Trump should listen to Matt Walsh on Iran: America First is skeptical!

The Trump administration continues to try to sell the American people on Israeli-led U.S. strikes on Iran that have killed the ayatollah and dozens of other high-ranking government figures, bringing a murderous and extremist regime to its knees.

But some questions still remain for us, and the administration has a duty to provide answers. President Trump, Vice President Vance, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio and Speaker Mike Johnson have all offered different — and at times conflicting — justifications for the war.

Patriotic conservative Americans, MAGA, America First, whatever you call Trump’s supporters … look, there’s a great deal of agreement that the ayatollah is evil and deserved to die, and the world would be well rid of a regime that hates America and hates Israel. But there are questions, even among the MAGA faithful, about whether this strike is in America’s best interests.

The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, for instance, is a leading conservative pundit and Trump supporter who is not yet sold. He’s been posting on X a lot about this, even drawing a response from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt:

“I supported the Venezuela operation and I’m on board with acquiring Greenland because they both pass the only litmus test I care about: Will it be a net benefit to the United States? Venezuela and Greenland are low risk, high reward. Big wins for our people. We gain much and lose little or nothing. Easy call, as far as I’m concerned.

I’m not actually an isolationist. I’m just an America First conservative in the strictest sense of the term. Does the benefit for America outweigh the cost? It must, or it’s a bad policy. This is one of my absolute core political principles, and always has been. With this Iran thing, I don’t see how the math works in our favor. Or at least it seems highly unlikely that it will work in our favor. And so I’m against it. If that puts me at odds with the administration, and with much of the conservative commentariat, so be it. I have to stick to what I believe.”

He’s got a point. Trump can overcome this, but he has to explain what we’re doing. So let’s walk through it.

Is this about crippling Iran’s nuclear capabilities? If so, well, I thought we did that several months ago? Did we need to decapitate the regime and blow up a school full of children to accomplish it?

Or is it about regime change? If so, why does the administration keep denying that it’s a regime change war? Is it just because that term in particular is unpopular with the American people, but that is the goal? Then that’s rank dishonesty.

Is it about our defense — or, rather, Israel’s defense? This seems the most likely, but if it’s just about a pressing threat to Israel, and not the U.S., then surely Trump should be asking Congress to vote to approve military action. The president can act unilaterally only when the U.S. is threatened, not when some other country is threatened.

Then there are questions about the duration of this conflict: Are we in it until the regime falls? Until there’s new leadership we can work with? Until there’s a deal in place? Until Israel says so? Are we committing ground troops? How many American servicemen are expected to die in retaliatory strikes around the globe? Should we really expect no reaction from Iranian proxy groups? From China?

The administration is going to need to come up with better answers to these questions, because the American people do not want us to get involved in another endless war in the Middle East, for good reason. Trump ran on no new wars. Things change, but this is a new war. If he wants it, he’s gotta sell it — particularly to his millennial supporters, who have permanent Iraq War fatigue.

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.

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