Iran War Creates Growing Fissures Within Trump’s MAGA Movement

Liz Landers:

As we just heard, more than half of Americans do not support American military action in Iran, despite the efforts of the Trump administration.

For more on that, we’re joined by Curt Mills, executive director of American Conservative. He has been outspoken against American intervention in Iran.

Kurt, thank you for joining the program.

CURT MILLS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE: Thank you for having me.

Liz Landers:

Let’s start with President Trump who ran on the idea that there will be no forever wars. We just heard from Rick Scott earlier on this program, the senator from Florida, saying that Trump said he didn’t like them. He admits that Americans do not like these long and drawn-out wars.

Is this conflict with Iran and America first?

Curt Mills:

No, no, it’s clearly treason. Republican rhetoric became increasingly Orwellian.

This is war. Iran feels this war. The late Supreme Leader of Iran knows it is war. To deny that, to deny that this isn’t a complete shift, frankly, or a change in face from what Trump was saying in 2016 and 2024 in particular, defies credulity.

It is equivalent to George H.W. Bush violating his pledge not to impose new taxes. It is a campaign betrayal for the ages.

Liz Landers:

What are you hearing from within the administration of how people are reacting to this conflict?

Curt Mills:

You know, the administrative thing is very weird. I think the president made that decision, and I don’t think there was a long series of consultations. And I think that’s why you see the confused nature of the justifications they cite.

They don’t know why they went to war because there was no comprehensive discussion of the administration, frankly. And I also think – especially as you’ve seen the head of counterterrorism, Joe Kent, resign, I think it wouldn’t be surprising if more members of the administration resigned in the coming weeks if the conflict continues.

Liz Landers:

Yes. I wanted to ask you about that. So we heard that the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, resigned on Tuesday and indicated in his resignation letter that there was no imminent threat from Iran.

This is the first major ideological departure from the second term of the second Trump administration. Do you think this might open the door to more of these?

Curt Mills:

certainly.

And look, I don’t think we should cast Kent aside. It’s really the biggest – a bigger resignation in this administration for Iran than what happened to the Democrats under Gaza in two years.

Liz Landers:

Do you see a generational divide now between MAGA and conservatives over this Iran war?

Curt Mills:

certainly. And with all due respect to older viewers, this is a war led by conservative boomers. Easy to say.

Liz Landers:

What are you hearing from the younger MAGA group about why they don’t support this?

Curt Mills:

I think this is frustrating.

And I think, well, first of all, they reject the cause of war for what it is. There was no imminent threat. The messages sent by Speaker Johnson and others that there is an imminent threat to the Iranians to obtain some form of nuclear enrichment are just a distortion of words. This — there was no imminent threat.

The Iranians could not have nuclear weapons that could hit their homeland, and they did not have missiles that could hit their homeland. The Iranians were at the negotiating table. This does not mean that we should trust everything they want to do. But if Trump wanted an even better deal than Obama’s JCPOA, which was on offer last spring, it was on offer this spring. He refused and went to war.

Liz Landers:

The magazine she works for was founded in response to the Iraq War and US involvement in that conflict. How does foreign policy rank now for conservatives?

Curt Mills:

Yes, the magazine was founded in 2002 by Pat Buchanan and others, who were like the Tucker Carlson of his day, against the Iraq War.

I think foreign policy is part of what Trump ran for in 2016 and 2024. Foreign policy is part of the troika of immigration and trade issues, the idea that the country has been sold off, deindustrialized, swamped by unassimilated immigration, that the common man has been forgotten, that they have been shipped off – their jobs shipped overseas and their sons and daughters shipped off to wars that no one voted for.

I think it’s all a piece.

Liz Landers:

We were talking earlier about Joe Kent and some of the reaction to his resignation. There were Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League that criticized him and his resignation letter, saying that some of the language in it echoed anti-Semitic tropes.

We looked at a poll conducted by the Manhattan Institute last year; 25% of Republicans under 50 say they have anti-Semitic views. Do you think this struggle will amplify or amplify those voices within the party?

Curt Mills:

Well, the Manhattan Institute has an agenda, so I honestly don’t trust that data. They want to equate the main criticism of the Israeli government with anti-Semitism.

I believe this should be rejected from both the left and the right. It is the most cynical kind of politics. Frankly, this is the kind of policy that Republicans put back in power would reject. People are tired of speech censorship and mind games, frankly.

Republicans are doing exactly the same thing on anti-Semitism and the debate about Israel. This is not to say that there is no anti-Semitism in the country, but I think it is deliberately confused with this war’s principled criticism of the war’s aims.

Liz Landers:

How do you see the Iranian conflict impacting the midterm elections later this year in November, and also looking forward, impacting the Republican presidential primaries, which will actually start over the next year or so?

Curt Mills:

First of all, the president can now declare victory and go home. It doesn’t look like he’s going to do it, but if he doesn’t, I think they’re going to lose Congress and they’re going to lose both houses of Congress.

I think that would be very dramatic. As for the primaries, I think that will be the main issue. I mean, the reality is that whoever is in power now has the Israel portfolio. You saw it in the Democratic primaries. Everyone forgot because of Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in June of 2024 is the controversy that was raging weeks and months ago.

There have been campus protests sweeping the country over Israel. The truth is that both sides, the rules, are tired of this relationship that is pushing us into war.

Liz Landers:

Curt Mills, thank you so much for joining us.

Curt Mills:

Thank you.