https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/28/iran-trump-maga-men-divide-cpac-00849378
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Politics
sheetsadam1 — 4 days ago(March 28, 2026 06:05 PM)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/28/iran-trump-maga-men-divide-cpac-00849378
Joseph Bolick feels betrayed by President Donald Trump. And it’s because of the war in Iran.
The 30-year-old Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran voted for Trump in 2024. But at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference gathering this week he sported a hat emblazoned with “America First” — a slogan Trump championed during his campaign, along with the promise not to start new wars in foreign countries.
“He’s lied about everything,” said Bolick. “If you go into a war where there’s no end game, how is it going to end? There’s no clear objective.”
Bolick is part of a cohort of young MAGA loyalists who are increasingly frustrated with Trump over the war in Iran. While Trump’s decision to join Israel in attacking Iran has rallied war hawks and his older supporters, it has alienated many of the young men who swung toward the GOP in 2024. That split is resonating among not only the rank-and-file, but also conservative media influencers and some corners of the White House.
The generational divide was on stark display at CPAC, the annual conservative base-rallying gathering, where some young MAGA loyalists expressed deep frustration and even anger at the Trump administration’s choice to reignite conflict in the Middle East. One month into the war, Trump’s shaky ground with young men threatens to fracture an already-fragile GOP coalition ahead of a hostile midterm in November.
At the conference in north Texas, some attendees carried around Iranian flags, pledging loyalty to the U.S. mission overseas, while others donned America First hats and preached about the need for anti-interventionism.
“Trump and Republicans in general are going to have major issues in the midterms, in 2028, if we can’t wrap this up in a relatively quick amount of time,” said 21-year-old Andrew Belcher, president of the Ohio College Republicans. He added that Trump is doing “relatively poorly” with hyper online young men who are influenced heavily by media figures like Tucker Carlson and other isolationists in the GOP.
A POLITICO poll this month found that Trump voters largely continue to back him. But men who self-identified as “MAGA Republicans” and voted for Trump in 2024 are deeply split by generation over their trust in the president and their view of the war, especially if the number of U.S. casualties rises.
The contrast was striking, even with the larger margins of error that come from the smaller sample sizes: More than 70 percent of those over 35 believe Trump has a plan, compared with 49 percent of those under 35. A 66 percent majority of older MAGA men are willing to sacrifice American lives in order for the U.S. to achieve its goals in Iran, compared with less than half of younger MAGA men who say the same. And the younger men are significantly less likely to say the war is aligned with MAGA principles and in the interests of American people.
Some of the most prominent MAGA voices are opposed to the Iran war, like Carlson and Megyn Kelly, along with influential figures like Joe Rogan, who holds tremendous sway with young men. There’s even growing consternation among younger, more-right wing White House staffers, said one person familiar with the dynamics who was granted anonymity to discuss them.
“They’re very frustrated. They didn’t love the war to start with, and since it began, the constantly contradictory messaging from the president himself, is just brutal, brutal for staff to deal with and making their life really hard,” the person said. “He puts his people in a really tough position, especially people who are public-facing.”
“What matters most to the American people – including young men – is having a Commander-in-Chief who takes decisive action to eliminate threats and keep them safe, which is exactly what President Trump is doing with the ongoing successful Operation Epic Fury,” said White House spokesperson Davis Ingle.
Part of CPAC’s intent, a hallmark grassroots gathering that has been held for more than 50 years, is to hype up conservatives, a particularly important mission for party leaders in critical election years. If Republicans want to prevent Democrats from flipping the House this midterm cycle, they need to ensure they don’t lose any gains they made with key parts of their coalition in 2024, namely young men.
“We need you,” said former RNC chair Michael Whatley, who is running for Senate in North Carolina. “We need every conservative, every Republican, every patriot across this country to focus on two things: get out the vote and protect the ballot.”
Mercedes Schlapp, senior fellow for the CPAC Foundation, opened Thursday’s session by pleading with conservatives to remain united. “We cannot divide from within,” she cautioned attendees.
But interviews with a dozen young men at CPAC revealed broad concern that Trump is imperiling the U.S. economy, which has seen spiking gas and fuel prices caused by the war.
“A lot of the young -
soapbox original gangster — 4 days ago(March 28, 2026 06:52 PM)
is there a democrat version of this type of shindig? anything involving actual policy discussion, because just hating trump isnt enough to get the senate votes necessary to have a solid majority, and without that, even a demo house wont be enough to impede trump meaningfully
i dont look at facebook that much, and never at instagram, so i have no idea what types of ads run, but has the demo national committee spent anything on ads attacking trump, musk, alito, thomas, etc?
trump handec the dems this present of appointing the justices who voted to overturn Roe, he put musk into a position where musk has accessed and probs stolen from treasury dept, why dont the dems run 100 ads a day on youtube etc saying trump's stealing from social security and giving it to himself, his family, to musk? i mean deepfake video is 99% foolproof.- sad day indeed when a ****-eater like Gaetz is the cleanest guy in the room, because he is the one GOP NOT in epstein files!
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sheetsadam1 — 4 days ago(March 28, 2026 07:46 PM)
I don't give a single **** about Iran and never have. The only two countries in that region I give a **** about are Israel (because they steal my tax dollars) and Saudi Arabia (because they murdered 3,000 of my countrymen on 9/11).
Draft Barron Trump -
sheetsadam1 — 4 days ago(March 28, 2026 09:26 PM)
The point is you don't get to break into somebody else's house and then cry victim when you get shot. Americans - both civilian and military - do not belong in the middle east. The blame for those deaths lies on the political leaders who sent them there.
Draft Barron Trump