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The ideological battle over what “America First” means in the Trump era is intensifying in wake of Israel’s strikes on Iran, splitting the MAGA right and testing their relationships with the president.
On one side, noninterventionist doves insist that the Trumpian tagline means the president must avoid U.S. troops, resources or dollars going toward the conflict, for fear of getting dragged into an endless war.
“Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted on X on Sunday.
But on the other end, foreign policy hawks and supporters of Israel are appealing to Trump’s position that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon, and encouraging him to leave all options — including direct military intervention — on the table.
“How is it not AMERICA FIRST to congratulate those who just made sure Islamists who chant ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’ and who openly plotted to assassinate President @realDonaldTrump never have an opportunity to have a nuke?” right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer posted on X over the weekend.
In a Saturday phone interview with The Atlantic, President Trump responded to criticism from former Fox News host Tucker Carlson — who said in a newsletter that “politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with” the strikes — by saying he is the one that will ultimately write the definition.
“Well, considering that I’m the one that developed ‘America First,’ and considering that the term wasn’t used until I came along, I think I’m the one that decides that,” Trump said.
And on Monday, Trump offered one part of his definition: “AMERICA FIRST means many GREAT things, including the fact that, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” he posted on Truth Social.
Trump beat back the dove side somewhat in another post calling Carlson “kooky” — prompting Greene, who almost never criticizes the president, to make the stunning move to come to Carlson’s defense.
“Foreign wars/intervention/regime change put America last, kill innocent people, are making us broke, and will ultimately lead to our destruction. That’s not kooky. That’s what millions of Americans voted for,” Greene said.
Despite Trump claiming ownership of the tag line, different wings of Trump supporters spent much of the last few days warring about the “America First” response to the conflict.
Conservative radio host Mark Levin, who is on the hawkish side of the debate, made a lengthy post on Monday about “Real MAGA and Fake MAGA,” saying “Real MAGA is not isolationist or antisemitic. In another post, Levin took aim at Greene, calling her “a little known politician from Georgia.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also weighed in on the “America First” debate in a Monday interview with ABC News.
“Today, it’s Tel Aviv. Tomorrow, it’s New York. Look, I understand ‘America First’. I don’t understand ‘America Dead,’” Netanyahu said. “That’s what these people want.”
As Trump takes responsibility for defining the America First response, he is being vague and open enough to give both the hawks and the doves reason to believe they are right about their own versions of America First.
The initial response from the administration to the strikes, in the form of a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, notably distanced the U.S. from the attacks — saying that “Israel took unilateral action against Iran” and that the U.S. was “not involved in strikes against Iran.”
But the U.S. did assist in intercepting missiles that Iran shot into Israel in response — and NBC News reported that the U.S. had been “quietly moving some pieces into place to prepare for the Israeli attack.”
Trump slammed Iran for failing to make a deal after 60 days of negotiation on its nuclear program — referencing his warnings that there would be bombing if they did not do so. But even as the recent conflict derailed a round of peace talks that were supposed to take place on Sunday with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff — in part because Iranians with whom the U.S. was dealing are now dead, as Trump said — the president has not taken negotiation off the table.
“They should talk, and they should talk immediately before it’s too late,” Trump said Monday at the G7 Summit in Canada.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Iran is seeking negotiations in order to end the hostilities — a development that was cheered by noninterventionists like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
“Iran’s move to reenter negotiations isn’t a coincidence. It’s the result of a foreign policy that rejects endless wars and puts American priorities first,” Paul said.
But Trump has declined to wholly rule out using U.S. force in Iran. Asked Monday in Canada what it would take for the U.S. to get involved in the conflict, Trump dummured: “I don’t want to talk about that.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is among those urging Trump to use U.S. military might to help Israel in Iran if talks are not possible.
“If diplomacy fails, Mr. President, President Trump, you’ve been great, help Israel finish the job. Give them bombs. Fly with them if necessary,” Graham said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Further reading: Israel-Iran war spotlights MAGA divide, from my colleague Brett Samuels.
Welcome to The Movement, a weekly newsletter looking at the influences and debates on the right in Washington. I’m Emily Brooks, House leadership reporter at The Hill. Tell me what’s on your radar: ebrooks@thehill.com.
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DEPORTATION PRIORITIZATION DRAMA
President Trump is pumping the brakes, shifting gears, and speeding up on the kind of migrants he is targeting as he aims to fulfill his promise of mass deportations.
The president is clearly sensitive about negatively impacting key industries that rely on migrants who entered the country without permission for labor — but seems to have reversed himself on pausing enforcement on such industries.
Let’s review.
Thursday morning: Trump posted recognition of concerns from those in the agricultural and hotel industries about his “very aggressive policy on immigration” taking away workers who are “almost impossible to replace” — promising that “changes are coming.”
It was a notable shift in tone from the kind of hardline stances and messaging from the immigration hardliners in Trump’s administration like Stephen Miller — particularly in wake of anti-Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests in Los Angeles that prompted Trump to activate the National Guard.
Thursday afternoon: Trump made another post appealing to the immigration hardline side. “I campaigned on, and received a Historic Mandate for, the largest Mass Deportation Program in American History,” he said, adding that migrants in the U.S. illegally should self-deport “or, ICE will find you and remove you.”
But directives to soften enforcement on certain industries as the president had first espoused still came. ICE was directed to “largely pause raids and arrests on American farms and in hotels and restaurants,” NewsNation reported, citing DHS sources.
Sunday: Trump made another long social media post giving further guidance on deportation targets: Democratic-run cities. “ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH,” Trump said, to expand detention and deportation efforts in the nation’s largest cities that “are the core of the Democrat Power Center.”
