MAGA's civil war over Donald Trump's conflict in Iran descends into personal attacks

A civil war within the MAGA movement is getting more lewd by the day as prominent right-wing figures feud online over the war in Iran.

Fox News commentator Mark Levin, a staunch supporter of Israel and the war, started the latest bout when he went after former co-worker-turned-podcaster Megyn Kelly.

"Poor Megyn Kelly. An emotionally unhinged, lewd and petulant wreck. She's completely revealed and destroyed herself," he proclaimed on X.

The post was in relation to her vocal criticism of US President Donald Trump's decision to attack Iran.

His attack was personal, so Kelly responded in turn.

"Micropenis Mark thinks he has the monopoly on lewd … he doesn't like it when women like me fight back. Bc [sic] of his micropenis."

Kelly and Levin's social media posts are read by millions of people, including the president.

Trump rushed in to support Levin, calling him "THE GREAT ONE", and said those who speak ill of him will "quickly fall by the wayside".

"THEY ARE NOT MAGA, I AM, and MAGA includes not allowing Iran, a Sick, Demented and Violent Terrorist Regime, to have a Nuclear Weapon to blow up the United States of America," he proclaimed on Truth Social.

The rupturing right

But the war in Iran has caused a growing rift within the very movement Donald Trump created.

Some of the most prominent and vocal figures that helped propel him to the Oval Office a second time have also been some of the most aggressive critics of his foreign policy, arguing it is not "America First".

Right-wing firebrand and former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has often been leading the commentary against the president.

Once great allies, the two had a falling out last year after she pursued the release of the Epstein files.

When the president backed Levin in this online fracas, she chimed in, supporting Kelly.

"Trump's gigantic defence of Levin only enraged the base more. People are DONE," she posted.

Sizing up the online situation, Levin declared: "These reprobates have nothing but lies and conspiracies and hate".

Phallic attacks aside, Greene and Kelly are not alone in their anti-war isolationist views.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon and alt-right commentator Candace Owens have all launched their own scathing assessments on the US launching billions of dollars of weaponry at Iran.

Americans' social media feeds have been littered with vitriol and name-calling between right-wing commentators who support or oppose the military operation against the Iranian regime.

"I find it to be very infuriating," conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler told the ABC.

She says the "podcast wars" are stirring up problems for the future, and that conservative commentators should be focused on trying to talk to the American people while "debunking the lies that are coming from the mainstream media and from the left".

"We're the thought leaders of the Conservative movement … if we're actually just talking about ourselves and hurling ad hominems, then we're being delinquent in what we are called to do."

Under Trump's presidency, Wheeler believes conservatives can reform and "dismantle institutions that have been captured by the left".

"It is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and it is being squandered now by people who would rather throw insults on X."

The midterm effect

When Trump was inaugurated in January 2025 he said he wanted to be remembered as a "peacemaker and unifier".

"We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end — and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into," he said at the time.

It led to one of the loudest applauses during his speech.

Now in the third week of the war with Iran, the president continues to face sustained pressure from usually supportive conservative influencers, podcasters, journalists and online agitators.

He has brushed it aside, declaring that what he says goes and that he "is MAGA". To a degree this is true.

The movement revolves around him, and he has a loyal following that will vote Republican no matter what he says or does.

He has also found support in more traditional Republicans he likes to sledge as "Rinos" — Republican in name only.

Liz Wheeler does not believe President Trump would drag the US into a prolonged conflict and feels some in the MAGA coalition are "conflating any military action with a forever war".

"I don't think the vast majority of voters feel that way; it's just the loudest voices who are saying that," she said.

But if the broad MAGA coalition that united behind Trump in 2024 can't find a way to coexist in 2026, it poses major problems for Republicans and great opportunities for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections in November.

Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives.

Americans choose to leave the house to go out to vote in each election. It is not compulsory. Many people often need motivation. That motivation can shape elections.

If the influential voices they read, watch and listen to daily are too busy attacking each other and sending mixed messages, then it could risk blowing up the remainder of the Republican president's term.

That would be an unsolicited but welcome gift for the Democrats.