‘Extremely ugly’: Maga media figures squabble among themselves over Trump’s Iran war

Though the majority of the president’s base backs the war, a schism has developed among Trump-touting media stars

When the histories of the Iran war and Donald Trump’s “Make America great again” (Maga) movement are written, there may be a special place for the words of former US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene: “I wholeheartedly support Megyn Kelly telling the world that Mark Levin has a micropenis.”

Greene’s social media post summed up how the media stars of the Trump coalition have turned on each other in a ferocious, bitter and – sometimes – vulgar brawl. Figures such as Kelly, Levin, Tucker Carlson, Laura Loomer, Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro have clashed over the meaning of “America first”, the role of Israel and whether Trump is breaking his promise to end forever wars.

What is less clear is whether Maga’s identity crisis reflects a schism among the movement’s rank and file, with the potential for an anti-Trump revolt, or merely the incentives of clickbait-driven social media. Nine in 10 Maga-aligned Republicans back the war, according to an NBC News poll – but a prolonged war and high fuel prices could erode Trump’s support.

“What makes this different is that, while most of these debates take place within alternative-reality silos, this is clearly breaking through,” said Charlie Sykes, author of How the Right Lost Its Mind. “If you’re part of the Maga movement you’re being exposed to this debate and criticism of Trump’s action in a way that rarely has happened in the past.”

Trump swept back into power on a promise of American isolationism, pledging to end foreign entanglements and focus on domestic renewal. Instead he has foregrounded global affairs, from threatening Greenland to capturing the leader of Venezuela and launching a war with Iran without an apparent exit strategy.

A coalition forged in the crucible of “America first” populism is now visibly fracturing, torn between personal loyalty to Trump and fierce ideological opposition to a new Middle Eastern war. Joe Rogan, an influential podcast host, has said the war in Iran is “crazy” and left Americans feeling “betrayed” by Trump.

This week’s resignation of Joe Kent, a top counter-terrorism director, laid bare internal strife that is spilling from the corridors of power into the chaotic arenas of rightwing podcasting and social media. “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent, previously a Trump loyalist, wrote in a letter to the president that he posted on Tuesday.

Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project and a former Republican strategist, noted Kent’s resignation is an outlier in a movement so often defined by fealty. “It is so rare in Trump’s universe to have anyone have any kind of actual red line that they refuse to cross once and for all,” he said. “He knew, like most people in Trump’s world understand, that this was one of those lines that once he crosses it he’s off the island with Trump folks for ever.”

This ideological whiplash has put key figures in Trump’s orbit in an uncomfortable position. His vice-president, JD Vance, who planted his political flag firmly in the isolationist wing of the party, and his national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, whose political identity was largely built on opposing military adventurism, have deflected questions by expressing faith in Trump.

Yet while elected officials bite their tongues, the Maga media ecosystem has descended into extraordinary and often crude blood-letting. Kelly, a former Fox News host now running her own independent media group, said the war was sold to the US people by “Israel firsters, like Mark Levin”.

Levin, a radio and Fox personality who has been among Trump’s most fervent supporters of the war, called Kelly an “emotionally unhinged, lewd and petulant wreck”. Kelly responded by branding Levin “micropenis Mark”, contending that he “thinks he has the monopoly on lewd”.

She added: “He tweets about me obsessively in the crudest, nastiest terms possible. Literally more than some stalkers I’ve had arrested. He doesn’t like it when women like me fight back. Bc of his micropenis.”

Trump used his Truth Social site to defend Levin while Greene rallied on behalf of Kelly. Greene, a one-time Trump ally, has turned against the president over the Jeffrey Epstein files and the Iran war, which she regards as contrary to “America first”.

Rifts in Maga are hardly new but now seem louder and angrier than ever. Blake Marnell, a prominent Trump supporter who has attended dozens of campaign rallies, blamed last year’s fatal shooting of rightwing youth activist Charlie Kirk. “In the first month after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, there was a lot of people coming together,” Marnell said, adding that the landscape quickly devolved through “the monetisation of social media”.

Marnell said the Iran war had further exacerbated the pre-existing factionalism. “If you throw water on to a wooden tabletop, you will see the grain. The water didn’t make the grain; it was always there; but now you can see it better. That’s what is happening with Megyn Kelly and Mark Levin.”

