One year after Donald J. Trump was elected for a second time as President of the United States in November 2024, his MAGA movement is in turmoil–and that too on a question that was thought to be an eternal consensus in American domestic politics. Israel has so divided the MAGA camp that its key influencers are framing it as a conflict between “Israel-First” and “America-First” politics, targeting what they call the MIGA–Make Israel Great Again–camp.
But the division over Israel is not limited to Republicans; it runs deep among Democrats as well. The Trump movement, which started in 2015, had scrambled the bipartisan consensus on three linked issues that had long united U.S. elites under globalisation–immigration, trade, and the outsourcing of manufacturing and services. By challenging the orthodoxy on these questions, Mr. Trump sold America’s dispossessed a new dream under the “America-First” slogan. Crucially, the debate on these issues has not just pitted Republicans against Democrats, but split both parties internally.
What is behind the U.S.-Israel ‘special relationship’: Explained
Today, many in both parties have moved closer to the views Mr. Trump first articulated–on stronger border control, trade restrictions, protectionism, and the promotion of domestic manufacturing. A similar realignment is now underway on Israel.
