Tucker Carlson confronts Sen. Ted Cruz on his support for regime change in Iran:

Greg Sargent writes:

You may have heard it said that Donald Trump won in 2024 in part by vowing to end “forever wars.” During the campaign, Trump ripped Democrat Kamala Harris for campaigning with Liz Cheney, slamming her for wanting “war with every Muslim Country known to mankind.” News organizations credulously insisted that this sort of anger over military entanglements in Iraq and Afghanistan fueled Trump’s “movement.” Some even suggested that war fatigue—not his unflagging affection for Vladimir Putin—drove Trump-MAGA opposition to arming Ukraine.

A new battle between Trump and Tucker Carlson over Israel’s war with Iran is severely undermining that understanding of MAGA. Carlson and MAGA podcaster Steve Bannon, among others, have been urging Trump not to deploy the U.S. military in tandem with Israel. Trump appears close to doing so, and people like Carlson and Bannon are loudly proclaiming that this would betray the MAGA movement—which in turn is angering Trump.

“Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” Trump raged on Truth Social late Monday. Trump also vented about this to reporters, declaring: “I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying.”

What’s triggering Trump is Carlson’s surprisingly direct criticism of him over Israel’s hostilities with Iran. Carlson claimed Trump is “complicit” in this war, apparently due to Trump’s expressions of support for Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and top military leadership. Trump is now weighing whether to deploy American B-2 bombers to help destroy Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility at Fordo, which would entangle the United States in exactly the sort of Mideast conflict he vowed to avoid.

All this has deeply split the MAGA coalition. Carlson has denounced top Fox News figures like Sean Hannity for actively encouraging Trump to pursue “direct U.S. military involvement” abroad, slamming them as “warmongers.” In an online discussion, Carlson and Bannon argued that this threatens to drive away supporters who want to “stop the forever wars,” describing them as crucial to the MAGA coalition. And MAGA stalwarts like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene have sounded rattled as they urge Trump not to sell out MAGA here.

But how deep does this supposed antiwar sentiment really run inside MAGA?

Well, here’s a test: Republican Representative Thomas Massie on Tuesday introduced a House resolution barring Trump from entering into war with Iran without Congress’s explicit authorization. Co-sponsored by Democratic Representative Ro Khanna, this “privileged” measure will get a vote if House Speaker Mike Johnson doesn’t procedurally thwart it.

There’s some debate over whether the legislative vehicle this measure uses is binding on a president (and Trump would veto anything that’s binding). But a vote would force members on record, and a statement of broad opposition to war without authorization would send a strong message that MAGA really does want him to resist foreign entanglements.

“It’s a test of whether the MAGA movement is really antiwar,” Khanna told me. [Continue reading…]