Since President Donald Trump launched Operation Epic Fury to disarm the Islamic Republic of Iran, a number of right-wing media figures have been expressing their utter dismay. Postliberal writer Sohrab Ahmari, for example, rose to prominence defending Trump’s populism — but now has denounced the military action as a “betrayal.” Matt Walsh, a Daily Wire personality, expressed frustration with other MAGA voices who support the war because “almost every conservative influencer in the business was opposed to war with Iran until just now.”
Based on these voices, one would think that Trump’s base is ready to abandon him.
But nothing could be further from the truth. A poll released last week by the Vandenberg Coalition revealed that 84% of the president’s supporters back the war. 80% said they believe the use of force against the Iranian regime will deter future attacks, and 69% said that the military action has already made the United States safer.
These numbers demonstrate, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that these voices are completely out-of-touch. Republican voters do not support American retreat or isolationism. They understand the threats posed by the Iranian regime, and they want their president to end them.
These critics would do well to remember that Trump campaigned on getting tough on foreign policy. As Matthew Schmitz put it for Compact, he “was always an Iran hawk.” From the outset of the Islamic Revolution in the late 70s and early 80s, the future president was a consistent critic of the regime and its aggression against the U.S. In the 2010s, Trump became a fixture on Fox News for condemning Barack Obama’s foolish pursuit of a nuclear deal. Many of his supporters in the 2016 primaries believed he would take a stronger stance against radical Islamic terrorism than any of the other candidates.
During his first term as president, Trump followed through on this hawkish rhetoric. He began by imposing a suite of sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and weapons development programs. Then in 2018, Trump tore up Obama’s nuclear deal once and for all, referring to it as “a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made.” He subsequently designated the IRGC as a terrorist group, and on Jan. 3, 2020, he ordered the assassination of its then-leader Qasem Soleimani. Throughout it all, Trump made one constant vow: the Iranian regime cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
Trump was so disruptive to the blob of D.C. Middle East policy “experts” precisely because he rejected years of appeasement. Too many in the right-wing establishment have embraced a short-sighted notion of “restraint” that is little different from the mistaken policies of Barack Obama or Joe Biden. From the disastrous abandonment of Afghanistan to an ostrich-like refusal to confront the emerging axis of aggression formed by China, Iran, and Russia, Democrats’ weakness set up the deteriorating global order we face today.
When Trump returned to power in 2025, he doubled down on a strong Iran policy — and his base loved it. After threatening to assassinate him and supporting the atrocities of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, Trump had every reason to renew his policy of denying the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions. As the president himself likes to say, “Promises made, promises kept.”
The real question is not why Trump took decisive action to decapitate the Iranian regime when faced with an imminent threat, but rather why so many of his most vocal supporters are second-guessing the decision. Some of them, perhaps, exist in a social media echo chamber that promotes the voices of so-called “restrainers” but silences real Americans. Others, such as ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, traffic in bizarre conspiracy theories that have nothing to do with Trump’s realist approach on Iran. Whatever the case, these MAGA malcontents do not represent the mainstream of the conservative movement.
HOW THE WAR POWERS ACT NORMALIZED PRESIDENTIAL USE OF FORCE
Ultimately, it seems that Trump’s base understands the meaning of “peace through strength” far better than the right-wing media-industrial complex. They see the existential threat to U.S. interests posed by Iranian radicalism, and they want their president to put a stop to it once and for all. It appears he may do just that — with or without panicking pundits.
Michael Lucchese is the founder of Pipe Creek Consulting, an associate editor of Law & Liberty, and a contributing editor to Providence.
