A MAGA backlash against the Iran war is turning into a larger debate about U.S. support for Israel
Donald Trump’s decision to join Israel’s attack against Iran has many of his MAGA coalition questioning the wisdom of decades of military support for the longtime U.S. ally.
A diverse coalition of MAGA influencers, podcast bros, think tankers and members of Congress who helped propel Trump to victory in 2024 have spoken out in recent days not only against the war, but against the very idea of American backing of Israel.
The opposition to support for Israel may be limited to a small section of the MAGA coalition for now, but it also happens to be the loudest.
Among the critics are Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon in the MAGA media space, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie in Congress, and extends into the podcast brosphere like Theo Von and Tim Dillon, both of whom are considered to be sympathetic to Trump.
Carlson has long been critical of Israel’s war in Gaza, but that criticism jumped up several gears since Israel attacked Iran on June 13. He wrote in a newsletter on the day before the first Israeli strikes that the U.S. should “drop Israel” and “let them fight their own wars.”
When Israeli strikes began and Trump was considering whether the U.S. should join the fight to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Carlson took Republican senator Ted Cruz to task in a viral interview on his support for Israel and the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — a bipartisan political action committee that promotes the U.S.-Israeli alliance.
“I don’t understand why we don’t just be honest and say they’re lobbying on behalf of a foreign government,” he said to Cruz, one of the most outspoken supporters of Israel in Congress.
Bannon, a former Trump administration figure and now popular MAGA influencer, seethed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a broadcast of his “War Room” on Tuesday after a tentative ceasefire brokered by Trump was almost undone.
“I think if you’re going to continue on and continue to give the money and support and put people in harm’s way — particularly this thing right now, it’s every minute that President Trump’s got to do something — we need to take a hard look, and I mean a very hard look, of exactly if they’re supposed to be allies,” he said.
“We don’t really have an alliance or a special relationship. The relationship does not feel very special, particularly for the non-interventionist, in particular, non-interventionist that supports Israel, as we do. It doesn’t look right. It doesn’t feel right. And the reason is, it ain’t right,” he continued.
The sentiment from MAGA media is echoed in the halls of Congress.
Taylor Greene, a Republican congresswoman from Georgia and an ally of Trump’s, also has a recent history of rejecting U.S. support for Israel in her votes.
The day after the U.S. strikes on Iran, she issued rare criticism of the president in a lengthy post on X that called for an end to support for Israeli wars.
“I can easily say I support nuclear armed Israel’s right to defend themselves and also say at the same time I don’t want to fight or fund nuclear armed Israel’s wars,” she wrote.
