Time for Trump to Show Mark Levin and the War Party the Door

Thank God President Donald Trump talked some sense into Israel Tuesday morning after it went rogue and signaled it planned to ignore Monday’s ceasefire deal. But when he smacked down Israel’s obvious intention to escalate, escalate, escalate—and potentially draw the United States into what Trump has warned could become a world war—the president also smacked down the backers of Israel’s plans here in this country. And they took it personally.

When Trump called out Israel, he might as well have been saying directly to America’s Israel-right-or-wrong war hawks in the media and in Congress: “Alright guys, I gave you a shot to prove you were capable of being rational, but now the jig is up. Get lost!”

Anyway, that’s how neocon radio host Mark Levin took it. After weeks of flattering Trump, he spent the hours after Trump yanked Israel’s leash shaking his fist at the president.

“Iran did, in fact, violate the ceasefire and not in some insubstantial way,” Levin shot back after Trump said Iran’s alleged violation of the ceasefire may have been unintentional. “It was not a mistake,” Levin added.

Levin said he “cannot agree” with Trump any longer because the president directly criticized Israel, rightly taking it to task for “unloading” on Iran in some of the most violent attacks to date as soon as the ceasefire agreement was announced but before it technically took effect.

What’s more, Iran is still going to develop nuclear weapons, Levin argued. Another direct confrontation of Trump, who had said earlier in the morning that Iran would never again attempt to develop nukes.

What could possibly satisfy Levin and his insane colleagues in the War Party—regime change?

Trump rejected that as well—rightly arguing that regime change in Iran would lead to “chaos.”

What Levin’s Fury Tells Us

Of course, it’s worth noting that Levin and the rest of the War Party wing of the GOP were all “NeverTrumpers” originally. That is, until Trump soundly defeated them and they were forced to fall in line—biding their time until the next opportunity to try and manipulate the United States into another of their insane foreign policy pursuits.

This month’s whole disruptive episode with Iran was all about those people taking such an opportunity. Part of Levin’s approach was to claim that pursuing the War Party’s will in Iran would not “divide MAGA.” It would just make clear that the real MAGA, as Levin ridiculously claimed, was only ever the “true patriots” who would support Israel’s war with Iran and America’s involvement in it. Americans who hate the War Party, on the other hand, should be considered enemies of Trump, according to Levin.

And, of course, Levin’s outbursts against Trump’s commonsensical criticism of Israel on Tuesday are perfectly in contrast with that ploy. Like the rest of the neocons whose foreign policy Trump ran against and defeated in two presidential elections, Levin’s feigned alliance with MAGA was always a one-way street: Trump does exactly as they say, or they go full “NeverTrump” again. 

The War Party: Incompatible with MAGA

But there were two major things Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mark Levin, and the rest of the War Party got wrong about Trump and MAGA.

First, most Americans now see straight through the War Party’s pro-war propaganda talking points. In fact, Trump’s supporters see their arguments as not just evil but stupid. It’s significant that, on the campaign trail, Trump always called the War Party’s wars “stupid”—and that voters loudly applauded him when he did.  Most Americans now see straight through the War Party’s pro-war propaganda talking points. In fact, Trump’s supporters see their arguments as not just evil but stupid.Tweet This

So, when Levin spent the last two weeks calling those who back Trump’s longstanding, tough-but-restrained foreign policy “stupid” and “morons”—attempting to create a divide in MAGA while also denying that there was any such divide—Trump supporters found it laughable.

What’s “stupid” is Senator Ted Cruz smugly saying he learned “in Sunday school” that the “Bible commands us to support Israel”—as if that’s a serious, grown-up argument for a high-stakes foreign policy gambit that could cost us treasure and blood for years.

What’s “stupid” is a sitting Congressman in Florida saying the United States should drop nuclear bombs on Gaza on behalf of Israel. (The same congressman, Republican Rep. Randy Fine, also said that when he first shook the hand of the petty, corrupt, and increasingly unpopular Benjamin Netanyahu, he didn’t wash his own hand until he could touch the heads of his children.)

What’s “stupid” is Levin saying that the Trump-supporting patriot and savvy political strategist Steve Bannon is in league with Islamists and radical Democrats. Like we’re supposed to take Levin seriously when he says Bannon, a Catholic Navy veteran who served his country with honor and who just met with Trump for lunch a few days ago, is some kind of infiltrator doing the bidding of Marxists—all because he opposes Levin’s wildly unpopular foreign policy.

No, what’s “stupid” is showing contempt for the war-fatigue that delivered Trump a historic and decisive victory at the ballot box less than a year ago and giving the public the same wonkish justifications for another Middle Eastern war that we all still remember hearing—and learning the hard way not to trust—ahead of the invasion of Iraq, the destabilization and ruin of Libya, the toppling of Syria, and more.

Those are the things that are “stupid” in the eyes of the Trump movement. And when Levin and his ilk call Americans “stupid” for not nodding somberly at those stupidities as if a strange death-cult theology that always works in favor of global elites should have a total claim to our loyalty, we can only shake our heads and chuckle.

But here’s the second thing the War Party doesn’t get about MAGA. Despite mountains of fake news and hyper-partisan rhetoric to the contrary, Trump has now spent ten years building a legacy of governing in a way that reflects the broadest will of the people. He reaches across the aisle routinely, embracing many policies and solutions not historically associated with the Republican Party. 

The exceptions? 

Anti-social, insane, and dangerous ideas like subjecting kids to “trans” surgeries. 

Or taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand.

Or, as we’re all learning this week, the irrational and stupid proposals of the War Party.