Monday: “Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including its Homeland Security Investigations division, told leaders at the agency in a call Monday that agents must continue conducting workforce site immigration raids on agricultural businesses, hotels and restaurants, according to two people familiar with the call,” the Washington Post reported.
The whiplash is exposing some divisions within the Trump administration.
The New York Times reported over the weekend that the initial post about agriculture workers came after Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins had told the president about worries about the effect of the immigration raids on the agricultural industry.
Rollins appeared to respond to the reporting in a post on X saying to “ignore the noise from the fake news media.”
“The President and I have consistently advanced a ‘Farmers First’ approach, recognizing that American households depend upon a stable and LEGAL agricultural workforce. Severe disruptions to our food supply would harm Americans. It took us decades to get into this mess and we are prioritizing deportations in a way that will get us out,” Rollins said.
Related: Inside Trump’s Extraordinary Turnaround on Immigration Raids, from the New York Times… Trump officials reverse guidance exempting farms, hotels from immigration raids, from the Washington Post.
RUSH TO ASSIGN IDEOLOGY IN MINNESOTA SHOOTINGS
The shocking shootings of Minnesota Democratic lawmakers in the early hours of Saturday morning — killing Minnesota House Democratic Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband — set off an ugly ideological blame game on social media.
Right-wing posters did not want to believe that the now-detained suspect in the shootings, Vance Boelter, was on their “side.” And despite evidence piling up that Boelter shared right-wing beliefs, some still don’t want to believe it.
The first misdirection came after a number of accounts posted videos of Hortman earlier in the week getting emotional while talking her vote in favor of a bill vote that cut access to health care for undocumented immigrants — insinuating that her assassination was a result of progressive left anger about that vote. She was the only House Democrat to vote for the bill, averting a potential government shutdown.
Other emerging details fueled the belief the shootings were left-on-left violence. Law enforcement confirmed that Boelter had flyers in his car that said, “No Kings,” an apparent reference to the anti-Trump protests that occurred across the country on Saturday. And Boelter was in 2019 appointed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) to a workforce development board.
But Boelter’s friend and roommate told CBS News that the suspect was a very conservative, listened to the right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s Infowars, and had voted for Trump.
Local reporting in the Minnesota Star-Tribune said that Boelter did not know Walz; that the 60-member member board includes people appointed by the governor who do not agree with his political views; and voted in the 2024 primary election, but not in the Democratic primary.
That has not stopped the narrative from taking hold, though. Donald Trump Jr. had this to say on right-wing influencer Benny Johnson’s YouTube show on Monday: “They’re sitting there, ‘Oh, please be a MAGA guy.’ Oh, it happens to be a Tim Walz appointee in his own state. He happened to go after a Democrat legislator, but it seems like he went after a Democratic legislator because she voted against Democrat Party policy, which was the unabashed, unlimited health care funding for illegal immigrants.”
Among those who pushed the left-on-left violence narrative: Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who posted a photo of the masked suspect on Sunday with the commentary: “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way.” Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) confronted Lee about the post in the Senate Monday night, my colleague Al Weaver reports. Lee refused to answer questions from reporters about the encounter.
Minnesota state Sen. Julia Coleman (R) posted on X on Saturday that she found the race to figure out of Boelter was a Republican or Democrat “absolutely shameful.”
“The state needs unity. Not blame. Now more than ever we should come together and put partisan politics aside,” Coleman said.
Related: Fact check: Did suspect in Minnesota shootings have close ties to Gov. Tim Walz? No, by Walker Orenstein in the Minnesota Star Tribune
ON MY CALENDAR
- Tuesday, June 17: Unleash Prosperity hosts a policy forum on “The Impact of Immigration on the 21st Century American Workforce” at the Conservative Partnership Institute, 12:30 p.m. Live stream here.
- Tuesday, June 17: The Federalist Society’s DC Young Lawyers Chapter hosts a reception with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), America’s Square at 5:45 p.m. Details here.
- Tuesday, June 24: Heritage Foundation Launch of “American Founders” & Presentation of America’s 250th Anniversary Innovation Prizes, with keynote by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), 4 p.m. Details here.
THREE MORE THINGS
- Riley Gaines, a prominent activist against transgender athletes in women’s sports, announced at Turning Point USA’s Young Women Leadership Summit over the weekend that she is pregnant with her first child. She did so while taking a jab at Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles, who had gotten into an online tiff with Gaines over trangender athletes and told Gaines to “Bully someone your own size, who would ironically be a male.” Gaines, revealing her baby bump, said: “How many men do you know who have this?”
- The Trump Organization commemorated the 10th anniversary of the now-president gliding down the escalator to announce his presidential campaign by announcing it is starting a mobile phone service company. Trump Mobile will not only provide service but plans to manufacture phones in America and will have its customer service call centers based in America, executives said at the announcement. The plan will also come with tele-medicine and roadside assistance features. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump helped roll out the announcement.
- Big Beautiful Bill update: The Senate Finance Committee released its portion of President Trump’s tax cut and spending priorities bill on Monday, making some changes to the version passed in the House that will be controversial. It reverts the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap to $10,000, after blue-state lawmakers had pushed to raise the cap to $40,000. It lowers health care provider taxes — a mechanism states use to extract more federal Medicaid provider taxes — to 3.5 percent, stricter than the House version. But it significantly slows down the repeal of some green energy incentives compared to the House version.
WHAT I’M READING
- Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch and Emily Jacobs: DNI Tulsi Gabbard draws friendly fire from Republicans for video warning of nuclear war
- Politico’s Rachael Bade and Felicia Schwartz: Inside the MAGA vs. hawk battle to sway Trump on bombing Iran
- New York Times’s Tyler Pager, Miriam Jordan, Hamed Aleaziz, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs: Inside Trump’s Extraordinary Turnaround on Immigration Raids
Thanks for reading. Check out more newsletters from The Hill here. See you next time!