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President Donald Trump is MAGA. He is “America First.” He is whichever name you feel like giving the popular uprising against the establishment that upended American politics in the mid-2010s. He moves, and his people move with him.
Thought leaders on the New Right — the isolationists, national conservatives, and postliberals who have long claimed Trump as their own — mistakenly placed themselves at the movement’s foundation, when really the movement had only incidentally, and briefly, aligned with their ideas.
But following Trump’s decision to wage war with Iran, a move that strikes at the heart of their ideology, everyone has learned once again that Trump is his own doctrine. And despite the howling on the New Right, Trump’s base remains firmly behind him. A new NBC poll finds that 90% of self-identified MAGA voters strongly approve of the war, which is 30 points higher than non-MAGA Republicans. That same poll found that 100% of self-identified MAGA voters support the president.
Trump’s rock-solid base accounts for his remarkably stable approval ratings during his stormy second term — as of this writing, RealClearPolitics puts him at 42.3%, even with Barack Obama and ahead of George W. Bush at the same point in their presidencies.
The question, then, is not whether Trump is committed to winning. His base isn’t worried about that. The question is whether the people around him are committed to implementing his vision — and on that count, the picture is considerably less clear. The New Right ideologues may have lost Trump with his decision to strike Iran — but some of them are still inside the building.
The clearest sign of this disunity wasn’t a policy disagreement behind closed doors. It was an incendiary resignation letter designed to go viral — written not for the president, but for the New Right fringe. That letter came from Joe Kent, the now-former director of the National Counterterrorism Center. It contradicted Trump’s own claim that Iran posed an “imminent threat” and asserted that “pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby” caused the decision to strike. In Kent’s telling, Trump is a mere Israel patsy at best, compromised at worst.
Kent, however, is anything but a credible source. In 2019, he became an outspoken anti-interventionist, penning op-eds against the broader war on terrorism for CNN, Breitbart, and Fox News. He then ran for Congress twice, sparking controversy by paying a member of the far-right Proud Boys for consulting. He even found himself on a call with Nick Fuentes at one point. Kent lost both races.
These associations align with the conspiratorial ideas found in his resignation letter — in one instance, he claims that Israel tricked the U.S. into the Iraq war despite the fact that they’d lobbied against it at the time — and make his proximity to power deeply troubling.
On Wednesday night, Semafor reported that the FBI had opened an investigation into Kent prior to his resignation. The investigation, which officials describe as monthslong, involves allegations that he improperly shared classified information.
This could at least partially explain Kent’s rush into New Right media spaces, including an appearance at an event sponsored by the Steve Bannon-affiliated group “Catholics for Catholics” and Tucker Carlson’s podcast. By aligning himself with the radical New Right, he can claim to be the target of a persecution campaign — and possibly rake in big bucks and prominence in the influencer sphere.
During his appearance with Carlson, who claims to be the target of a federal investigation for backchanneling with the Iranians (which the White House denies), Kent expounded on his theory that Israel was secretly controlling the Trump administration and speculated that Israel was behind the assassination of Charlie Kirk, who had opposed war with Iran.
Then there is Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, who appears to be the administration’s most conflicted figure over the war. Gabbard, for whom Kent had served as chief of staff before she championed him for the NCTC role, built her political identity around opposition to war with Iran. When Trump ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani in 2020, then-Rep. Gabbard (D-HI) took to the House floor to condemn the attack. That same week, her presidential campaign began selling “No War With Iran” T-shirts for $24.99.
Gabbard released a very carefully worded statement following the U.S.’s most recent strike against Iran, emphasizing Trump’s authority to decide what counts as an “imminent threat” and whether to act — but without affirming this threat assessment or endorsing action. And then during a congressional hearing Thursday, Gabbard continued walking a tightrope, backing the president’s authority without aligning herself with the cause.
Indeed, the nation’s top intelligence official appears to oppose the war she is expected to help prosecute. That is not just awkward — it is dangerous. Gabbard’s opposition does not add any “team of rivals” value to Trump’s circle — it’s too late for that.
It’s unsurprising that the administration’s bombshell resignation came from her close ally and former employee. Unlike Vice President JD Vance, who also vehemently opposed war with Iran in the past, Gabbard has not convincingly demonstrated a determination to subordinate her views to the mission and ensure the president’s orders are carried out.
Vance got in line. Gabbard has not. And in her position, that is not a minor character flaw — it is a national security liability.
THE WAR WITH IRAN WILL LAST A FEW MORE WEEKS
The public deserves to know that the administration is, if not in perfect agreement over the means, united in pursuit of a common end. A war prosecuted by people with mixed loyalties and competing incentives is untenable. Trump’s base, which elected him in a rout and remains resolutely in his corner, deserves an administration that is fully committed to the mission Trump sets — not one populated by fringe ideologues who claim the MAGA mantle for themselves.
A nation at war cannot afford an administration at war with itself. It’s time for Trump to reshuffle the deck — and that begins with finding a director of national intelligence whose vision aligns with his.
