The week that supercharged MAGA media feuds over the Iran war

By Steve Contorno, CNN

(CNN) — The right-wing media ecosystem that has long served as a useful bullhorn for President Donald Trump unraveled into disarray this week, as deepening fears over his management of the war — and fragile ceasefire — with Iran spilled into public infighting among some of his most prominent allies.

From its start, the Iran war has divided prominent MAGA figures, with many supporting the president’s military push and others arguing it betrayed his avowed “America First” foreign policy. That split has grown sharper in recent days, as Trump’s erratic swings — from bellicose threats of sweeping destruction early in the week to an abrupt search for an off-ramp days later — have drawn sharp backlash from longtime conservative voices.

Tucker Carlson encouraged US officials to resist Trump’s orders if it stopped nuclear war, Megyn Kelly effectively accused Trump of gaslighting Americans to “save face” for an unpopular conflict and Candace Owens has called for Trump to be removed from office via the 25th Amendment.

Trump responded to the criticism Thursday in a 482-word social media screed calling Carlson, Kelly and Owens “stupid people,” and “troublemakers” who “will say anything necessary for some ‘free’ and cheap publicity.”

“They’re not ‘MAGA,’” Trump wrote. “They’re losers, just trying to latch on to MAGA.”

CNN has reached out to Carlson, Kelly and Owens for comment. Responding on X, Owens wrote: “It may be time to put Grandpa up in a home.”

The dissent has extended to figures central to Trump’s past outreach to younger and male audiences. Podcasters like Joe Rogan and Tim Dillon have grown increasingly exasperated with the administration and its close alliance with Israel. Comedian Theo Von drew widespread attention this week for likening Israeli leaders to “terrorists.”

At the same time, Trump stalwarts online have stepped up to counter the criticism, fueling an escalating series of online feuds. Alex Jones, the far-right conspiratorial broadcaster who opposed the war, is now at odds with Laura Loomer, the conspiratorial Trump loyalist who supports it — and who is also openly sparring with Roger Stone, the conspiratorial Trump political operative.

One faction of Trump’s online stalwarts has accused rival conservative influencers who support the war and object to a peace deal of acting as foreign proxies and have called for federal investigations into their finances.

Public polling has consistently shown Trump’s war with Iran is backed by a large majority of Republican voters and has even more support from those who consider themselves MAGA-aligned. Nevertheless, the administration and allies have scrambled to contain the fallout. Speaking this week from Hungary, Vice President JD Vance discouraged people from disengaging from politics because they don’t agree with the administration.

“If we do something you don’t like, the response should be to get more involved, to make your voice heard,” Vance said, “and to try to push things in the direction that you want them to be pushed.”

The fissures are emerging at a precarious time for Trump and Republicans as they confront a challenging midterm environment. The president’s decision to thrust the US into an undefined, high-risk conflict has compounded those concerns, particularly as American voters grow increasingly uneasy with his close alliance with Israel.

Until recently, Republicans had counted on a distinct advantage in their fight to hold onto their congressional majorities this November: a vast and highly effective network of conservative media personalities and digital influencers. That ecosystem — encompassing staunch MAGA allies, established conservative figures and a growing universe of right-leaning, male-dominated podcasts — spanned traditional outlets and newer platforms and had entered Trump’s second term largely aligned behind him.

Fractures, though, have since emerged, largely tied to Trump’s military movements abroad and an affordability crisis that has persisted despite his campaign pledge for a quick resolution. The divisions have pronounced themselves on X, the social media site owned by billionaire Elon Musk, but also at public conservative gatherings. Last month, at the annual conservative gathering known as CPAC, attendees and speakers clashed on and off the stage over Trump’s war with Iran.

Those tensions erupted in response to Trump’s profanity laden Easter Sunday threat to strike Iranian infrastructure sites if the country’s leaders didn’t “Open the Fuckin’ Strait” of Hormuz by Tuesday night. He followed it up Monday with a threat to wipe out an entire civilization “never to be brought back again” if Iran didn’t comply.

Carlson called Trump threatening Iran’s civilian infrastructure “a war crime” and said his message on Sunday was “vile on every level.” Kelly on her SiriusXM show said she was “sick of this shit.”

“Can’t he just behave like a normal human?” she said Tuesday.

The opposition further intensified in the wake of a New York Times report that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed his case for military action against Iran to Trump in a February meeting in the White House Situation Room — using arguments that, according to the report, were met with skepticism from US intelligence agencies and senior Cabinet members. Critics of the war on the right have seized on it as evidence that Trump was drawn into the conflict by Netanyahu and not American interests. Even some MAGA stalwarts, like the conservative influencer Benny Johnson, have expressed alarm over the dynamics described in the report.

A ceasefire deal Trump announced ahead of Tuesday’s deadline has done little to appease these objections — and has sparked new fury from those who initially defended Trump’s war. Longtime Iran hardliners on the right, including Fox News’ Mark Levin, are lamenting that Trump appears willing to back away from military action that could further cripple the country.

“Everybody says no regime change,” Levin said. “Then the regime survives in one form or another. The fundamentalists survive. … But if we can’t do (regime change) because of the political winds, if we cannot do it for other reasons, then how are we going to keep them in a box?”

Steve Bannon, Trump’s former strategist and skeptic of the war, mocked Levin’s objections during Wednesday’s broadcast of his popular television show and podcast, “War Room.” But he also acknowledged that the ceasefire agreement appeared flimsy and exceedingly deferential to Iran, a prime concern of Levin.

Later, he lamented that the events playing out this week served as a distraction from the issues that he said Trump’s supporters expected him to solve.

“All this is going to do at the end of this,” Bannon said, “is make this nation more populist and more nationalistic.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.