A decade ago, President Trump electrified conservatives with his promises to get the United States out of foreign entanglements and to always put — say it with me — “America first.”
As he weighs involving American planes and weaponry in Israel’s attacks on Iran, a brawl has broken out in the Republican Party over what “America first” really means.
I wrote today about how a swath of Trump’s base is in an uproar over the president’s increasing openness to deploying U.S. warplanes — and perhaps even 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs — against Iran in an effort to help Israel finish off its nuclear program.
“Everyone is finding out who are real America First/MAGA and who were fake and just said it bc it was popular,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia posted on X over the weekend. She added, “Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA.”
The anger extends well beyond Greene’s social-media account, to cable television and the podcast feeds of the likes of Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and Candace Owens. They are passionately arguing that intervening in Iran would contravene Trump’s long-held promise to steer the nation out of, not into, foreign entanglements, and threaten to fracture his whole coalition.
It’s a remarkable fight, and one that raises a bigger question about who is really the keeper of Trump’s political flame. Is it the non-interventionists who have been there from the start, or the Republican hawks — the Senator Lindsey Grahams of the world — who are now sticking by the president?
In other words, is it possible for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement to out-MAGA Trump himself?
Trump, of course, has always believed that what he says goes, and he has come to expect his supporters to fall in line no matter what. That might be why he expressed little concern over the divisions in his base when he spoke to reporters at the White House today.
“I may have some people that are a little bit unhappy now, but I have some people that are very happy,” he said. “We have people outside of the base that can’t believe that this is happening — they’re so happy.”
Even Bannon, the longtime isolationist who has said that Trump needs to be stopped from joining any strike on Iran, indicated that the base would acquiesce.
“We don’t like it. In fact, maybe we hate it,” he said at an event hosted by The Christian Science Monitor on Wednesday morning, imagining the way Trump’s base might respond. “But, you know, we’ll get on board.”
One Number
My colleague Ruth Igielnik, a Times polling editor, has a look at how views of the United States across 24 countries are down nearly universally since last year, in a new report from the Pew Research Center.
As President Trump tries, on and off, to position himself as a peacemaker in the Israel-Iran war, negative views of his leadership could hinder his effectiveness.
The nation’s image has sunk particularly low in Western European countries, where favorable views of the United States have fallen by nearly 20 percentage points in some places.
The drop is even more pronounced in Mexico and Canada. Views of those countries’ closest neighbor have dropped from largely positive in 2024 to deeply negative today. In fact, Mexico gives Trump his lowest rating of any country surveyed.
The few exceptions to this image problem: Israel, Nigeria and Turkey, where views of the United States have ticked up ever so slightly since 2024.
Confidence in Trump’s leadership, a related measure, is also down in most places since Joe Biden’s time in office. Across the countries surveyed, the 34 percent who expressed confidence in Trump’s leadership was only slightly higher than the 25 percent who had confidence in President Xi Jinping of China, or the 16 percent who were confident in President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
Just 29 percent globally have confidence in Trump’s ability to handle the conflict between Israel and its neighbors. (The survey was taken before Israel’s June 12 attack on Iran.) In only three of the 24 countries surveyed did a majority of the public believe that Trump could effectively handle the situation.
One of those was Israel, where nearly two-thirds of the public was confident that Trump could handle it, though the ideological gap there was the largest across all countries surveyed: 83 percent of right-leaning Israelis had confidence in Trump to handle the conflict, but only 21 percent of left-leaners did.
The survey also uncovered a divide in who is seen as the world’s leading economic superpower. In 12 countries — including Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Mexico and South Africa — China was seen as the world’s leading economic power. Only eight countries, including South Korea, Japan, Israel and Canada, saw the United States as the world’s top economy.
in his words
Anyone here illegal?
President Trump asked members of a work crew putting up a new flagpole on the White House grounds to stand with him as he addressed the news media on Wednesday. But when the questions shifted to immigration, a thought apparently occurred to him, my colleague Luke Broadwater wrote: Maybe the men standing behind him were illegal immigrants?
Throughout his time in public life, President Trump has cast himself as the scourge of undocumented immigrants, making illegal immigration a focal point of his presidential campaigns and portraying migrants in dehumanizing ways.
But he has recently backed off deportation efforts in certain industries. On Wednesday, he fashioned himself as a potential protector of the men at work at the White House.
“Do we have anybody here?” he asked, turning to the workers. “Any illegal immigrants?”
When no one responded, he told the men it was the news media, not him, who would be checking into them. “They’ll find out,” he said, motioning to reporters. “They’ll be checking you. You won’t believe it. Your whole life will be destroyed because of this press conference.”
He then assured them he’d be on their side. “Don’t worry, I think you’re going to be OK,” he said to one man. “I’ll be right behind you. Far behind.”
The men laughed. “No, I’ll be right behind you,” he said.
ONE LAST THING
Why Democrats keep getting arrested
A United States senator forced to the floor and handcuffed by federal agents for interrupting a news conference. A mayor taken into custody by masked officials in military-style fatigues. A political candidate pushed against a wall and handcuffed in a dispute at an immigration courthouse.
With tensions rising over President Trump’s mass deportation policies, the government crackdown is extending to the political opposition.
My colleague Katie Glueck explains how the scenes of chaos reflect the tinderbox nature of this political moment — fueling liberal outrage and conservative accusations that Democrats are carrying out publicity stunts.
Ruth Igielnik contributed to this newsletter.
Jess Bidgood is a managing correspondent for The Times and writes the On Politics newsletter, a guide to how President Trump is changing Washington, the country and its politics.
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