President Trump insists MAGA 'loves' his war on Iran: 'MAGA people are smart'
President Donald Trump said the Make America Great Again base "loves" his aggressive military campaign on Iran in a wide-ranging interview Thursday on "The Five."
"MAGA loves the fact that they're not going to have somebody with a nuclear bomb over their head," Trump said on "The Five."
"We have people that are weak or stupid or low-IQ people that don't mind having Iran have a nuclear weapon. The MAGA people are smart."
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The president referenced a recent NBC News poll measuring GOP support for the conflict, which found that 90% of MAGA-aligned Republicans support the war, while 5% oppose it.
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld pressed Trump on how he is addressing concerns among some MAGA voters as his war on Iran approaches the one-month mark.
"Let’s say they voted for you on the assumption of no wars, and then this happens, and it's inconsistent with their wishes. What would you say to them?" Gutfeld asked.
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"You can't let a madman, or you can't let a mad ideology have a nuclear weapon," he responded.
Trump argued U.S. strikes on Iran were necessary to prove American military strength and to help the broader world.
"In order to keep our country great, I said, ‘We're going to take a fairly short detour. We're going to show everybody that there's nobody even coming close to us militarily — nobody even comes close. We have the greatest weapons. We have the strongest military,'" he said.
According to an NBC poll, which was analyzed most notably by CNN, 54% of Republicans who do not identify as MAGA support strikes against Iran, while roughly 36% oppose them, underscoring dissension about Trump’s war stance from different corners of the GOP.
"I think MAGA's almost the whole Republican Party, you want to know the truth," he said. "Almost every single person that I endorse wins."
The president reiterated that MAGA supporters back his foreign policy agenda, saying his popularity is higher than ever.
"I think I'm more popular than I ever have been. Look, when he heard 100%, he said, 'I've never seen a poll like this. This is the craziest poll I've ever seen.' It was 100% of the people.
"And the reason is, they like that I'm protecting our country from lunatics with a nuclear weapon."