FRONT ROYAL, Va. (AP) — As President Donald Trump prepared to order the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites, many prominent leaders of his “Make America Great Again” movement warned he was making a grave mistake.
Tucker Carlson accused Trump of abandoning his pledge to keep the United States out of new wars. Charlie Kirk said an escalation would be too divisive. Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, said intervention would thwart the Republican’s most important priority, mass deportations.
But interviews with Trump voters across the country this week and early polling suggest Trump’s decision has been welcomed by his political base. While some said they were weary of the U.S. becoming embroiled in a protracted war, most cheered the move and said they did not see it as running counter to Trump’s “America First” approach.
Ken Slabaugh, a retired Air Force veteran from Warrensburg, Missouri, said he was “100% supportive” of the strikes.
Speaking Sunday near Whiteman Air Force Base, home of the B-2 bombers used in the attack, Slabaugh said it was clear to him that negotiations and attempts to strike deals with Iran were futile, and Trump had to act.
The Iranians, he said, “can’t be trusted and they certainly can’t have a nuke.”
The response was exactly what he expected from the president.
“What he said was he’s not gonna start new wars. He doesn’t start wars. He finishes them,” Slabaugh said. “It’s pretty obvious that when the situation requires it, he don’t monkey around with it. He gets in it and gets it done.”
MAGA’s enthusiastic response
More than 1,000 miles away, at an American Legion post in Brunswick, Maryland, Denny Bayer said the attacks were “awesome.”
“He wants global peace,” the Army National Guard veteran said Tuesday. “He gave them 60 days” to make a nuclear deal.
Bayer, 72, is not concerned about possible retribution because he said Trump had made clear what would follow: “If you hurt one hair on an American’s head I’ll rain hellfire down on you.”
In Front Royal, Virginia, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) from the nation’s capital, retired drywaller Stacey Roles said Trump’s decision was “the right one.”
Roles, 77, described himself as part of Trump’s “MAGA” movement.
“Trump’s got my support,” Roles said Tuesday.
Targeting ‘a bully’
Pam Pollard, 65, a longtime GOP leader in Oklahoma, said her first thought upon hearing the U.S. had dropped bombs was that the action would be supported by “the entire world, save a very small few.”
Presidents going back multiple administrations have talked about Iran’s nuclear buildup, Pollard said, calling Iran a bully in the region.
“President Trump isn’t someone to be bullied,” she said.
Pollard was not worried about a military escalation. She does worry about the possible activation of “terrorist cells.”
“I am very fearful of that all over the world, not just in America,” she said.
In La Grange, Kentucky, on the outskirts of Louisville, Donna Williamson, a Republican from nearby Carrollton, said she worries about the U.S. being drawn into a protracted war in the Mideast.
“I hope and I pray that Trump is doing the right thing, but I will reserve judgment,” she said Monday.
What early polling shows
Early polls suggest Republicans are far more supportive of the military action than are Democrats.
A Quinnipiac University poll Wednesday found that about 80% of registered voters who are Republicans back the U.S. joining Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear sites.
Overall, however, about half of those polled say they disapprove of the strikes, and 75% of Democratic voters were opposed.
The poll found that 80% of Republicans believe the strikes will make Americans safer, while nearly as many Democrats believe the strikes will make Americans less safe.
Meanwhile, nearly 8 in 10 voters are either very concerned or somewhat concerned about the possibility the U.S. will get drawn into war with Iran.
A Fox News poll conducted immediately after Israel attacked Iran, but before the U.S. became involved, found that about 8 in 10 registered voters were “extremely” or “very” concerned about Iran getting a nuclear bomb.
Trump has a history of foreign intervention
Trump won the presidency in 2016 in part due to anger over the “forever wars” in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he has never been opposed to foreign intervention.
In 2019, U.S. special forces killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the shadowy leader of the Islamic State group, during a raid in Syria, as part of a campaign that involved U.S. troops on the ground.
A year later, Trump ordered the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general, and some worried that strike would lead to full-blown war.
In March, Trump ordered airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen. He promised to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Iran-backed rebels ceased their attacks on shipping along a vital maritime corridor.
Trump has brushed has off the suggestion that his base would be put off by the attacks on Iran, telling reporters, “My supporters are more in love with me today.”
‘He should finish the job’
Bill Cantle, a Republican from Clearwater, Florida, said he thinks Trump is “doing the right thing” on Iran.
“I just think he should finish the job. Not leave it half-done,” Cantle said while he and his wife explored downtown La Grange, Kentucky, during a visit.
Republican Peter Espinosa, a retired Army sergeant who was born in Cuba and lives in the Miami suburb of Doral, said he sees Iranian officials as “the bad guys” and views Trump as “disciplined.”
“I truly believe he’s a peacekeeper,” he said. “We just need to fight the hostility that’s going on in the Middle East right now and take care of it, because if we don’t, our country is going to be jeopardized.”
At a GOP fundraiser Tuesday in Lima, Ohio, headlined by Vice President JD Vance, Clark Spieles said he has faith in the administration’s actions.
“Nobody likes war, everybody wants peace,” said Spieles, a Shawnee Township, Ohio, trustee, adding “I have confidence that they’re doing the right thing.”
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Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Schreiner from La Grange, Kentucky and Colvin from New York. Associated Press polling editor Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington, and AP Writers Nicholas Ingram in Knob Noster, Missouri and Julie Smyth in Lima, Ohio, contributed to this report.
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