Trump says supporters ‘more in love' with him than ever despite Iran divisions
'My supporters are more in love with me today, and I'm more in love with them, more than they even were at election time where we had a total landslide,' the president told reporters as a new flagpole was erected at the White House.
'I may have some people that are a little bit unhappy now, but I have some people that are very happy, and I have people outside of the base that can't believe that this is happening, they're so happy,' he said.
Pete Hegseth (Jose Luis Magana/PA)
Defence secretary Pete Hegseth told legislators on Capitol Hill on Wednesday that the Pentagon was providing Mr Trump with options on Iran but would not say whether the military was planning to assist with Israeli strikes.
'I may do it, I may not do it,' Mr Trump said Wednesday. 'I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do.'
Some longtime defenders of his America First mantra are criticising him for considering a greater US role in the conflict between Israel and Iran after a week of deadly strikes, and reminding their own audiences of Mr Trump's 2024 promises to resist overseas military involvement.
Steve Bannon, one of Mr Trump's 2016 campaign's senior advisers, told an audience in Washington that bitter feelings over Iraq were a driving force for Mr Trump's first presidential candidacy and the Maga (Make American Great Again) movement, saying that 'one of the core tenets is no forever wars'.
Steve Bannon (Alamy/PA)
But Mr Bannon — a longtime Trump ally who served a four-month sentence for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the US Capitol attack on January 6 2021 — went on to suggest Mr Trump will maintain loyalty from his base no matter what. On Wednesday, he acknowledged that while he and others will argue against military intervention, 'the Maga movement will back Trump'.
Ultimately, Mr Bannon said Mr Trump will have to make the case to the American people if he wants to get involved in Iran, and he has not done that yet.
'We don't like it. Maybe we hate it,' Mr Bannon said, predicting what the Maga response would be. 'But, you know, we'll get on board.'
Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist and Infowars host on Wednesday posted on social media a side-by-side of Mr Trump's official presidential photo and an AI-generated composite of Mr Trump and former president George W Bush, who Mr Trump and many of his allies have long disparaged for involving the US in the so-called 'forever wars' in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Writing 'What you voted for' above Mr Trump's image and 'What you got' above the composite, Jones added: 'I hope this is not the case.'
Alex Jones (Alamy/PA)
Commentator Tucker Carlson's rhetoric towards Mr Trump has been increasingly critical, with the longtime supporter — who headlined large rallies with the Republican during the 2024 campaign — this week suggesting the president's strategy was breaking his pledge to keep the US out of new foreign entanglements. Mr Trump hit back at Carlson on social media, calling him 'kooky'.
During an event at the White House later on Wednesday, the president said Carlson had 'called and apologised', adding that Carlson 'is a nice guy'.
On Wednesday, Carlson's conversation with Republican senator Ted Cruz laid bare the divides among many Republicans. The two sparred for two hours over a variety of issues, primarily potential US involvement in Iran, and Carlson accused Mr Cruz of placing too much emphasis on protecting Israel in his foreign policy worldview.
'You don't know anything about Iran,' Carlson said after the senator said he did not know Iran's population, or its ethnic composition. 'You're a senator who's calling for the overthrow of a government, and you don't know anything about the country.'
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