Trump promised the MAGA base no new wars. Then he went to war with Iran

The Trump administration’s justification for war in Iran is exacerbating tensions within the president’s political coalition and highlights an increasing disagreement on what “America First” means.

In the hours after the U.S. and Israel launched attacks that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and let to an ongoing conflict that has seen the deaths of six U.S. service members so far, a vocal contingent of Trump’s supporters have increased their criticism of the operation and the man who ordered it.

They include figures like conservative commentator Matt Walsh, who argued in a series of posts on X that efforts by the White House and other conservatives to massage the narrative around the attacks were, “to put it mildly, confused.”

As Congress is set to vote on bipartisan war powers resolutions this week to curb operations in Iran, the administration’s explanations for the new war have been met with displeasure by many of the president’s supporters who believe the country should focus on domestic issues.

Further fanning the flames were comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio Monday night, who suggested that it was Israel’s plans to attack Iran that influenced the American involvement.

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio told reporters Monday evening in the Capitol. “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

Many blame the U.S.-Israel relationship

For many Trump supporters who break with the president, the country’s military and economic ties to Israel are a dominant factor driving their disappointment.

Take former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, long a critic of military action in Iran and other countries.

Speaking on the Megyn Kelly Show Monday, Greene reiterated her view that Trump has strayed from the principles behind an “America First” worldview, resulting in American soldiers “dead and murdered for foreign countries.”

“‘Make America Great Again’ was supposed to be America first, not Israel first, not any foreign country first, not any foreign people first, but the American people first,” Greene said.

Tucker Carlson, the former cable news host and longtime critic of foreign intervention by the U.S., used his podcast Monday to blast the Trump administration for getting into a war “because Israel wanted it to happen.”

“This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States’ war,” Carlson said. “This war is not being waged on behalf of American national security objectives to make it safer or richer.”

Responding to Rubio’s remarks, Walsh wrote: “This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Walsh’s earlier criticism in a lengthy X post, highlighting the president’s initial Saturday video statement about Operation “Epic Fury” and said his actions were “correcting decades of cowardice and holding those responsible for the deaths of Americans accountable.”

A growing trend of MAGA discord

The online backlash to war in Iran aligns with early public polling that suggests limited support for the attacks – including from Republicans who are normally willing to give Trump considerable latitude to enact policies that sometimes conflict with conservatism.

For example, a prominent campaign promise from Trump was a vow of “no new wars.” He started a “Board of Peace” aimed at overseeing a ceasefire plan in Gaza and was awarded a newly-created FIFA Peace Prize for his efforts to “promote peace and unity.”

At the same time, he greenlit a military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, authorized strikes in Syria, Nigeria, Somalia and other countries and threatened to “take back” the Panama Canal, among other things.

Entering the second year of his second term, other high-profile spats with key parts of Trump’s coalition have erupted over his administration’s handling of domestic issues like the Epstein files, sweeping tariffs, immigration enforcement priorities, H1-B visas and more.

Some, like Greene, make the argument that while Trump helped create the “America First” worldview that he is not the sole arbiter of what it looks like.

“I think it’s time for America to rip the Band-Aid off,” Greene said to Megyn Kelly. “And we need to have a serious conversation about what the f*** is happening to this country and who in the hell are these decisions being made for, and who is making these decisions.”