America-first backers such as Steve Bannon urge restraint, while Republican hawks push for intervention
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The prospect of the US joining Israel’s strikes against Iran’s nuclear program risks splitting Donald Trump’s support base asunder, amid sharp divisions on military intervention between the president’s most avid America-first acolytes and traditional Republican foreign policy hawks.
Some leading figures in Trump’s “make America great again” (Maga) movement have warned that such a move would amount to a betrayal of past promises to avoid US involvement in long-running overseas wars and could even destroy his presidency.
Among the most vocal critics are the broadcaster and interviewer Tucker Carlson – who hosts a show broadcast on Elon Musk’s X platform – and Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser in Trump’s first term and a standard bearer of his economic and anti-immigration nationalism.
