President Donald Trump loyalist Steve Bannon blasted Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday for his not-so-tough love on Israel.
Rubio’s September visit to Jerusalem came on the heels of Israel’s shock airstrikes against Qatar, which lit a fire under the Trump administration’s efforts to end the brutal war in Gaza.
But before Rubio gave Israel the business, his first stop was the Western Wall in Jerusalem, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed him with open arms, and the pair renewed the strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
That didn’t sit well with Bannon, a key figure in the “America First” movement and a former Trump advisor.
During a Monday episode of his The War Room podcast, Bannon scolded Rubio for failing to send “a message” that the U.S. would not tolerate any more surprises.
“When Netanyahu fired on Qatar… he had enough, he sent Marco over… to give it to him with both barrels, [to say] ‘This is not acceptable, you’re not going to do this,’” Bannon said.
He highlighted Trump’s decision to issue Qatar a watered-down version of NATO’s Article 5 collective defense agreement, despite having blasted the country as “funders of terrorism” during his first term.
“Think about that,” Bannon said.
Article 5 of the alliance’s founding treaty says that an attack against one NATO ally is considered an attack against all allies. In an unprecedented move, Trump’s executive order declared that any attack on Qatar would also be seen as a “threat to the peace and security of the United States.”
“And what did Rubio do? Posed at the Wailing Wall with a yarmulke,” Bannon scoffed. “If you want a greater Israel project, we’re not gonna stop you. We’re just not gonna support it,” he added.
Bannon’s criticism comes after Axios reported that those close to Trump—who has long championed an “America First” agenda—fear his desperate push to be recognized for ending conflicts abroad is overshadowing domestic concerns more important to voters.
“Voters reward winners, and Trump is a winner,” an unnamed Trump adviser told Axios. “But I’d be lying if I said none of us wish he would talk a little more about the economy and things back home.”
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a longtime MAGA loyalist, has also become increasingly critical of Trump and GOP leadership, and recently blasted the president’s second-term foreign policy focus as a betrayal of his “America First” message.
“It’s a revolving door at the White House of foreign leaders when Americans are, you know, screaming from their lungs,” Greene told Axios. “If me saying those things is considered breaking with my party, then what is the Republican party? I thought we were America First.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and the State Department for comment.
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