Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has voiced opposition to President Donald Trump’s airstrikes against Iran, saying foreign intervention was straying away from the “America First” message that resonated with him and other voters.
Over the weekend, Jones hosted several livestreams to discuss the ongoing military operations that have killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, and 48 other Iranian leaders. The strikes on Iran have killed at least 787 people including 176 children – more than 100 of whom are from a girls’ school in Minab, the non-profit Human Rights Activists in Iran reported.
“This is going to enrage the world against Israel and the United States,” Jones said of the deadly school missile strike. “Again, I don’t like the mullahs, but this is supposed to be America First. We’re not supposed to be running around doing this anymore.”
In another livestream, Jones said Trump was “breaking” a promise to his supporters by attacking Iran and forcing “regime change.”
“Trump ran on not doing regime change,” Jones said. “I’m just saying, you don’t tell us ‘no more regime change’ that we’ve seen the CIA do and many times put worse people in on purpose, and then you turn around and say ‘oh no this is a great thing.’”
Trump and members of his administration have given conflicting statements about the goal of the Iran attacks. On Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that the airstrike campaign in Iran is “not a regime change war.” But over the weekend, Trump told ABC News the attack “knocked out most of the candidates” for the Iranian regime.
“It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead,” Trump said, suggesting the U.S. was conducting regime change. The president also encouraged Iranians to use the opportunity to “take over” their government.
Officials have maintained the reason for the attack was to take out Iran’s nuclear weapon facility, to prevent the country from building a nuclear weapon or ballistic missiles, as well as destroy Iran’s navy to prevent the country from attacking neighboring countries.
Trump administration officials reportedly told congressional staff in private briefings Sunday that U.S. intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a pre-emptive strike against the U.S. The administration officials instead acknowledged there was a more general threat in the region from Iran’s missiles and proxy forces.
Jones also criticized Trump for posting AI-generated videos of the U.S. bombing Iran on Truth Social to brag about the attacks, calling it “unseemly.”
Jones was once a staunch Trump ally – supporting the president’s 2016 presidential campaign, peddling conspiracy theories against Democrats and raising money for Trump’s 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally that turned into an attack on the Capitol.
Jones is the founder of InfoWars, a far-right conspiracy theory and fake news website. He has peddled theories from Pizzagate to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which led to a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit ruling, which Jones was ordered to pay the families of victims.
Since Trump returned to power last year, Jones has been more critical of the administration, disagreeing with the handling of the Epstein files and the president’s desire to pursue more foreign intervention. Other known MAGA allies, such as former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, have voiced similar criticisms about the president sending the U.S. military to the Middle East.
With reporting from The Associated Press
