Mary Sanchez: MAGA declines to cheer Trump’s war against Iran

Remember this brag? “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”

President Donald Trump, then candidate Trump, said those words in January of 2016. He was in Iowa, speaking to a crowd gathered on a Christian university campus ahead of the Iowa caucuses.

Trump tossing out words about committing murder did raise eyebrows. Many voters winced, then pounced, questioning his fitness for office with such verbiage. But for the most part, it was Trump’s stalwart critics who were disturbed.

Trump supporters saw the boast as an appealing example of the Trumpian brash and bold brand. Ten years later, the now twice-elected Trump has graduated to threatening annihilation of an entire civilization – more than 90 million people in Iran.

Trump stated his intention to slaughter Iranians if the Strait of Hormuz wasn’t reopened by April 7, allowing cargo ships of oil to pass. The backdrop is the war that Trump started against Iran, at the behest of Israel.

Here’s the post, which Trump made on Truth Social: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump said. This time, Trump’s not getting away with it.

Some conservative voices pushed back. More importantly, they aren’t letting up, and the criticism is far broader, and more deeply researched, than just concern about one social media post. The list of conservative critics includes former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and popular podcasters Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly.

A few have even called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked to remove Trump from office, a highly unlikely outcome. But the pushback might build, given the reach of these conservative voices.

Former FOX News host Megyn Kelly is a great example. She was opposed to this war from the very beginning.

Kelly continued to use her popular talk show and podcast to dissect and comment on the developments in Iran, the role of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the impact on U.S. military families, and the devastation in Lebanon, which is now being attacked by Israeli forces.

Kelly’s not alone in pointing out that Israel is leading the charge, having lured a gullible and egotistical Trump into war. She's certainly not naive about anything, but especially the dangers of the Iranian regime.

Kelly has also continued to call out the president for his overly positive spins, reacting to a Trumpian claim that all will be soon resolved, Iran will reconstruct from the devastation, and the following outlandish boast from the president, “This could be the golden age of the Middle East.”

Kelly pretty much rolled her eyes and said, “It's as if we didn't bomb them to smithereens. It's as if we didn't start a war and bomb Iran for the past 38 days. And that cannot be undone with a sunny tweet on Truth Social because already things are going south on this ceasefire.”

Recent polling has found Gen Z Republicans also skeptical about the war with Iran, the failure so far of a two-week ceasefire to stop Israel from bombing Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iran’s continued control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Younger Republicans, polling shows, are more focused on issues within the U.S., like voters of all political parties. The catch to that mindset is that what happens elsewhere certainly affects everything stateside. Just check the price of gas.

Obviously, the most important issues are how peace can be restored, keeping U.S. troops safe, and containing any spread of the war through diplomacy.

At least at this writing, the shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz haven’t been fully restored and Iran wants to control the waterways by collecting tolls (something they didn’t do before the war – so more leverage for Iran).

But deeper reflections within the far right are beginning to emerge. Trump’s scandalous threat to vanquish an entire civilization didn’t go unheard. It was not dismissed as harmless bloviating.

Voices with broad reach in MAGA territory are leading the way on being far less accepting of this administration’s dangerous whims.

Don’t expect a landslide of voters to go Democrat from this moment.

Pundits love to pinpoint “watershed moments” or “inflection points” and other markers of shifts in public opinion. Change occurs more cumulatively than what those references generally denote. But no one can credibly argue that voices like Kelly and Carlson have “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” the dismissive epithet that the president’s most loyal supporters invoke whenever Trump’s actions are questioned.

In this most dangerous of times for the world it’s good to know that words still matter. Alarming statements by the president have the capacity to alter conversations, as well as open ears, hearts, and minds of voters.

_____

(Readers can reach Mary Sanchez at msanchezcolumn@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter @msanchezcolumn.)