Daniel McCarthy, the former editor of The American Conservative, writes for Bari Weiss’ The FP:
Now the non-interventionists in Trump’s coalition are put to a tougher test. What remains of the anti-war case for Trump if he’s now waging a large-scale war for regime change in Iran? He’s given new life to the old saying among supporters of the longtime anti-war Republican congressman Ron Paul that “no matter who you vote for, you always get John McCain.”
Curt Mills, executive director of The American Conservative magazine (TAC), said on X, “President Trump did break his promise to MAGA. And this is, obviously, not America First.” The magazine he runs—and which I edited in the Obama years and where I remain a board member—was founded in 2002 by the famed paleoconservative Pat Buchanan and other critics of foreign-policy interventionism in the run-up to George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. The publication, which also helped to turn J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy into a sensation in the aftermath of Trump’s 2016 victory, has become persistently critical of Trump’s second-term foreign policy.
[…]
MAGA influencer Mike Cernovich, while not writing off the president altogether, nonetheless has pinned a post to his X profile that depicts the war as a betrayal of Trump’s voters. “The country held a primary and the neocons were rejected. Trump ran against war. That is the reality. Support the war or not, that is separate. I’m optimistic that this can be wrapped up. But it’s unpopular and was rejected.”
Tucker Carlson, meanwhile, was unstinting in his condemnation of Trump’s strike on Iran, telling ABC News’ Jonathan Karl the bombing is “absolutely disgusting and evil” and will “shuffle the deck” on the political right “in a profound way.”
Yet outside of right-wing media, there are so far few signs of conservative discontent. The administration itself appears unified: No one has resigned or leaked internal criticisms of the operation. Vice President Vance gave a preemptive defense of the war in an interview with The Washington Post on the eve of the conflict, assuring the MAGA base “there’s no chance” that “we’re going to be in a Middle Eastern war for years with no end in sight.”
His conclusion?
Right-wing skeptics of foreign interventionism outside of elected office are generally consistent. Few anti-war activists and intellectuals have thrown their reservations entirely overboard to support Trump’s new war. But while it would be dishonest for doves to follow Trump no matter what, it would also be an error for them to treat every war as a replay of the Iraq invasion. The Iran war is a test of judgment for the right—not only regarding foreign policy, but also about the requirements for building and maintaining a coalition that can govern.
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