Key allies to President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement are issuing dire warnings that the president’s support of Israel amid its partial blockade of aid into the Gaza Strip will result in a near-total “collapse of support” among the president’s most diehard supporters.
“It seems that for the under-30-year-old MAGA base, Israel has almost no support, and (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s attempt to save himself politically by dragging America in deeper to another Middle East war has turned off a large swath of older MAGA diehards,” said Steve Bannon, a former White House chief strategist under Trump and influential MAGA figure, speaking with Politico Tuesday.
“Now President Trump’s public repudiation of one of the central tenants of Bibi’s Gaza strategy – starving Palestinians – will only hasten a collapse of support.”
A number of United Nations agencies and UN-backed groups say Gaza is currently experiencing famine conditions, with at least 63 Gazans dying from malnutrition in July, 24 of them children, according to the World Health Organization. Famine conditions have only worsened since Israel implemented a full aid blockade in March, with the country’s replacement for UN aid services distributing less than a fifth of what the UN had before the blockade went into effect.
Bannon was not the only MAGA ally to suggest that Trump may see a collapse in support amid Gaza’s worsening conditions, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) writing on Monday that Israel’s aid blockade and assault on Gaza were equally “horrific” to the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza,” Greene wrote in a social media post on X.
Greene also took aim at her Republican colleague Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) for his comments suggesting Palestinian civilians and children should continue to “starve away” if Israeli hostages are not returned. Greene argued that such rhetoric was “disgraceful,” and would only increase instances of antisemitism.
Even Vice President JD Vance, while coming short of suggesting Trump’s support of Israel amid the Gaza famine could pose an electoral liability for Republicans, said during an event in Ohio Monday that Israel should “do more to let that aid in,” Politico reported.