President Donald Trump's efforts at negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Iran are complicated by a "civil war" brewing within his MAGA base, according to MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire.
The U.S. president says he's looking for "a real end" to the conflict, and the White House sent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Fox News to reassure MAGA voters about American involvement in the Middle East.
But "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough was left scratching his head after watching video of Hegseth insisting that "what you are watching in real time is peace through strength and America first."
"What does that mean?" Scarborough said. "Peace through strength, or strength in America? It's like a couple of bumper stickers, he could have just held up bumper stickers. i don't understand what that means. Wait, we don't know what Israel's peace through – I'm confused, what was that? Is that like peace through strength? He's talking about Israel. Was that an Israeli, that, like, been in Hebrew? Peace through strength, America first, Israel, Netanyahu bombing Iran. I'm deeply confused. What was that?"
Lemire agreed that the defense secretary's platitudes were probably not sufficient to tamp down the MAGA world tensions, with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and right-wing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene warning that Trump risked destroying his presidency on the issue while other right-wing media figures, including Rupert Murdoch, pushed him to get involved in the conflict.
"That's the subtext here, there's been a real divide in the last couple of days, and it really exploded yesterday, as you said, so almost a civil war within the MAGA movement," Lemire said. "There's the Tucker Carlson wing that is saying don't be involved in Iran. You know, when Donald Trump first ran for office 10 years ago yesterday, he pledged to not be involved in these forever wars, no more Middle East entanglements and the like, 'America first,' much more of an isolationist view.
"Then there's the other side of this – Mark Levin, Charlie [Kirk] and some of the, Rupert Murdoch and others, members of that wing, who say, 'No, now is the time where Iran is weak, the U.S. should be involved, if not directly, but at least support Israel's efforts."
"There is a schism here, and President Trump is well aware of this schism," Lemire added. "He, in fact, called Tucker Carlson 'kooky' last night in a social media post after Carlson called him complicit in what we're seeing in Iran right now, and I am told by people close to the president, he's mindful of trying to satisfy both bases, and that's why we're getting a little bit of a waffling, as to he's not quite sure how to navigate this very fast-moving situation in the Middle East."
Watch the video below or at this link.