President Donald Trump's "unpardonable" offense in the war in Iran has become the key issue that sundered his MAGA coalition, according to a GOP operative.
Since the beginning of the war in Iran, Trump has made it clear that U.S. troops are fighting on behalf of Israel's interests as much as they are U.S. national interests. Reports indicate that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu helped pressure Trump into agreeing to coordinate a bombing campaign in Iran, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has claimed that the decision to strike Iran was made in part because of concerns that Iran could strike Israel in retaliation.
Steve Schmidt, a GOP operative and author of "The Warning" on Substack, discussed how Trump's war in Iran has impacted his MAGA base on a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" with Joanna Coles on Sunday.
"We're not winning this war, and that is unpardonable in the United States," Schmidt told Coles.
He explained that American military troops are effectively acting as mercenaries on behalf of Israel and Saudi Arabia in the war in Iran. MAGA appears to have picked up on this, which explains why there is such a deep divide within MAGA over the war, he argued.
The war also doesn't bode well for the president going forward because it ruins his image as a "strong candidate," Schmidt said.
"He doesn't look strong here," Schmidt said. "He looks incompetent. He looks weak, and he's going to look weaker as this all unfurls."