Maga is locked in a foreign policy debate over the wisdom of Trump’s war with Iran and the future of the US’s longstanding alliance with Israel. But there also are fears that the focus on Israel is the leading edge of an antisemitic fringe that has gained ground by portraying Jews as shadowy manipulators, echoing some of history’s most hateful tropes.

The wedge issue has manifested itself at Maga conferences and online spaces. One obsession is a 1967 incident in which the USS Liberty, a vessel floating off the Sinai peninsula, was machine-gunned, bombed and torpedoed by the Israeli military, killing 34 service members. Conservatives insist that the incident was a tragic accident in the fog of war. Carlson, Owens and others cite it as evidence that Israel is no friend of the US.

On Wednesday, Kent went on Carlson’s podcast and said Israel drove the decision to strike Iran. Kent also hinted at conspiracy claims about Kirk’s death. Carlson was previously denounced for hosting Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist and antisemite, on his podcast last year. During the interview, Fuentes complained about “organised Jewry in America”.

Sykes, a conservative author and broadcaster, pointed to Kent’s post-resignation rhetoric as a disturbing dog whistle. “It raises the prominence of this notion that somehow this was ‘a Jewish war’, pointing the finger at Israel and the pro-Israel lobby,” he said.

“I’m not defending Israel here, but that does seem to take that meme that the Jewish lobby has taken us to war, and that is going to feed the fires of antisemitism on the right. It provides fuel for that wing of the Maga movement, which unfortunately has become more and more voluble. I am alarmed about the potential for this to become extremely ugly.”

Despite the chaos consuming the Trump administration’s surrogates and media allies, the impact on everyday Republican voters is harder to predict. Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center thinktank in Washington, argues that the media narrative of a fracturing base is overstated.

“Every poll shows that self-identified Maga supporters are overwhelmingly supportive of the war, more so than Republicans as a whole, more so than Trump voters from 2024,” he said. “The idea that there’s a big split in the base is simply disproved to be false.

“Is there a minority that’s particularly isolationist and anti-war within that 10% or so? Yes, and I think Kent is the sort of person who speaks for them and they’re angry, they feel betrayed. But for the mass voter base, Maga is the most supportive of the war of any demographic group that is regularly polled.”

Olsen views the crude fighting between figures like Kelly and Levin merely as a sad “commentary on where political discourse has gone”, rather than proof of a meaningful voter split.

John Zogby, an author and pollster, noted that while the president’s Iran policy is “chipping away at the base”, it has only resulted in a loss of about eight to 10 points among conservatives and Republicans.

However, Zogby warned that this support is highly conditional. “Right now what we can say about support for the war is while Americans tilt against the war, it’s still over there and not over here. If there are boots on the ground or if there’s no end in sight, then it kind of becomes over here.”

The acid test of Trump’s fragile coalition will be the November’s midterm elections, which are rapidly approaching against a backdrop of civil unrest and economic anxiety. The administration has already faced intense backlash over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, the deployment of troops against citizens in Minnesota and efforts to force regime change in Venezuela.

With a spike in fuel prices directly tied to the disruption in the strait of Hormuz, the economic populist promises of the Trump campaign are beginning to ring hollow. Wilson predicted: “There’s going to be an awful lot of disinterest among the Maga base because they were promised an economic miracle in part based on isolationism and they’re getting neither.”

Some observers believe the intramural Maga scrapping is about more than just algorithms and clicks but a battle for the soul of the movement after Trump leaves office. Greene tweeted: “If you’re noticing Tucker Carlson being attacked from literally every direction of the political machine. It’s because they are terrified of him running for president. Because he would win and they know it.”

Political commentator Kurt Bardella, a former congressional aide and Breitbart News spokesperson, said: “Trump’s window of influence is closing with every passing day. Who’s going to occupy and fill that? That’s what we’re seeing with this battle royale, whether it’s Megyn Kelly or Ben Shapiro or Mark Levin or Candace Owens or Erika Kirk or whomever.

“All of these different Maga influencer personalities are jockeying and vying for position because they all realise they’re going to outlast Donald Trump’s presidency. What the world looks like post-Trump is a big open question mark for that Maga sphere because there is no natural heir apparent to the Maga mantle. That’s part of the challenge and that’s why we’re seeing some of these conflicts erupt into full view.”