On Truth Social on Sunday, President Donald Trump described America’s military offensive against Iran as a “righteous mission” that is necessary to neutralize an existential threat to the United States. He said it would continue, despite American casualties, until “all objectives are achieved.”

Many people are criticizing this war: mullahs, Russians, Pakistanis, Houthis, Gazans, terrorists—but also Americans, both liberal and conservative.

One of the most influential voices—not just in American politics, not just in Republican politics, but specifically in the Make America Great Again movement—is commentator Tucker Carlson. He immediately characterized the U.S.-Israeli attack on the genocidal, terrorist Iranian regime as “disgusting and evil.”

Wow! What a strong and quick condemnation for something you might have thought everyone in the maga world would have been cheering!

Many are, but many are not.

If you were stunned late Friday night when you heard the first reports of the U.S. and Israel attacking Iran, you were like everyone else in the world. We’re just not used to seeing such force and power from an American president. Trump said he hasn’t ruled out deploying ground troops—acknowledging that his predecessors abhorred the idea of putting “boots on the ground.”

Despite President Trump’s apparent resolve, he lacks support in Congress, among the population and even within the maga movement.

War is always controversial. The last time we launched a war like this, we were responding to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and our troops were fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Back home, support for the troops was strong, but the nation was divided.

Today, it’s worse. The world can see that on the rare occasions America exercises its power, it wastes much of its energy fighting itself, and there’s a time limit.

People who supported President Trump through all kinds of controversy are breaking with him over Iran. Carlson is one, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is another. She already broke with the president, but she is holding nothing back in her criticisms over Iran. She said he betrayed his promise to launch no new wars, that the war is “absolutely unnecessary” and puts “America last,” and called administration officials sick liars.

Meanwhile, American Conservative executive director Curt Mills calling it an “open betrayal” of the maga base on Steve Bannon’s podcast; conservative commentator Megyn Kelly said, “No one should have to die for a foreign country”; and conservative commentator Matt Walsh said, “The only thing I care about when it comes to this operation or any other operation—literally the only thing I care about, or have ever cared about—is whether it benefits our people or not. I’m not convinced that it does.”

Carlson, Greene, Mills, Kelly, Walsh and many other maga Republicans fought their way through the Obama years and the Biden years, but they’re bitterly split over this. There is a reason why.

And that’s to say nothing about what the Democrats are saying.

Only a day after President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched Operation Epic Fury and Operation Roaring Lion, Democratic Party lawmakers began looking for ways to undermine the president’s war powers. “The Constitution says we’re not supposed to be at war without a vote of Congress,” Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine said on Weekend Edition. “This is important. The lives of our troops are at risk.”

The 1973 War Powers Resolution, which Congress passed during the Vietnam War as a check on executive war authority, mandates that the president terminate the use of U.S. armed forces within 60 days unless Congress declares war, passes specific authorization, or extends the period. This means that President Trump probably has eight weeks or less to achieve his military objectives in Iran.

Along with Republican Sen. Rand Paul, Kaine has introduced a resolution to force President Trump to stop the war within 60 days. Several key Republican lawmakers—including Senator Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie and Warren Davidson—openly oppose the military strikes.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is justifying the president’s use of deadly force by telling congressional lawmakers, “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.” Both liberals and conservatives are twisting these statements out of context to make it look like Netanyahu unnecessarily forced the U.S. into war by taking action to ensure the survival of the State of Israel.

What does the average American think about the war? A Reuters-Ipsos poll taken soon after it started found that only a quarter of respondents expressed support.

Remarkably, so much of the tug-of-war inside America and inside maga comes down to one issue: Israel.

As the Trumpet pointed out in our October 2025 issue, the maga movement “is splintering over its view of Israel.” This conflict, and Republicans’ views of it, is inseparable from the Jewish state and the Jewish people—and the regime that wants to murder them.

Midterm elections are just eight months away, meaning President Trump may not have the political strength to continue a fight that many see as Israel’s war.

Trump’s efforts to take down the Islamic Republic of Iran—the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism—are noble. But Bible prophecy foretells the growing division between the U.S. and Israel.

Herbert W. Armstrong’s book The United States and Britain in Prophecy explains that the British and Americans descended from the ancient Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. The Jews descended from the tribe of Judah. The Prophet Isaiah wrote about the end-time relationship between Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah: “Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; Together they shall be against Judah …” (Isaiah 9:21; New King James Version).

The maga divide over Israel may play an important role in this strife.

Increasingly, many Americans, like Carlson, are allowing anti-Semitism to warp their world view to the point where they actually support the survival of the Iranian Islamist regime more than they support the survival of the State of Israel and, in some cases, their own country.

Others, such as Greene, have simply lost the will to fight, saying things like, “We voted for America first and zero wars.” This lack of will was also prophesied in verses like Leviticus 26:19, where God promises to “break the pride of your power” as a punishment for widespread disobedience.

This means that America’s “strength shall be spent in vain” in Iran. This is not because President Trump’s desire to protect the world from a nuclear-ambitious terrorist state is “disgusting and evil,” but because the American people are not obedient enough to God, nor united enough, nor resolved enough to see this mission through.

As King Solomon wrote in Psalm 127:1, “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” America is not looking to God to “keep the city,” so disaster is coming.