President Trump’s attempt to keep a ceasefire alive between Israel and Iran appeared to calm the concerns of his top supporters Tuesday after fissures emerged within his base over the conflict and the prospect of regime change in the region.
Saturday’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and the tumult leading up to them had become a flashpoint for the MAGA universe, splitting Trump’s most loyal supporters. Hawkish Republicans cheered his threats against Tehran while other top figures expressed their displeasure at how it was handled after years of Trump promising to end years-long wars.
But that mood shifted after Trump announced a temporary ceasefire between the two Middle Eastern nations and went to expletive-level lengths on Tuesday to keep it in place.
“President Trump is going out of his way to try to be a peacemaker here,” Steve Bannon, a former top Trump aide during his first term, told conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Tuesday, noting how “torn non-interventionists are” on the overall situation.
Much of the consternation among high-profile Trump backers stemmed from the president’s teasing the possibility of regime change in Iran.
Trump on Tuesday tried to quell those worries, telling reporters on Air Force One that was not one of his goals as it would involve a lot of “chaos.”
“No, I don’t want it. I’d like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible. Regime change makes chaos,” he said while en route to The Hague. “And ideally, we don’t want to see so much chaos. So we’ll see how it goes.”
“You know, the Iranians are very good traders, very good business people. And they got a lot of oil,” he continued. “They should be fine. They should be able to rebuild and do a good job. They’re never going to have nuclear. But other than that, they should do a great job.”
Some of his leading supporters, similarly, backed down from some of their recent criticism.
“I do think President Trump is handling this very well,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said after the ceasefire was announced, pointing to his disinterest in “forever wars” and troops on the ground. “This needs to be over with. We’ve got to get back to work on our campaign promises.”
Just a day earlier she had written on X that “It feels like a complete bait and switch to please the neocons, warmongers, military industrial complex contracts, and neocon tv personalities that MAGA hates and who were NEVER TRUMPERS!”
Trump’s ceasefire push also led some of his most ardent backers to nominate him for an accolade he has long coveted: the Nobel Peace Prize.
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) wrote a letter to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to formally nominate the president for the award “in recognition of his extraordinary and historic role in brokering an end to the armed conflict between Israel and Iran.”
Trump lamented recently that he has no chance of ever winning the award.
The swarm to support his latest move marked the latest bit of whiplash across the MAGA ranks as they have been divided since the Saturday strikes.
But it’s also the latest indication that for many Republicans, fealty to Trump usually wins out.
“It’s been interesting,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a top Trump supporter, about the reaction from the president’s base. “MAGA world is more Trump than it is isolationist. I think we’re finding that out. For those in MAGA world who are more isolationist than Trump, they’re going to become more Trump. I just think particularly the way he executed this whole thing, if ever there was an aggressive action that resulted in peace, it would be what he pulled off this last weekend.”
“We all have different opinions,” he continued, noting there are some more independently-minded individuals in that sphere. “But at the end of the day, the Republican Party is a majority party today largely because of Donald Trump and his philosophy of not isolation, but populism and peace through strength when it comes to national defense.”
While discussing some of the vacillations from leading MAGA figures in recent days, Cramer laughed, adding that the movement is “a big tent. We’re a really big tent.”
Trump spent much of Tuesday attempting to hold the precarious ceasefire together, having pleaded with both Israeli and Iranian officials to adhere to it and to stop attacking one another.
Part of that messaging took place publicly as he not only issued his expletive-heard-around-the world, but urged Israel to withhold retaliatory strikes against the Iranians.
“ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!” he wrote on TruthSocial, having also spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about holding off.
To some of his top allies on Capitol Hill, Trump’s actions are a hallmark of his emerging doctrine.
“The sort of new American realism is very weary of prolonged foreign engagements, particularly in the Middle East, learning some of the lessons of the last 30 years. But when it’s time to strike, you strike decisively if it’s in the core interest of the United States of America,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), who noted he spoke with Trump on Monday.
“I think what you’re seeing is … a coalescing around [that] he very much understood what our interests were and was very focused on that, and I think resisted, quite frankly, a lot of people who wanted more engagement and was able to broker something that we wanted to hold,” he said. “I think he did a masterful job of making the decision, then pivoting quickly to peace.”
