The Make America Great Again movement, once hailed as a historic shift away from endless foreign wars, is being rapidly dismantled from within as President Trump consults with the very war hawks who drove the United States into decades of Middle Eastern conflict. According to a recent Axios report, Trump has been speaking with Sen. Lindsey Graham, Ret. General Jack Keane, and Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, all vocal advocates for restarting bombing campaigns against Iran. This alignment marks a stunning betrayal of the anti-war populist base that propelled Trump to power, leaving millions of conservative, independent old school liberal, and libertarian voters realizing their movement has been hijacked by the same military-industrial complex it promised to dismantle.
Key points:
- Trump is consulting with Iran hawks Lindsey Graham, Jack Keane, and Marc Thiessen about restarting bombing campaigns.
- Trump told an aide that “all [Iran’s leaders] understand is bombs,” signaling a preference for military escalation over diplomacy.
- Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz awaits a U.S. green-light to kill remaining Khamenei family members and destroy Iranian infrastructure.
- The U.S. has imposed a naval blockade and new sanctions as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign that includes potential military action.
- Polls show 90% of conservative voters reject war with Iran, yet war hawk advisors are being elevated to elite MAGA status.
The hawks whispering in Trump’s ear
The Axios report paints a troubling picture of a president surrounded by advisors who view diplomacy as weakness. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a known neoconservative who has advocated for war with Iran since the Obama administration, has been a regular interlocutor. Ret. General Jack Keane, a key architect of the surge in Iraq, brings decades of military-first thinking. And Marc Thiessen, the former Bush speechwriter, has publicly called for killing Iranian leaders who refuse to capitulate to US demands.
“If there are two factions in Iran, one that wants a deal and one that doesn’t, let’s kill the ones who don’t want a deal,” Thiessen wrote in a post that Trump later shared. This rhetoric mirrors the very “shock and awe” mentality that the MAGA movement once condemned. The irony is sharp: a president who campaigned on ending wars is now amplifying calls for targeted assassinations of foreign officials.
A movement betrayed from within
The populist uprising that elected Trump in 2016 was fueled by a deep distrust of the Washington establishment and its endless wars. Figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie, Tucker Carlson, and Alex Jones spoke to a base that wanted peace, not more bombing campaigns. Yet these voices have been maligned or sidelined by Trump and his war hawk advisors, while promoters of conflict like Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, and Lindsey Graham have been elevated to elite MAGA status.
This historic shift is collapsing the movement into a dustbin of intermittent bombing campaigns across Iran, trillions in new military investments, and an economy experiencing inflation unimaginable just years ago. Colonel Douglas McGregor, a retired U.S. Army officer and critic of the establishment, recently stated in a podcast that Washington’s “corrupt establishment” ignores overwhelming public opposition to war with Iran. Polls showing 90% of conservative voters rejecting escalation reflect a broader sentiment that the MAGA base has been abandoned.
The economic and strategic stakes
The U.S. has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports and ramped up sanctions as part of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign. A senior administration official told Axios, “This is maximum pressure everywhere and from all angles. That could mean military action, too. It might not. It’s up to the president.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has signaled eagerness to restart airstrikes, stating that Israel awaits a U.S. green-light to kill the rest of the Khamenei family and plunge Iran into “the age of darkness and stone by blowing up central energy and electricity facilities.”
This escalation comes as the U.S. economy struggles with inflation, supply chain disruptions, hiking energy costs, and a national debt exceeding $34 trillion. The question now is whether the MAGA movement can survive this co-opting by war hawks. Trump’s first term saw significant achievements like canceling the Iran nuclear deal and withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords, but he also trusted individuals like Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr who ultimately betrayed him. Now, with advisors like Graham and Keane pushing for war, the movement risks becoming indistinguishable from the neoconservative agenda it once opposed.
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