Multiple MAGA figures have joined forces to voice their anger at President Donald Trump for starting a war with Iran.
Several staunch supporters of the “America First” president have openly opposed the conflict in the Middle East and questioned the motives behind it.
The fallout over Trump’s war with Iran comes after the 79-year-old had already received intense pushback across the MAGA world for the botched handling of the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, a move long called for by Republican figures, including the president himself.
Podcaster Megyn Kelly was among those voicing concern about the U.S.- and Israel-led war in Iran, which has already resulted in the deaths of six U.S. service members. She told her audience she has “serious doubts about what we’re doing” with the conflict.
“There’s nothing unpatriotic or unsupportive of one’s conservatism or general adherence to MAGA-type principles to say, ‘I would like to be better convinced that this is worth the sacrifice of American blood and treasure,’” she said.
Kelly piled on further pressure on Trump by inviting former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene—a one-time MAGA loyalist who has turned on Trump over the Epstein files and his foreign policy—to vent her opposition to the war in Iran.
“‘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 on Kelly’s show on Monday.
“I think it’s time for America to rip the Band-Aid off and we need to have a serious conversation about what the f--- is happening to this country, who in the hell these decisions are being made for, and who is making them.”
There was further MAGA outrage after Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that Israel’s plans to attack Iran influenced the U.S. decision to join the conflict and bomb Tehran.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio told reporters at the Capitol on Monday. “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.”
MAGA podcaster Matt Walsh, who has more than four million followers on X, blasted Rubio’s comments, posting: “So he’s flat out telling us that we’re in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand. This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said.”
Walsh had already questioned the Trump administration’s messaging around the war in a scathing Monday post.
“So far we’ve heard that although we killed the whole Iranian regime, this was not a regime change war. And although we obliterated their nuclear program, we had to do this because of their nuclear program. And although Iran was not planning any attacks on the US, they also might have been, depending on who you ask,” Walsh wrote.
“And although we are not fighting this war to free the Iranian people, they are now free, or might be, depending on who seizes power, and we have no idea who that will be. The messaging on this thing is, to put it mildly, confused.”
Elsewhere, Tucker Carlson, a hugely influential figure in Trump’s orbit, also blasted Israel’s apparent influence in convincing the president to start what is already a deeply unpopular war that could destabilize the entire Middle East.
“This happened because Israel wanted it to happen,” Carlson said on his show Monday. “This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States’ war. This war is not being waged on behalf of American national security objectives, to make the United States safer or richer... This war is waged purely because Israel wanted it to be waged.”
In response to the MAGA backlash, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Beast: “President Trump’s courageous decision to launch Operation Epic Fury is grounded in a truth that presidents for nearly 50 years have been talking about, but no president had the courage to confront: Iran poses a direct and imminent threat to the United States of America and our troops in the Middle East.
“The rogue Iranian Regime under the evil hand of the Ayatollah has killed and maimed thousands of American citizens and soldiers over the years–and that ends with President Trump.”
The thin-skinned Trump has taken swipes at Kelly and Carlson for voicing their opposition to the Iran war.
“I think that MAGA is Trump—MAGA’s not the other two,” Trump told reporter Rachel Bade. “MAGA wants to see our country thrive and be safe. And MAGA loves what I’m doing—every aspect of it.”
Trump added that bombing Iran “is a detour that we have to take in order to keep our country safe and keep other countries safe, frankly.”
