Trump’s military attack on Iran reveals split among Maga diehards
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I am Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that Saturday’s US strikes on Iran provoked conflicting reactions from isolationist Republicans who support Donald Trump’s “Make America great again” (Maga) movement, catching them – like many Democrats – between supporting efforts against nuclear proliferation and opposing American intervention in foreign conflicts.
The far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – a loyalist to the president – reacted to the strikes by urging those in the US to pray that terrorists do not attack “our homeland” in retaliation.
“Let us join together and pray for the safety of our US troops and Americans in the Middle East,” Greene wrote on X.
But Greene had not been so supportive in a message posted 30 minutes before Trump announced news of the surprise strikes on Saturday evening.
In that message, Greene wrote: “Every time America is on the verge of greatness, we get involved in another foreign war. There would not be bombs falling on the people of Israel if [its prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu had not dropped bombs on the people of Iran first. Israel is a nuclear armed nation. This is not our fight. Peace is the answer.”
The former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, who has been an opponent of US military intervention in Iran, hit out at the president for thanking Netanyahu in a national address shortly after the strikes.
Speaking on his War Room web show, Bannon said, “It hasn’t been lost … that he thanked Bibi Netanyahu, who I would think right now – at least the War Room’s position is – [is] the last guy on Earth you should thank.”
Read the full report here:
In other developments:
Key events
Edward Helmore
JD Vance has said the US is “not at war” with Iran – but is with its nuclear weapons program, holding out a position that the White House hopes to maintain over the coming days as the Iranian regime considers a retributive response to Saturday’s US strike on three of its nuclear installations.
In an interview Sunday with NBC News’ Meet the Press, the US vice-president was asked if the US was now at war with Iran.
“We’re not at war with Iran,” Vance replied. “We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.”
But Vance declined to confirm with absolute certainty that Iran’s nuclear sites were completely destroyed, a position that Donald Trump set out in a Saturday night address when the president stated that the targeted Iranian facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated” in the US strikes.
Vance instead said that he believes the US has “substantially delayed” Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon.
“I’m not going to get into sensitive intelligence about what we’ve seen on the ground there in Iran, but we’ve seen a lot, and I feel very confident that we’ve substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon, and that was the goal of this attack,” Vance said.
He continued: “Severely damaged versus obliterated – I’m not exactly sure what the difference is.
President Donald Trump has called into question the future of Iran’s ruling theocracy, seemingly contradicting his administration’s earlier calls to resume negotiations and avoid an escalation in fighting.
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???” Trump posted on social media. “MIGA!!!”
The posting on Truth Social marked something of a reversal from defence secretary Pete Hegseth’s Sunday morning news conference that detailed the aerial bombing on three of the country’s nuclear sites.
“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Hegseth said.
Trump’s military attack on Iran reveals split among Maga diehards
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I am Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that Saturday’s US strikes on Iran provoked conflicting reactions from isolationist Republicans who support Donald Trump’s “Make America great again” (Maga) movement, catching them – like many Democrats – between supporting efforts against nuclear proliferation and opposing American intervention in foreign conflicts.
The far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – a loyalist to the president – reacted to the strikes by urging those in the US to pray that terrorists do not attack “our homeland” in retaliation.
“Let us join together and pray for the safety of our US troops and Americans in the Middle East,” Greene wrote on X.
But Greene had not been so supportive in a message posted 30 minutes before Trump announced news of the surprise strikes on Saturday evening.
In that message, Greene wrote: “Every time America is on the verge of greatness, we get involved in another foreign war. There would not be bombs falling on the people of Israel if [its prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu had not dropped bombs on the people of Iran first. Israel is a nuclear armed nation. This is not our fight. Peace is the answer.”
The former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, who has been an opponent of US military intervention in Iran, hit out at the president for thanking Netanyahu in a national address shortly after the strikes.
Speaking on his War Room web show, Bannon said, “It hasn’t been lost … that he thanked Bibi Netanyahu, who I would think right now – at least the War Room’s position is – [is] the last guy on Earth you should thank.”
Read the full report here:
In other developments:
