As Donald Trump’s pleas for help from his European allies go ignored and he lashes out with another tantrum, the fractures in his once iron-clad MAGA camp are growing
Donald Trump is throwing yet more tantrums as NATO allies refuse to give into his demands, but experts warn his biggest crisis looms far closer to home.
Tensions have been brewing between the US and Europe in recent days as other world leaders – including Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron – have rejected Trump’s plea for a ‘joint effort’ to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most vital energy chokepoint responsible for around 20 per cent of global oil flows. Trump, unsurprisingly, has taken the humiliation badly with explosive rants against his allies.
On Wednesday, the US president lashed out again in his trademark fashion, bizarrely backtracking on his pleas for help by insisting that the US ‘never did’ need their assistance. Hitting out at NATO, POTUS called the union between nations a ‘one way street’, declaring on social media: “We no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID!”
READ MORE: Trump’s £150bn war bill as Iran gamble sends petrol prices soaring with taxpayers fumingREAD MORE: Iran war LIVE: Hegseth slams ‘ungrateful’ Europe and demands ‘thanks’ for Trump
More than 1,000 cargo ships, mainly gas and oil tankers, have been blocked from passing through the strait of Hormuz after Tehran shut the passage when war broke out. All the while, gas prices have surged after fresh strikes on energy infrastructure in the Middle East.
The price of gas in Europe has more than than doubled since the US-Israeli war with Iran began, and is likely to drive up household bills for Brits. Mortgages have already been affected with the markets now plunged into more uncertainty.
It’s the same story for Americans. Average fuel prices are up 31% from a month ago and the war is likely to impact food prices, which are already sky high in the States – one of Trump’s key election promises was to reduce the cost of food across the country, but there’s no sign of things improving.
“We clearly just kicked [Iran’s] a** in the field, but, to a large extent, they hold the cards now,” a source close to the White House told Politico. “They decide how long we’re involved, and they decide if we put boots on the ground. And it doesn’t seem to me that there’s a way around that, if we want to save face.”
Trump may be seething at his European allies over the failed Hormuz plan, but it appears the biggest catasrophe is actually unfolding within his own camp. The president’s once feverish fan base is showing its cracks, with some of his closest allies calling the Iran war a mistake – and even a ‘betrayal’ of the American First philosophy he hinged his whole campaign on.
The elephant in the room for MAGA’s most influential figures is Trump’s long-held criticism of regime-change wars in the Middle East, and yet he now finds himself in the thick of one. During his first stint in office, POTUS said that his big win had been helped by his plans to end US interventions in the Middle East, even going as far as saying he had been “elected on getting out of these ridiculous endless wars”.
Now those words are coming back to haunt him. On Tuesday, his internal crisis escalated as Joe Kent, head of the National Counterterrorism Center, became the first senior administration official to resign over the war – sharing a brutal truth that many MAGA friends fear to say aloud.
In an extraordinary interview with Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, Kent blamed Israel for giving the US faulty intelligence in the build-up to the conflict with Iran, and insisted that the president should have continued negotiations with Tehran before unleashing hell on the country.
Far from the narrative that Trump has so far portrayed – that Iran’s suspected nuclear plans need stamping out immediately – Kent claimed that Iran posed no imminent threat and that the war was driven by pressure from Israel. “Key decision makers were not allowed to express their opinions. There wasn’t a robust debate,” Kent claimed.
Hinting further at the fractured culture inside the White House, Kent claimed that staffers with opposing opinions were not allowed to speak to the president.
In his blistering resignation letter, the former special forces soldier wrote: “Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation. The time for bold action is now. You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards.”
In a desperate bid to claw back some authority, Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has today unleashed fury at the media and America’s allies for having ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ – insisting the war in Iran is huge success.
In a seething meltdown, he raged at ‘ungrateful allies in Europe’, suggesting that the entire world “should be saying one thing to President Trump: Thank You.”
Reacting to the growing MAGA nightmare, professor Anthony Glees, a professor of politics at Buckingham who previously served as a special adviser to the Foreign Office, told the Mirror: “In my opinion, we are now seeing both Trump’s authority and his MAGA movement starting to disintegrate.
“Neither the USA nor Israel are in control of events. It is plain that the entire basis on which Trump took America to war was not planned, not thought out, not supported by any intelligence that Iran was about to attack the USA with a nuclear missiles which Trump himself said had been obliterated last June.
“His Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was forced to make a complete fool of herself by refusing to say that Iran posed an ‘imminent threat’ to America and laughably claim it was the president’s job to determine what such a threat was. Along with the resignation of Joe Kent, this shows that within the administration that who are paid to know what is happening are totally out of their depth.”
With the November midterm elections looming, experts say that the Democrats now have the perfect chance to attack Trump’s seemingly fragile fan base and oppose a war that is costing billions of dollars and American lives. If they win, the president could face another possible impeachment.
Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, once a fierce ally of Trump and one of the most influential voices on the right of American politics, has also spoken out against the war, calling the Iran strikes “absolutely disgusting and evil.” Trump responded by saying Carlson has “lost his way” and is “not MAGA.”
