President Donald Trump's media allies have been openly revolting over his decision to launch joint military operations with Israel against Iran, and panelists on "CNN This Morning" identified a major move that could crack his coalition apart.
Host Audie Cornish played clips of podcasters Joe Rogan and Megyn Kelly – whose name she underlined with a contemptuous laugh – criticizing the war, which Rogan called a betrayal of Trump's campaign promises and Kelly suggested served Israel's interests more than the U.S., and she noted her panelists' reactions to those comments.
"Audible groans from you here," Cornish said. "Tell me, help me understand thenuance of your reaction."
Former State Department official Joel Rubin called Kelly's criticism openly antisemitic, and the Atlantic Council's Alex Plitsas agreed, and Cornish asked whether Trump would be able to hold his coalition together as he had during past internal disputes.
"In the meantime Trump sayswhat he has said whenever itcomes to run, frankly, is MAGA is Trump, right?" Cornish said. "Like that, he isthe one who dictates what 'America first' is, and it doesseem like in some of thepolling, Republicans are more orless with him. So what I can'ttell is if I'm looking at acouple of media voices out therefor clicks, being contrarian, orif this represents an actualbreak that we could see in thecoming weeks."
The Atlantic's Vivian Salama argued that rising gas prices represented a real political danger to the White House, but she said that likely would not be the breaking point.
"The White House knows that the longer thisconflict continues and the morepain that people feel at thepump, the more pain they feel atthe grocery store, if inflationstarts to go up again, then youwill start to feel like it's abroader phenomenon," Salama said. "You know, what you see in the markets ittends to be sort of a precursorto what voters end up feelingand so they want this to be theywant to get in and out. Theywant it to be, you know, a shortterm, you know, a short-termpain for long-term benefit."
Cornish identified a real-life worry felt by many families as the Trump administration refuses to rule out the possibility of deploying troops on the ground in Iran.
"Tell people out there, checkin on the sons, in particular, inyour life," Cornish said. "I'm hearing peopleworry about a draft. I'm hearingpeople – oh, is that what you're hearing, too?"
"A hundred percent," Salama said. "I've been hearing it constantly for the last couple of days."
Plitsas, a national security analyst and Middle East expert, tried to alleviate those concerns.
"We're not goingto see a draft, " Plitsas said. "Themilitary footprint, I think wecan talk about in terms ofintentions, words are one thing.You actually have to havecapabilities to back up whatyou're talking about, [and] there areno infantry divisions mobilizedanywhere. There are no groundforces."
"But it speaks to the level of fearand misunderstanding they alsohave about the intent of the White House," Cornish pointed out.
Rubin identified that as the likely political breaking.
"That's thekey red line, as well, for theRogans of the world," Rubin said. "Right now, the Republicans, broadlyspeaking, support this war butif we're talking about troopsand boots on the ground, that'swhere the Rogan argument really comesinto force. He says, you broke apromise, and that's where Ithink we see Republican supportdisappear."