Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist for US President Donald Trump, stated that the wider MAGA movement will "fall in line" if the President decides to join Israel's airstrikes against Iran's nuclear weapons program, The Hill reported.
Speaking at a Christian Science Monitor event, Bannon stated, “If President Trump decides there’s not a diplomatic alternative … because he’s been consistent, no nuclear weapon.”
He added, “If President Trump decides to do that, I know, and particularly his skills as a communicator, that he will come and walk people through it and the MAGA movement — look, they’ll be some — but the vast majority of the MAGA movement will say, ‘look, we trust your judgment, you walked us through this … maybe we hate it but you know, we’ll get on board.’”
Bannon said that the isolationist wing of the Republican Party would support Trump. “If the president as commander-in-chief makes a decision to do this and comes forward and walks people through it, the MAGA movement — they’ll lose some — but the MAGA movement, the Marjorie Taylor Greenes, the Matt Gaetzes, we will fight it up to the end and make sure you get full information but if he has more intelligence and makes that case to the American people, the MAGA movement will support President Trump."
Bannon also stated that he supports Israel's operation in Iran and called on Israel to "finish what they started" given the IAF's air superiority.
Yesterday, Trump called for Iran's "unconditional surrender" in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Today, when asked by a reported at the White House if he would order a strike on Iran's remaining nuclear facilities, he stated, “I may do it. I may not do it. Nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
Trump's support for Israel's operation to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program and the possibility of American participation in the operation have drawn criticism from the isolationist wing of the Republican Party, in particular former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Vice President JD Vance, who is considered more aligned with the isolationist wing of the party, took to X yesterday to defend Trump the criticism of commentators like Carlson.
"Look, I'm seeing this from the inside, and am admittedly biased towards our president (and my friend), but there's a lot of crazy stuff on social media, so I wanted to address some things directly on the Iran issue: First, POTUS has been amazingly consistent, over 10 years, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Over the last few months, he encouraged his foreign policy team to reach a deal with the Iranians to accomplish this goal. The president has made clear that Iran cannot have uranium enrichment. And he said repeatedly that this would happen one of two ways--the easy way or the 'other"' way," Vance wrote.
"Second, I've seen a lot of confusion over the issue of 'civilian nuclear power' and 'uranium enrichment.' These are distinct issues. Iran could have civilian nuclear power without enrichment, but Iran rejected that. Meanwhile, they've enriched uranium far above the level necessary for any civilian purpose. They've been found in violation of their non-proliferation obligations by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is hardly a rightwing organization."
"It's one thing to want civilian nuclear energy. It's another thing to demand sophisticated enrichment capacity. And it's still another to cling to enrichment while simultaneously violating basic non-proliferation obligations and enriching right to the point of weapons-grade uranium."
"I have yet to see a single good argument for why Iran needed to enrich uranium well above the threshold for civilian use. I've yet to see a single good argument for why Iran was justified in violating its non-proliferation obligations. I've yet to see a single good pushback against the IAEA's findings."
"Meanwhile, the president has shown remarkable restraint in keeping our military's focus on protecting our troops and protecting our citizens. He may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment. That decision ultimately belongs to the president. And of course, people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy."
"But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue. And having seen this up close and personal, I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people's goals. Whatever he does, that is his focus," Vance stated.