Potential war with Iran divides Trump supporters as US president weighs intervention

The United States' prospective involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict that started on Jun. 13 has exposed a deep divide in U.S. President Donald Trump's support base.

Through a series of seemingly will-he-or-won't-he sentiments over the past few days, Trump has kept his intentions for U.S. involvement in the conflict fairly close to his chest.

"I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do", he told reporters on Jun. 18 of plans to launch air strikes on Iran.

Demanding surrender, pushing for negotiations

From the start of the Israel-Iran conflict, Trump is noted to have wavered between threatening Iran and demanding her "unconditional surrender", to encouraging peaceful negotiations between both parties.

Despite the uncertainty of the their president's next move, members of Trump's MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement are divided into two broad factions: the isolationists and the war hawks.

Why go to war?

Notable isolationists, such as media personality Tucker Carlson and House representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, have argued that entry into the Israel-Iran conflict would be akin to a betrayal of "America First" principles to avoid U.S. involvement in foreign wars, and could potentially threaten Trump's presidency.

"I think we're going to see the end of American empire", Carlson said on a podcast.

"You’re not going to convince me that the Iranian people are my enemy...You're not going to tell me who to hate".

Middle Eastern military involvement could also distract from domestic issues at hand, such as Trump's mass deportations of illegal immigrants, former White House adviser Steve Bannon warned.

"If we get sucked into this war...it’s going to not just blow up the coalition, it’s also going to thwart the most important thing, which is the deportation of the illegal alien invaders who are here", he said.

Need for war

Pro-Israel hawks, on the other hand, have contended that a confrontation with a regime that has plotted against Trump will be in Americans' interest, The Guardian reported.

U.S. Senators Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham, both Republicans and Trump's political allies, have hit out at isolationists, called Iran a threat and backed Israel to "finish the job."

The depths of the divide in public opinion reached a high point in a public spat between Carlson and US senator Ted Cruz, a pro-Israel hawk, on the former's show on Jun. 18.

In a short excerpt released ahead of an approximately two-hour long interview, both parties erupted into a shouting match accusing the other of not "[knowing] anything about Iran", on both population and ethnic composition fronts.

Public sentiments on potential involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict have also reflected similar divides, although there appears to be quite a bit more support for non-involvement.

Public divided

According to a poll from Jun. 13 to Jun. 16 by The Economist and YouGov, 52 per cent of Trump's voters are opposed to the US intervening in the war, while 19 per cent voted for involvement.

A second poll by the Washington Post on Jun. 19 showed that 45 per cent of Americans would not back US air strikes against Iran, while 25 per cent indicated they would and 30 per cent were "unsure".

The survey also showed that Republicans are also more likely to say the nuclear arms are an immediate and serious threat than Democrats or independents, according to Axios.

In Trump's second term of presidency so far, other instances of infighting within the Republican party have been observed, most notably in the passing of the "Big Beautiful Bill" Act.

Earlier MAGA spats

Fractures within the party were exposed when hardline conservatives blocked the Bill over cost concerns on May 16, as five Republican House Representatives voted against it in what was described as a "rare" occurrence.

An earlier messy fight erupted over visas for foreign talent, with Bannon and other MAGA figures pushing for restrictions while Trump's new tech sector allies, including world's richest man Elon Musk, argued in favour.

For now, while Trump has deployed military assets to the Middle East so far, including refuelling tankers and a second carrier group, the U.S. is not yet directly involved in the conflict.

The White House announced on Jun. 19 that the decision of whether the U.S. will go to war be made in the next two weeks, Reuters reported.

Top image via The White House/Facebook