‘peace through strength’ foreign policy agenda.”