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President Donald Trump’s decision to join Israel in an illegal war of aggression against Iran has left some of his most influential podcasters concerned that the president lost sight of what he promised his supporters during the 2024 campaign: that he would be a president who ends wars, not start them.
Since taking office, Trump has taken the position that he will achieve “peace through strength” by unleashing the full fury of the U.S. military on its adversaries.
Pete Hegseth, his Secretary of War, crystallized the president’s war philosophy when he told reporters earlier this month that his forces will not be restricted by any “stupid rules of engagement.”
Trump’s about-face has disappointed some of his most influential supporters.
Joe Rogan, a podcast host, told his audience that Trump’s decision to go to war “just seems so insane.”
“He ran on no more wars: End these stupid, senseless wars. And then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it,” Rogan said, according to The New York Times.
Rogan said the war with Iran “just doesn’t make any sense to me, unless we’re acting on someone else’s interests, like particularly Israel’s interests.”
The paper said Rogan, who is influential over young American men, gave Trump a “boost in the final days of his 2024 campaign, taping a friendly three-hour interview with him and then delivering an endorsement on the eve of the election.”
Tucker Carlson, another influential podcast host who spoke at Trump’s convention in 2024, also came out in opposition to the decision to attack Iran. He told ABC News’s Johnathan Karl that the decision was “absolutely disgusting and evil.”
Candace Owens, another conservative podcaster, posted on 28 February, the first day of the war, “We will never forget that they MURDERED Charlie Kirk for this war, and he knew they were going to do it.
He spent his final days mentally anguished, texting the very people who would ultimately betray him. In honor of Charlie, I STAND AGAINST ISRAEL.”
TREND FORECAST: Welcome to the death of journalism and the end of the 4th estate.
Any “conservative” commentator who comes out against the U.S.’s war against Iran is quickly condemned as a raging anti-Semite who must be banned from the media, but the individuals mentioned above cannot be “canceled” so easily because of their audience and reach. Indeed, as Tucker Carlson noted on his podcast Monday, “Throughout the west, criticizing the Netanyahu government is now a crime punishable by imprisonment. Glenn Greenwald on the end of free speech.”
A Quinnipiac University National Poll released on 9 March found that 53 percent of voters oppose the war, while 40 percent support the military action. Republicans are far more likely to support the war (85-11 percent). That number drops dramatically when asked about sending in ground forces. The poll found just 52 percent of Republicans said they would support sending in boots on the ground.
The Iran War has divided MAGA. (See “TRUMP PICKS PRO-ISRAEL TEAM” (19 Nov 2024).
Megyn Kelly, another former Fox News host, was critical of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who seems to be running out of countries he wants to attack.
“Let’s get real. The problem with Lindsey Graham isn’t (just) that he’s a homicidal maniac, it’s that Trump likes and is listening to him, and Trump’s favorite channel is parading him around like a Hefner bunny in stockings on every show,” she posted on X.
Podcasts were seen as a major vehicle for Trump during the 2024 election and helped him connect more intimately with a tailored audience – something that the mainstream media does not always provide.
Jeff Gulati, a political science professor at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass., told Time that Trump was effective in connecting with the “bro vote.”
“It’s the same thing as his McDonald’s appearance: he’s not trying to pretend like he’s a regular guy, but that he really is the voice of the regular guy, and that he speaks for them,” he told the magazine.
TREND FORECAST: The longer the war in Iran drags on, the fewer Americans will support the mission, which is why there is a high likelihood that there will be a major false flag attack.