‘Discordant’: How Trump’s attacks on the Houthis split his Republican base
Divisions on the right between those who believe in a global system backed by US military power and others who see that system as a drain on US resources are not new. In his 2024 presidential campaign, for instance, Trump promised to bring a swift end to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, where Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 49,617 Palestinians — a figure that experts said is likely an undercount, given the thousands of bodies still buried beneath the rubble. “In general, I think we’ve seen the Trump administration taking certain decisions that reflect a willingness to buck convention in ways that some people find alarming, such as moving closer to Russian preferences to end the war in Ukraine,” said Annelle Sheline, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an anti-interventionist think tank. While ambivalence and even outright animosity towards Ukraine has become common on the right, foreign policy writer Matthew Petti, an assistant editor with the libertarian-leaning Reason Magazine, said the conservative movement is being pulled in different directions when it comes to Israel, a longtime US ally. “The question has become impossible to ignore lately, as Israel has become the main justification for US entanglement in the region.” He explained that while a larger generational debate over Israel and US foreign policy plays out, the far right is specifically riven with internal divisions.
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