In this file photo, after-rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) wears a Make America Great Again hat as she addresses a campaign rally with then-Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump on March 9, 2024 in Rome, Georgia. After Trump ordered strikes on Iran on March 1, 2026, Green criticized the president for abandoning his promises of an “America First” foreign policy and “no new wars.”
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The Trump administration’s justification for war in Iran is exacerbating tensions within the president’s political coalition and highlighting a growing disagreement over what “America First” means.
Within hours of the US and Israel launching strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and allowing an ongoing conflict that has so far seen the deaths of six US service members, Trump’s supporters have been vocal in 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 “confused, to put it mildly.”
We have heard so far that even if we kill the entire Iranian regime, this is not a regime change war. And even though we wiped out their nuclear program, we had to do it because of their nuclear program. And while Iran plans no attack on the US, they also…
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) March 2, 2026
As Congress prepares to vote on bipartisan war powers resolutions this week to curb operations in Iran, the administration’s descriptions of the new war have met with resentment from 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 on Monday night, who suggested that Israel’s plans to attack Iran had influenced American involvement.
“We knew there was going to be an Israeli move,” Rubio told reporters at the Capitol Monday evening. “We knew that would trigger attacks against American forces. And we knew that if we didn’t go after them proactively before they launched those attacks, we would suffer more casualties.”
Many blame the US-Israeli relationship
For many Trump supporters breaking with the president, the country’s military and economic ties to Israel are a major factor fueling their dismay.
Take former Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, a longtime critic of military action in Iran and other countries.
Speaking on the Megyn Kelly Show on Monday, Green reiterated his view that Trump has moved away from the principles behind the “America First” worldview, resulting in American soldiers “dying and being killed for foreign countries.”
“‘Make America Great Again’ was supposed to be America first, not Israel, not any foreign country first, not any foreign people first, but the American people first,” Green said.
Tucker Carlson, a former cable news host and longtime critic of US foreign intervention, used his podcast on Monday to blast the Trump administration for going to 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 in favor of America’s national security objectives, to secure or enrich it.”
Responding to Rubio’s remarks, Walsh wrote: “That’s basically the worst thing he could have said.”
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt responded to Walsh’s earlier criticism in a lengthy X post, pointing to the president’s initial Saturday video statement about Operation “Epic Fury” and saying his actions were “correcting decades of cowardice and holding accountable those responsible for the deaths of Americans.”
On Saturday, President Trump released a statement giving the American people clear objectives for Operation Epic Fury.
Let me repeat them:
Destroy the Iranian regime’s missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground.
Eliminate the Iranian regime’s navy.… https://t.co/HPi9af6Q3i
— Carolyn Leavitt (@PressSec) March 2, 2026
Developmental tendency of MAGA dissonance
The online backlash for war on Iran coincides with early public polling indicating limited support for the strikes — including among Republicans, who are generally willing to give Trump enough latitude to implement policies that sometimes conflict with conservatism.
For example, Trump’s key campaign promise was a pledge of “no new wars.” He launched a “Board of Peace” intended to oversee the cease-fire plan in Gaza and was awarded the 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 attacks 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 clouded his administration’s handling of domestic issues such as the Epstein files, sweeping tariffs, immigration enforcement priorities, H1-B visas and more.
Some, like Green, argue that Trump helped create an “America First” worldview, not the sole arbiter of what that looks like.
“I think it’s time for America to rip off the Band-Aid,” Green told Megyn Kelly. “And we need to have a serious conversation about what’s happening to this country and who the hell these decisions are being made for and who is making these decisions.”
