<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>For US President </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/donald-trump" rel="" target="" title="Donald Trump"><span>Donald Trump</span></a><span>, some of the sharpest criticism he's faced in the early days of the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/iran" rel="" target="" title="Iran war"><span>Iran war</span></a><span> has come from once-loyal media figures far more accustomed to singing his praises.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Matt Walsh are among those to express discontent. It's been noticed in the White House, which has been playing defence on social media and in interviews.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>To be sure, these critics are the minority of the media MAGAsphere, where Fox News' biggest stars remain cheerleaders.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-israel-attack-iran-us-sinks-iranian-warship-as-bombardment-intensifies/31b4c126-2987-4e9e-bc28-5621a3e8e86c"><strong><span>'Sunk by a torpedo': US strikes Iranian warship in first since WWII</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But their words illustrate conservative media's influence and how valuable it is to Trump when all runs as a well-oiled machine — and, by contrast, how much of a problem it can be if it fractures.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Much of the criticism has centred on Israel's influence on Trump's decision to go to war.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Carlson, the former Fox News star who has built his own independent operation, told </span><em><span>ABC News</span></em><span> over the weekend that the attack was "absolutely disgusting and evil".</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/cracks-appear-in-donald-trump-maga-base-as-leading-figures-criticise-iran-war/1511084d-9814-4fbb-8e86-10c358d340cb" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It's hard to say this, but the United States didn't make the decision here. Benjamin Netanyahu did," Carlson said on his podcast, referring to the Israeli prime minister.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>'No one should have to die for a foreign country'</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Kelly, another former Fox anchor gone indie, said about American casualties on her show that "no one should have to die for a foreign country".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I don't think those service members died for the United States," Kelly said. "I think they died for Iran or Israel."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Secretary of State Marco Rubio's remarks prior to a Capitol Hill briefing were a flashpoint. 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 US bases in the region.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We knew that if we didn't pre-emptively go after them, before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties," Rubio said. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that if the Trump administration had not acted, lawmakers would have wondered why.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Walsh, a </span><em><span>Daily Wire</span></em><span> 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."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Republican president told journalist Rachael Bade in an interview that he did not believe that the opinions of Carlson and Kelly are shared by his base of supporters.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I think that MAGA is Trump," he said. "MAGA's not the other two."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Republican former US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has fashioned herself as an influencer and media figure since bitterly breaking with Trump, said on Kelly's podcast that she was furious over the US military action.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Make America Great Again," Greene says, "was supposed to be America first, not Israel first."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>Will Trump supporters return to the fold?</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump is probably right to think that most of his supporters will return to the fold if they're unhappy with the Iran attack, said Jason Zengerle, author of </span><em><span>Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unravelling of the Conservative Mind</span></em><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Given the consistency of his views on the topic, Carlson is probably the most important of Trump's conservative critics, Zengerle said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If the war does go badly, I think it strengthens the hand of someone like Tucker," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"All of this is a debate about what happens after Trump is gone anyway."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There have been cracks in Trump's conservative media support prior to Iran, notably with the vast and sprawling narratives around the Jeffrey Epstein report.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But this week's criticism unleashed some startling internal vitriol. Ben Shapiro, of </span><em><span>The Daily Wire</span></em><span>, called Kelly "wildly inconsistent" and a coward. Elisabeth Hasselbeck denounced Kelly for her suggestion that American servicemen died for Israel.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"How dare you?" Hasselbeck said Tuesday on </span><em><span>The View</span></em><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Fox News' Sean Hannity said that Carlson was "not the person I knew when he was at Fox". Kelly denounced Hannity as a supplicant who "would never say anything other than to puff Donald Trump up".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It's worth remembering that most of what readers and viewers are seeing in conservative media supports Trump.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Howard Polskin, publisher of </span><em><span>The Righting</span></em><span> newsletter, estimated Tuesday that about 95 per cent of what he's monitored on websites is behind the president.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Trump Stands Tall on Iran," headlined </span><em><span>The American Spectator</span></em><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The most popular personalities on Fox News — still the top dog among conservatives — continue to be supportive. Hannity, Brian Kilmeade and Mark Levin were among the most vociferous leading up to the attack and after.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The president has shown more courage, and this Pentagon, Pete Hegseth's Pentagon, has executed brilliantly once again," said Kilmeade, the </span><em><span>Fox &amp; Friends</span></em><span> co-host.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I think that MAGA gives him the benefit of the doubt, no question about it," Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary during the early part of Trump's first term, said on his podcast Tuesday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I think he's built up a ton of credibility with the base. ... Look, you've got PTSD from a lot of our former leaders between Iraq and Afghanistan in particular, who only know forever wars, and so I get it. But this president has proven now twice that he knows what he's doing."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>Criticism of war rollout draws specific White House rebuke</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The podcast influencers who helped to drive many young men into Trump's camp during the 2024 campaign have been largely quiet.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Some of Walsh's criticism this week appeared to sting so much that it drew a specific rebuke from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"So far we've heard that although we killed the whole Iranian regime, this was not a regime change war," Walsh wrote on Monday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"And although we obliterated their nuclear program, we had to do this because of their nuclear program. And although Iran was not planning any attacks on the US, they also might have been, depending on who you ask. And although we are not fighting this war to free the Iranian people, they are now free, or might be, depending on who seizes power, and we have no idea who that will be. The messaging on this thing is, to put it mildly, confused."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Leavitt posted a lengthy response on X explaining Trump's rationale.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Simply put," she wrote, "the terrorist Iranian regime would not say yes to peace".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><em><span>NEVER MISS A STORY:</span></em></strong><span> </span><em><span>Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.</span></em></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><ul><li><strong><em><span>Download the 9NEWS App here via</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/9news/id1010533727" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Apple</span></em></strong></a><span> </span><strong><em><span>and</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nineNewsAlerts.nine.com&amp;hl=en_AU&amp;pli=1" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Google Play</span></em></strong></a></li><li><strong><em><span>Make 9News your preferred source on Google by</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://9.nine.com.au/8x987w" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>ticking this box here</span></em></strong></a></li><li><strong><em><span>Sign up to</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://login.nine.com.au/edm?client_id=nineatnine" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>our breaking newsletter here</span></em></strong></a></li></ul></div></div>