Trump's blunt attack on former allies exposes splintered MAGA coalition

In launching his attack on four conservative commentators who have been critical of the joint US-Israeli war against Iran, Donald Trump wrote that they were "stupid people" and that "nobody cares about them".

He then spent the next 372 words in a Truth Social post on Thursday afternoon talking about them.

The president singled out two former popular Fox News evening-programme hosts, Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, and right-wing conspiracy theorists Alex Jones and Candace Owens, for criticism. He ticked through each, using derisive language to highlight what he viewed as their past failings and deficiencies.

All four have vocally supported Trump in the past – and comprised part of the president's effort to court right-wing podcasters and social media influencers during his 2024 presidential campaign.

But the president wrote that their views are now the opposite of his "Make America Great Again" movement.

"They're not MAGA, they're losers," he said. "As president, I could get them on my side anytime I want to, but when they call, I don't return their calls because I'm too busy on world and country affairs."

Prior to parting ways with Fox News in 2023, Carlson helmed the network's highest-rated evening programme, averaging more than four million viewers a night. He has since moved to X, where he has built a sizeable audience by advocating a populist strain of conservativism that has at times diverged from Trump's. He has also been accused of spreading misinformation and drifting into conspiracy theories.

Carlson opposed the Iran war from its early days and recently stepped up his criticism, calling Trump's obscenity laced Easter Sunday message to Iran "vile on every level" and labelling his threats to bomb civilian energy and transportation infrastructure a war crime.

After Trump's latest Truth Social post, Carlson said he still loved the president but he feels "sorry for him".

He also echoed a growing sentiment among some on the right that Trump's decision to go to war was a result of undue influence by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The Israelis have him in a hammerlock," he said.

Owens, who recently alleged without providing evidence that Charlie Kirk was assassinated last year because of his anti-Israel views, provided a more blunt assessment of the president.

"It may be time to put Grandpa up in a home," she wrote.

Former Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene, whom Trump mentioned in passing in his post, responded to his comments on X.

"President Trump has gone mad as he wages war against Iran, a broken campaign promise," she wrote. "I fought alongside Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens and Alex Jones to help get Trump elected."

"We never changed," she concluded. "Trump did."

Greene, who dramatically broke with Trump last year over what she said was his lack of transparency in handling government files connected to Jeffrey Epstein, has stepped up her attacks on the president after resigning from Congress in January.

Her criticism of the Iran war, along with that of Carlson, Kelly and others, reflects some of the cracks that have formed in Trump's conservative coalition since the conflict began.

That raises the already high stakes for Trump, as Vice-President JD Vance leads an American delegation to Pakistan to engage in face-to-face negotiations with the Iranians on Saturday.

For the moment, a tenuous two-week ceasefire with Iran is in place. On Friday, however, Trump told the New York Post that the US military was rearming and resupplying in preparation for renewed hostilities with Iran if the talks break down.

If that happens, the likes of Carlson and Greene may have company, as opposition from within Trump's party grows.

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