Conservative podcaster Jack Posobiec has said a distinct age gap is emerging within President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement over the Iran war, suggesting those younger than 45 are typically against it and those older are more likely to be in favor.
“You see a big age split on this,” Posobiec told The Washington Post, saying he had noticed the generational division among people contacting his show and at two recent Turning Point USA events at universities in Arizona and Virginia, at which students “were just not on board” with the conflict.
“Not in a sense that they’re anti-American military or pro-Iran or something, but just that they feel that if this war takes place, it’ll take precedence over their issues,” Posobiec said.
His point appeared to be borne out by attendees at CPAC, which got underway in Texas this week with Trump conspicuous by his absence, the first time he has missed the conservative gathering in a decade.
In previous headlining appearances, Trump has decried “ridiculous, endless wars” in the Middle East started by his predecessors, promising his audience last year that his “greatest legacy will be as a peacemaker, not a conqueror.”
“He ran on ‘no new wars,’” Razi Marshall, a 19-year-old student attending the event, told the Post. “There’s a new war. He ran on making stuff more affordable. Stuff’s less affordable. So in my life, I would say overall, I’m less than pleased.”
Marshall said she grew up Republican in upstate New York with Rush Limbaugh on the radio and cast her first ballot for Trump but may not now vote again due to her growing disillusionment.
“What I really wanted was no new wars, Epstein files, things like that. The other party seems to be more in favor of pushing those through.”
Also expressing dismay at CPAC was Benjamin Williams, a 25-year-old marketing specialist for Young Americans for Liberty.
“We did not want to see more wars,” he told the Associated Press. “We wanted actual America-first policies, and Trump was very explicit about that. It does feel like a betrayal, for sure.”
Another student, Tiffany Krieger, 20, said of Trump: “It seems like the love for him is plateauing. We see our party splitting apart and we’re supposed to be united. I think this issue with the war has put a line through the conservative movement.”
Recent weeks have seen a civil war erupt among conservatives, with anti-interventionists like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Marjorie Taylor Greene butting heads with the likes of Mark Levin and the hawkish GOP senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz.
At least two speakers at the event, CPAC senior fellow Mercedes Schlapp and former congressman Matt Gaetz, have already appealed for an end to the division.
As Posobiec suggested, older conference visitors have generally appeared more inclined to back the president’s judgment over Operation Epic Fury than their younger counterparts.
“I don’t believe he started a new war,” said retired defense contractor Joe Ropar, 70. “He was acting in response to a 40-year-old war by Iran. How long were we supposed to wait? I think he did what he had to do when he had to do it. Do nothing? I’m not on board with that.”
Also excusing Trump for reneging on his promises was religious instructor Kelle Phillips, 61, who said: “You campaign on what you want to do and then the world’s dynamics happen. I think the difference is if you have someone in the Iranian regime who wants to destroy America. You can’t reason with them.”
One teenager who was in favor of the war was Musa Suriel, a 19-year-old Zionist student who told the Post: “Obviously, not everyone has to agree that this war is just. Like, I was very pro-regime change, and right now it looks like that might not happen. And now I’m kind of getting to the point where, okay, maybe it isn’t worth it as much anymore.”
A concern that united both camps was the fear that their friends or loved ones could be drafted if the president chose to put boots on the ground, a step Gaetz explicitly warned against.
“A ground invasion of Iran will make our country poorer and less safe,” he said. “It will mean higher gas prices, higher food prices and I’m not sure we’d end up killing more terrorists than we would create.”
While Trump might have been able to act as a unifier had he attended, a White House official told Time he could not be there “due to his schedule,” although he is set to travel to Miami Friday to speak at an investment conference backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and is expected to participate in events in Florida over the weekend.
Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Kendall Witmer had a waspish response to Trump’s absence, saying: “As his approval ratings plummet to historic lows – even by his own standards – he’s hiding from what should be a room filled with his strongest supporters.”
