Some of President Donald Trump’s biggest political supporters say they are feeling abandoned after the U.S. joined Israel in bombing Iran, an operation that was launched without congressional approval and has so far left six U.S. service members dead.
Trump officials acknowledge “Operation Epic Fury,” as it’s formally named, comes with political risk, but they argue that the military operation will be short term and is in line with his “peace through strength” campaign pledge.
“We understand some will reflexively oppose this, people don’t love the idea of war,” said a Trump adviser who, like others in this piece, was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “But people like winners. They are drawn to it. If we do this quickly, I think it will be seen as what it is: successful.”
But the war is a stark departure from Trump’s long-held “America First” campaign pledge, which was predicated on the idea of focusing on domestic issues rather than foreign entanglements. Trump has indicated that there is no end date to the operation in Iran, which risks spiraling into a wider regional conflict.
For the MAGA base, the abrupt bombing of Iran seems like a drastic departure from one of Trump’s core policy promises, and one that could hurt him and Republicans in the key 2026 midterms.
I “don’t see how this helps Republicans in tight races across the country,” Curt Mills, executive director of The American Conservative magazine, said. “In fact, I think it may orient against them. This turns off a lot of independents.”
Former Fox News host and ardent Trump supporter Megyn Kelly said Monday she has “serious doubts” about the Iran strike, which drew a direct rebuke from Trump.
Kelly “was opposed to me for years when I ran the first time and nothing stopped me,” Trump said in an interview with The Inner Circle newsletter. “They always come back.”
Matt Walsh, a prominent right-wing provocateur who has supported Trump, said he sees nothing positive coming out of the attacks on Iran.
“What nobody has even come close to sufficiently explaining is how this war will first and foremost directly benefit American citizens,” he posted on social media. “That is a case that needed to have been made clearly and convincingly before this move, and it wasn’t. We’re also told how this will benefit Israel, and I’m sure it will. But Israel is not America. What does it do for America?”
The White House did not return a request for comment for this article.
Trump ran his 2024 campaign on the idea that foreign wars would end and his focus would be more on domestic issues.
“I will not send you to fight and die in stupid foreign wars that never end,” Trump said during a 2024 campaign stop in Pennsylvania. “I will not send our sons and daughters to go fight for a war in a country that you’ve never heard of. We’re not going to do it. We’re going to bring our troops home, and we’re going to focus on America First.”
Even Vice President JD Vance said Trump’s stance against foreign interventions was part of what drew him to the MAGA movement.
“My entire adult lifetime has been shaped by presidents who threw America into unwise wars and failed to win them,” Trump’s future vice president, JD Vance, wrote for The Wall Street Journal in a January 2023 guest column endorsing Trump’s 2024 bid, adding, “In Mr. Trump’s four years in office, he started no wars despite enormous pressure from his own party and even members of his own administration.”
The strikes have left some who worked to help elect Trump feeling both like they were duped, and worried that the war will hurt Republicans politically.
An adviser to Elon Musk’s super PAC during the 2024 campaign told NBC News that their work revolved around reaching three groups of voters who were perceived to be disillusioned with President Joe Biden and Democrats. He worried that after the war with Iran, they’ll all be lost.
“There are three tiers,” the adviser said. “One is what we called the ‘Zyn bros.’ Those who are men 18-40. The second was Hispanics, Trump did great with them in 2024. And the third was the Dearborn approach [Muslim voters]. Those are all gone.”
The person said the Iranian strikes left them feeling as though they built a message and strategy to help Trump that ended up being dishonest.
“We lied,” they said. “I am myself guilty of it. We didn’t know it’d go like this, but it turns out we lied to the voters that helped elect Trump.”
Some of the pushback around the Iran strikes has centered on Charlie Kirk, the slain founder of Turning Point USA, a conservative organization that focused on mobilizing younger voters.
“Last year, Charlie Kirk told us all that younger generation of Americans are far more interested in domestic policy that pursuing international conflicts and we can’t forget that in a midterm year,” posted Jack Posobiec, an influential MAGA supporter with a huge following.
A former Trump administration official told NBC News on Monday that “duration matters” in determining how the base will respond.
“Out quick and he [Trump] will be fine,” the former official said.
The former official pointed to last summer, when the U.S. made targeted strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
“Last summer, MAGA-types had their panties in a wad over the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, and it did not hurt the president,” the former official added. “Now the time horizon seems longer than one bombing, it’s hard to consider how that will impact things.”
The quickly approaching problem for Trump and Republicans are the 2026 midterms.
Republicans are trying to hold slight majorities in both the House and Senate, a task made more difficult by the fact that Trump’s approval ratings are among the worst he has seen in either term he has been in office. Trump’s approval rating stood at just 39% in an NBC News Decision Desk poll released last month.
Mike DuHaime, former Republican National Committee political director, said there is a unique dislike and distrust of Iran, which could end up working in the president’s favor.
“While there will be intense reactions from those who feel this goes against his isolationist promises, most Americans do not trust Iran and will take a wait-and-see approach to what happens next,” DuHaime said. “There will be no tolerance for American casualties, but most Americans know Iran has been an enemy of the United States and the democratic West for nearly 50 years and would therefore welcome a change.”
The administration’s rationale for bombing Iran has, at times, been inconsistent. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday said there was an “imminent threat” because the U.S. believed Israel would attack Iran, which would prompt the country to retaliate against the United States. Others in the administration, though, have continued to say the move was needed to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
“President Trump will not get the United States into a years-long conflict with no clear objective,” Vice President JD Vance posted on social media Tuesday. “Iran can never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. That is the goal of this operation and President Trump will see it through to completion.”
Trump has expressed few concerns about alienating his political base, openly acknowledging there is no set time frame for when he expects the Iran operation to end. He also said he anticipated that service members would lose their lives.
“We expect casualties,” he told NBC News on Sunday, “but in the end it’s going to be a great deal for the world.”
