Trump's Iran decision sparks backlash from Tucker Carlson and some MAGA supporters
The Trump administration's decision to launch a military operation against Iran has triggered an angry backlash from some of President Donald Trump's top MAGA supporters.
After the launch of what Trump announced was a "massive and ongoing operation" to topple the Iranian regime and end their nuclear ambitions once and for all, some stalwart MAGA backers pushed back hard.
In an interview Saturday morning with ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl, former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson condemned the joint U.S.-Israel attack on Iran.
Carlson, a long-time Trump supporter, said the attack on Iran is "absolutely disgusting and evil." He also suggested it will have a significant effect on Trump's political movement, saying, "This is going to shuffle the deck in a profound way."
Carlson was a primetime speaker at the Republican National Convention in 2024 and has met with Trump at the White House several times, ABC News has reported.
Former Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a vocal MAGA supporter who recently had a falling out with Trump over the release of the files on Jeffrey Epstein, issued a blistering, profanity-laced message on social media over the administration's decision to go to war.
"The Trump admin actually asked in a poll how many casualties voters were willing to accept in a war with Iran??? How about ZERO you bunch of sick f------ liars," Greene wrote. "We voted for America First and ZERO wars."
In a second in-depth post on X, Greene criticized Trump and the administration for reneging on campaign promises to avoid foreign entanglements.
"We said 'No More Foreign Wars, No More Regime Change!' We said it on rally stage after rally stage, speech after speech. Trump, Vance, basically the entire admin campaigned on it and promised to put America FIRST and Make America Great Again," Greene said.
Greene went on to say, "My generation has been let down, abused, and used by our government our entire adult lives and our children’s generation is literally being abandoned."
Greene said the Iranian people should "liberate themselves."
"Thousands and thousands of Americans from my generation have been killed and injured in never ending pointless foreign wars and we said no more," Greene said.
Greene noted that after the launch of "Operation Midnight Hammer" in June 2025, the administration said it had wiped out Iran's nuclear facilities.
However, Trump said in his announcement early Saturday that Iran still posed a nuclear threat and was developing long-range missiles that threaten U.S. allies in Europe and "could soon reach the American homeland."
Iran has stated numerous times that it doesn't want nuclear weapons, but believes it has the right to use nuclear power for civilian purpose. It had also been part of a nuclear deal with the U.S., which Trump withdrew from during his first term.
"We have been spoon fed that line for decades and Trump told us all that his bombing this past summer completely wiped it all out," Greene said. "It’s always a lie and it's always America Last. But it feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different and said no more."
Other criticism from within the base has been loud.
Popular pro-Trump podcaster Tim Pool also blasted the action by the administration as a betrayal of Trump's campaign platform, while MAGA influencers Keith and Kevin Hodge wrote in an online post, "Freeing the people of Iran is not why I voted for Trump."
"President Trump has completely LIED to his voters, backstabbed our country and has disgraced his legacy beyond repair at this point, biggest fall from grace i have ever seen," the Hodge brothers wrote.
And some Republican lawmakers -- including Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio -- announced their disapproval of the operation.
"This is not 'America First,'" Massie wrote in a social media post, adding that when Congress reconvenes he plans to work with Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., to force a Congressional vote on war with Iran.
"The Constitution requires a vote, and your Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war," Massie said.
Other Republicans -- and at least one Democratic member of Congress -- were more receptive of Trump's decision to launch the military operation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a post on X, "The end of the largest state sponsor of terrorism is upon us. God bless President Trump, our military and our allies in Israel."
In a post Saturday, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said, "President Trump has been willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region."