The former Fox News host reportedly met with Trump several times last month to try and dissuade him from taking military action. “Countries become less free during war, a spirit of violence descends and people change fast,” he recently said to his millions of YouTube viewers. “You can feel on people the bloodlust, the hate, and it accelerates.”
Not mincing his words, he warned: “Get out right away. It’s just that simple. Of course, it’s also incredibly complicated, but the first step is deciding that we’re leaving.”
In a MAGA media war that is now playing out in front of our very eyes, Trump appears to have lost the faith of Megyn Kelly too – another former Fox journalist and key conservative voice. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, who has so far stayed publicly supportive of Trump’s strategy, is potentially MAGA’S strongest opponent of ‘forever wars’.
Professor Glees warns: “Above all, a war that Trump was convinced could be contained has spread further and further with each day’s fighting, has swept up the whole of the Middle East and the Gulf States, destabilised each and every one of America’s allies in the region and most dangerous of all, brought a Third World War much closer whilst crippling Western economies for years, perhaps decades to come.
“Meanwhile, Putin emerges as a real winner of this conflict because his ally Iran has not been destroyed on the battlefield because it is fighting tooth and nail with its weapons of choice, oil and drones and Russia can now sell more oil to the world and at a even higher price than before.
“Not surprisingly the vital influencers who sustain the MAGA movement realise that Trump’s thrashing about mean they have to cut themselves loose from it. Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly in particular are heeded by millions of Trump voters. And they’re calling it a day.”
“Tucker Carlson, who hopes to be the next president, is the number one figure here. He says the conflict with Iran will prove catastrophic. He’s seen that Trump 2025, the peacemaker, has morphed into Trump 2026 the warlord. MAGA base supporters don’t like this one bit. They’re seeing petrol and gas prices which influence the cost of almost everything go up by as much as 30 per cent this morning.”
Earlier this month, the president tried to downplay the ugly internal battle by insisting that his base is still behind him. Referring to Kelly and Carlson, he told The Independent: “I think that MAGA is Trump — MAGA’s not the other two. MAGA wants to see our country thrive and be safe. And MAGA loves what I’m doing — every aspect of it…
“This is a detour that we have to take in order to keep our country safe and keep other countries safe, frankly.” He argued that Kelly “was opposed to me for years when I ran the first time and nothing stopped me”, adding: “They always come back.”
The dire poll ratings show a different story. The numbers suggest that just one in four Americans support Trump’s “Operation Epic Fury,” with 23 per cent of Republicans saying he was too willing to take military action. A recent NBC News survey found that 54% of Americans disagree with how POTUS has handled Iran.
“What Carlson and his fellow influencers are seeing is what we are all seeing,” professor Glees tells us. “This war is turning into a total disaster for America but also a personal catastrophe for Trump. He’s broken his fundamental contract with America.
“Last year he insisted there would be no more wars of intervention, no forever wars, no boots on the ground and that America First would be behind every policy. It was these core principles that led to his landslide in 2024.”
“But all has been turned upside down by the attack on Iran in cahoots with the Israels, and what makes it worse is that the swift knock-out blow Trump believed he had achieved when at blow, using Israeli intelligence, the USAF destroyed the entire top tier of Iran’s leadership.
“With each passing hour, Starmer’s policy of not attacking Iran but being, quietly, prepared to assist the USA, if not Trump, is proving sound. Our planners are in Washington right now, working out how to keep the Strait of Hormuz open without fighting the ayatollahs. That’s wise and indeed the best thing to do right now. Starmer’s stance could be making him the stateman that Europe needs.”
Meanwhile, John Owens, a professor of United States Government and Politics at The University of Westminster, told The Mirror of the president’s Iran gamble: “Trump promised no more wars in his 2024 campaign, and his MAGA base bought that promise. Now, he’s reneged on that promise with a vengeance – in the process upsetting his erstwhile supporters. His reneging ranks with George WH Bush reneging on ‘no new taxes’ in the late 1980s. But Trump’s action is far more serious and hugely consequential not only for his MAGA supporters but for the US economy and therefore his party’s prospects in the November elections.
“For many conservatives, who have always had reservations on Trump – and many non-conservatives – starting a war against Iran is reckless and his conduct of it, incompetent. Notably, unlike George W. Bush who sought to build a coalition of the willing, when Trump initiated the bombing of Iran he made no effort to cultivate public, party or congressional support in the US – which, of course, is very much in line with his ‘strongman’/authoritarian presidential style. It is hardly surprising then that 70% of Americans oppose military action in Iran, including many erstwhile MAGA supporters egged on in their opposition by disenchanted right wing influences.
“Looking forward to the midterm elections, it has long been assumed that Republicans will lose their narrow majority in the House. Now, as a consequence of rising inflation, especially food prices, and now petrol and gas – and the prospects of stagflation in the US, enhanced by Trump’s bombing of Iran – the Senate could also be in play.”