Trump Picks a Side on Entering the War in Iran, for Now

For weeks, President Trump has been at the center of an ideological war between the isolationists in his MAGA base who have implored him to stay out of Israel’s war with Iran and the pro-Israel hawks who have encouraged him to strike.

On Saturday night, the president left no question about where he stood — at least for now.

“Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” he told the world in a brief news conference from the White House. “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.”

It was a remarkable about-face for someone who as a candidate mercilessly criticized the Bush administration over the Iraq war, called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and once pledged to end the “era of endless wars.” But even as he announced the military operation, he appeared to be rapidly trying to get himself back to the middle by insisting that the strike was a one-off and that he continues to seek peace.

Mr. Trump described the bombing campaign as “massive” but also said it was limited, referring to the mission as “precision strikes.”

Still, in attacking Iran, Mr. Trump runs the risk of miring the United States deeper in a foreign conflict, even as the president has said he does not want to use U.S. ground troops.

Mr. Trump’s followers have supported him through thick and thin, and political reaction so far has been dividing more along partisan than ideological lines.

Charlie Kirk, the influential conservative activist who was among those warning the president against pursuing a war to bring about a change of government, wrote: “Iran gave President Trump no choice. For a decade he has been adamant that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon. Iran decided to forego diplomacy in pursuit of a bomb.”

But Trita Parsi, co-founder of the Quincy Institute, which advocates U.S. military restraint, said Mr. Trump risked alienating his most ardent backers who support his “America First” agenda of focusing on domestic issues instead of spending money overseas.

“There isn’t two sides of the base. There is a Washington side of the base and there is the rest of the country,” Mr. Parsi said of the debate over involvement in Iran. “Many of them may fall in line temporarily, out of loyalty, out of patriotism. But if the war doesn’t go well, I think you will see a backlash happening much, much sooner, much sooner than what you saw in 2003” when the United States invaded Iraq.

Whether the conflict with Iran is prolonged may determine how much backlash Mr. Trump receives from his base, Mr. Parsi said, even though it is “such a clear-cut case of this being exactly what he promised he would not do.”

“Obviously, Trump has the Republican base in his hand,” he said, adding that “it’s going to be very difficult for Trump to navigate that space if this is not very quick and very successful.”

The debate inside the Republican Party has reached a fever pitch in recent days.

On one side, hawks like Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the former majority leader; Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee; and the Fox News host Mark Levin have argued for taking a hard-line approach to Iran.

But some of Mr. Trump’s most passionate supporters, including his former adviser Stephen K. Bannon, the prominent podcast host Tucker Carlson and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, perhaps the best-known Republican in the House, have argued against U.S. involvement in the war.

“Every time America is on the verge of greatness, we get involved in another foreign war,” Ms. Greene wrote on social media on Saturday evening. “There would not be bombs falling on the people of Israel if Netanyahu had not dropped bombs on the people of Iran first. Israel is a nuclear armed nation. This is not our fight. Peace is the answer.”

Later that night, after the strikes, Ms. Greene appeared to soften her opposition and shifted to criticizing former President Biden’s border policies.

“Let us join together and pray for the safety of our U.S. troops and Americans in the Middle East,” she wrote. “Let us pray that we are not attacked by terrorists on our homeland after our border was open for the past 4 years and over 2 Million gotaways came in. Let us pray for peace.”

Mr. Bannon visited the White House last week to have lunch with Mr. Trump, after he criticized U.S. intervention on his influential podcast, “War Room.”

Mr. Carlson faced off on a recent episode of his podcast against Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas and one of his party’s most outspoken hawks. The confrontation reflected a bitter rift in Mr. Trump’s coalition.

“You’re a senator who’s calling for an overthrow of the government and you don’t know anything about the country!” Mr. Carlson told Mr. Cruz during a heated exchange on his program.

Mr. Cruz shot back on his own podcast on Wednesday, saying, “On foreign policy, Tucker has gone bat-crap crazy.”

Mr. Trump said that Mr. Carlson called him to apologize for being too harsh in his criticism.

“Tucker is a nice guy,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “He called and apologized the other day because he thought he said things that were a little bit too strong, and I appreciated that.”

Mr. Trump’s stance on Iran has created tension within his own cabinet. He has criticized Tulsi Gabbard, his director of national intelligence, over statements that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.

“My intelligence community is wrong,” the president said.

Some Republicans have even joined forces with Democrats to try to rein in Mr. Trump, asserting that only Congress can declare war and that the president should not carry out military actions in foreign lands without its approval.

Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, and Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, have introduced a bipartisan War Powers Resolution to try to prohibit “United States Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The resolution can be called up for debate and a floor vote after 15 calendar days without action in committee.

“War with Iran is not America First — it is America Last,” said Jon Hoffman, a research fellow at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. “Striking the nuclear facilities was always a smoke screen designed to drag the U.S. into the war as an active participant. Trump says he wants ‘total victory.’ Yet there is no such victory to be had here — only disaster.”

But the hawkish wing of the party was ebullient over the Trump administration’s move on Saturday.

Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, hailed the attack. “The mullahs’ misguided pursuit of nuclear weapons must be stopped,” he said in a statement.

And Mr. Cruz, fresh off his debate with Mr. Carlson, commended Mr. Trump.

“As long as Iran was able to access and conduct activities at Fordo, they could still rush to build a nuclear arsenal,” he said on Saturday. “Tonight’s actions have gone far in foreclosing that possibility, and countering the apocalyptic threat posed by an Iranian nuclear arsenal.”

Vice President JD Vance sought to reassure those in Washington alarmed at the possibility that the strikes on Iran could draw the United States into a prolonged conflict, as happened in Iraq, telling Kristen Welker on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” that he did “understand the concern.”

But Vance, a veteran of the Iraq war and one of the loudest isolationist voices in Washington before becoming vice president, said: “The difference is that back then, we had dumb presidents, and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America’s national security objectives.”

“So this is not going to be some long, drawn-out thing,” Mr. Vance added.

The president also made clear he had no regrets.

“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” he said. “Remember, there are many targets left.”