Bernd Debusmann Jr & Max Matza
BBC News
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The dilemma of whether the US should join Israel in attacking Iran, or stay out of the offensive altogether, has exposed divisions among US President Donald Trump’s supporters.
“I may do it, I may not do it,” the Republican president said on Wednesday whether the US would join the conflict by targeting Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump often railed against “stupid endless wars” in the Middle East on the campaign trail, but has also maintained that Iran “can’t have a nuclear weapon”.
The possibility that he might draw the US into another foreign entanglement has pitted the isolationist and hawkish wings of his party bitterly against one another.
Among those that have expressed doubt about Iran’s nuclear plans are Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who in March testified before Congress that while Iran’s enriched uranium was at an all-time high, experts did not believe it was working on a nuclear weapon.
On 10 June – just three days before Israeli strikes on Iran began – Gabbard also posted a video in which she warned that “political elite and warmongers” were “carelessly fomenting fear and tensions” that risked putting the world “on the brink of nuclear annihilation”.
Gabbard’s video and prior comments reportedly opened a rift between her and Trump, who US news outlet Politico reported “became incensed” at the video.
Watch: Protect the world or avoid war? Americans divided on Iran conflict
“I don’t care what she said,” Trump told reporters when asked about her earlier comments before Congress. “I think they were very close to having a weapon.”
She later accused the media of taking her comments out of context, telling CNN that she was on “the same page” as Trump.
Gabbard was not alone among Republicans in criticising potential US involvement in the conflict.
On Tuesday, conservative Republican congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky sided with Democrats to introduce a bill that would block Trump from engaging US forces in “unauthorised hostilities” with Iran without congressional approval.
“This is not our war. Even if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution,” Massie posted on X.
Several proponents of Trump’s “America First” doctrine pointed out that he vowed to keep the US out of “forever wars” such as those that led to the deaths of thousands of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Follow live updates on this storyRussia fears another loss in Middle East from Iran’s conflict with IsraelWatch: BBC at the site of Iranian attack in IsraelG7 leaders urge ‘de-escalation’ but stop short of calling for Israel-Iran ceasefireFormer Fox News host Tucker Carlson has called for the US to stay out of the conflict with Iran.
On his podcast, he lambasted Republican “warmongers”, provoking a rebuke from Trump, who called Carlson “kooky”.
Georgia congresswoman and Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene leapt to Carlson’s defence in a highly unusual break with the president.
She said anyone who supported such an intervention was not “America First”.
The tensions exploded into a shouting match on Tuesday during an interview between Carlson and hawkish Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Cruz became defensive when asked if he knew the population and ethnic mix of Iran.
Carlson said: “You’re a senator who’s calling for the overthrow of the government and you don’t know anything about the country!”
Cruz retorted: “No, you don’t know anything about the country!”
Steve Bannon, Trump’s former political strategist, argued on Carlson’s podcast that allowing the “deep state” to drive the US into a war with Iran would “blow up” the coalition of Trump supporters.
“If we get sucked into this war, which inexorably looks like it’s going to happen on the combat side, it’s going to not just blow up the coalition, it’s also going to thwart the most important thing, which is the deportation of the illegal alien invaders who are here,” he said.
On Wednesday, however, Bannon seemed to slightly soften his tone, telling attendees at a Christian Science Monitor event that the MAGA wing of his supporters would trust his judgement if he decided to commit US forces to the conflict.
“Maybe we hate it but you know, we’ll get on board.” he said.
Another conservative political commentator, Charlie Kirk – who describes himself as closer to the “isolationist” side of the debate – said on X that Trump is “pragmatic” and values “common sense”.
“I don’t know if President Trump will choose to involve America against Iran,” Kirk wrote. “But he is a man I trust to be making that decision.”
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Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell said it had “been kind of a bad week for the isolationists” in the party.
“What’s happening here is some of the isolationist movement led by Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon are distressed we may be helping the Israelis defeat the Iranians,” McConnell told CNN.
Other warhawks in the party are egging on Trump to target Iran.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said it was in the national security interests of the US to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. Tehran maintains its nuclear programme is for peaceful, civilian purposes such as energy.
“President Trump understands the threat the ayatollah [Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei] presents to us, not just Israel, and that he will, at the end of the day, help Israel finish the job,” Graham told Fox News.
Vice-President JD Vance, seeking to bridge the divide, said in a social media post that Trump “may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment”.
“That decision ultimately belongs to the president,” he added. “And of course, people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy.”
An opinion poll in recent days indicates Trump voters would broadly support the US in helping Israel to attack Iran.
The survey by Gray House found that 79% of respondents would back the US providing offensive weapons for Israel to strike Iranian military targets. Some 89% were concerned about Iran obtaining atomic bombs.
On Trump’s Truth Social social media platform, however, many expressed concern that the US could again find itself embroiled in a Middle Eastern conflict thousands of miles away.
“No war with Iran. No more foreign wars,” one user wrote. “America first!”
Another user warned that US involvement in Israeli operations could cost the Republicans politically in the years ahead.
“Don’t do this,” the user wrote. “Republicans will never win again if you do this.”
While campaigning for the White House in September, Trump said: “We will quickly restore stability in the Middle East. And we will return the world to peace.”
With the Iran-Israel conflict on a knife-edge, the question of whether the US president is an isolationist or an interventionist may be answered sooner rather than later.
