As Trump Floats Truce Talks Balloon, Does He Have An Eye On MAGA Supporters?

As the Iran war enters its fourth week, US President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for attacks on energy infrastructure by five days. This is not a ceasefire and Iran is sceptical about Trump’s offer.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said the United States and Iran had held “very good and productive conversations” over the past two days aimed at a “complete and total resolution” of hostilities in West Asia.

The tentative outreach comes even as Israel continues to bomb Tehran, underlining the widening gap between military escalation and diplomatic messaging.

On the other hand Iran  struck a sceptical note, with its Foreign Ministry, quoted by Mehr News Agency, saying Washington’s overtures are aimed at lowering energy prices and buying time for its military plans, rather than signalling any genuine shift towards de-escalation.

Analysts believe that Trump is trying to cool the jitters that have spread through the global markets over fears that energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump’s  announcement has already brought down the price of oil in the world marker. But Iranians don’t trust Trump and believe that he is waiting for  US troops heading to the region to arrive in West Asia for a likely attack on Kharg Island.

The President’s words come at a time when there is some uncertainty over the  appetite that Donald Trump’s MAGA base has for the current war. Though his MAGA base appears willing to overlook the contradiction of a leader who campaigned against costly foreign wars now presiding over one, a prolonged conflict coupled with mounting economic pain could eventually pose political risks for him.

For now, however, as the war is in the middle of its  fourth week, Trump’s personal popularity is unlikely to take a hit in a movement where loyalty to him remains the defining force. But there are signs of a broader undercurrent of scepticism that a handful of high-profile  former Trump loyalists turned dissenters like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Matt Walsh represent.

These Trump critics are in a minority at the moment, with Fox News and its biggest stars still unabashedly supporting the President and the Iran war. But those opposed to the foreign wars got a major boost when Trump’s top counter terrorism official Joe Kent resigned from the administration over the war. He wrote in his resignation letter “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent wrote.“Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.” 

Kent pointed out that Trump had pledged to keep the US out of “never-ending wars”, like those that had unfolded in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Until June 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation,” Kent wrote. Trump joined Israel’s   12-day war in June last, and used Stealth Bombers to hit Iran's nuclear power plants. After the strikes, Trump declared that the Iranian nuclear threat had ended.

After his resignation Joe Kent, a former Trump loyalist,  gave several interviews to drive home the point that Israel and its powerful lobby in the US, had undue influence over US foreign policy. Kent is said to have informed vice president J.D.Vance of his decision ahead of sending in his resignation. The US vice president is not an advocate of war and tends to support the anti-war sentiments of Kent, Carlson, Kelly and Walsh. 

 Carlson, Kelly and others have been publicly taken on Trump  and been critical of the power of the Jewish lobby in American politics.  Tucker  Carlson,  told ABC News in an interview earlier that US-Israel strikes on Iran were  “absolutely disgusting and evil.” And he repeated in his podcast “It’s hard to say this, but the United States didn’t make the decision here. Benjamin Netanyahu did.”  Again in a podcast Carlson said, referring to the Israeli prime minister. "Anyone advocating for conflict with Iran is not an ally of the United States, but an enemy". 

Tucker has long been criticising pro-Israeli Republican lawmakers like Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton , Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Joni Ernst (R-IA) for their support of everything that was good for Israel and that Netanyahu wanted done. Tucker had often questioned whether their loyalty was to Israel or to the people of America. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks  further fuelled the belief that Netanyahu was the driving force behind the US decision. Soon after the strikes on February 28, Rubio said  that Trump had given the go-ahead for the operation knowing that Israel was prepared to strike and he feared retaliation from Iran against U.S. bases in the region.``We knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them, before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio said.

Walsh, a Daily Wire host, wrote on X that Rubio was “flat out telling us that we’re in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand. This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said.”

 Marjorie Taylor Greene, another former Trump loyalist, said on Kelly’s podcast that she was furious over the U.S. military action. “Make America Great Again,” Greene says, “was supposed to be America first, not Israel first.”

The White House messaging on the reason was constantly shifting, giving rise to accusations that Trump’s hand was forced by Israel.

Now with the war continuing and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz affecting global energy flow, the chances of the world economy going into a tailspin is increasing by the day. Trump’s MAGA base  has so far not broken from him, but that could change dramatically if  living costs continue to go up. 

 Recent  polls from Ipsos and CBS News indicate that a majority of Americans, roughly 53–58%, disapprove of the U.S. military strikes against Iran. Approximately three-quarters of voters oppose sending ground troops into Iran, a sentiment that spans across party lines, including a majority of Republicans, according to a Quinnipiac poll. Around 9 in 10 U.S. adults are worried about the risks to American service members' lives.

A recent poll by Reuters  suggests only about a quarter of Americans actively support Trump’s war on Iran.  The poll found that 55% of respondents feel their personal finances have taken a hit "to some extent" due to rising fuel prices, with 21% reporting a major impact. There is growing public concern that the conflict will drive up energy prices, hurt the economy, and fuel higher inflation, creating a potential recessionary environment.

The inflection point has not yet been reached but if the war continues there are potential political risks for Republicans. While it  may not weaken Trump directly it could pose a challenge for Republicans.