Observers from the MAGA base to the Iranian regime itself have converged on the idea that this is not the foreign policy the slogan promised. The reality is more complex
From New Lines
Much of the MAGA base, the Western left, Global South solidarity networks and the Iranian regime itself have converged, improbably, on the same talking point: The Iran war is not “America First.”
A Bloomberg headline declared it “America Second, Israel First.” Former Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene told journalist Megyn Kelly that American soldiers were “dead and murdered for foreign interests.” Matt Walsh stated, “As Americans, the freedom of Iranians is not our responsibility. If a single American life is lost in the service of that goal, it will be a travesty.”
“The U.S. military is now attacking Iran not because our nation faces an imminent threat but because the Israeli government has long sought confrontation with Tehran and has finally found a willing partner in Washington,” wrote Hussam Ayloush, the CEO of the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA). This sentiment is echoed in the Progressive International, the South African Federation of Trade Unions and the Brazilian leftist Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), which denounced “U.S. imperialism and Israeli Zionism” on the “path of war and barbarism.”
Iran’s temporary leadership council labeled the intervention a betrayal of “America First” and the adoption of “Israel First” foreign policy. The late secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and regime-adjacent analysts worldwide have been quick to frame the strikes as Israel’s war, fought with American bodies and money.
Here is why they are all wrong. The Iran war is actually the purest expression of America First, its direct consequence. America First literally means American interests first.
America First has conventionally been read as isolationist — withdraw U.S. troops, focus on domestic energy reserves, stop fighting other people’s wars — but that confuses the slogan with the structure. In practice, America First can equally mean American interests first, pursued by whatever means are deemed expedient. Donald Trump was elected president for the second time against the backdrop of an increasingly persuasive narrative of Western decline: loss of hegemony as China advances, and growing challenges from BRICS and a Global South coalition that has gained purchase with non-Western audiences across the political spectrum and also with the intelligentsia and progressive commentariat in the West. Shoring up American interests against this backdrop means doubling down on hard power, securing reliable access to key resources (especially oil) and working transactionally with tried-and-tested allies to get quick, demonstrable results unencumbered by norms, consensus-building or the democratic drag of constructing legitimacy under international law.
This intervention also mirrors Trump 2.0 domestic policy. The turmoil in American politics since Trump’s return has been marked by comprehensive, multidimensional, rapid change: seeming chaos with an underlying agenda, prioritization of loyalty above all else, and the use of force where it is deemed necessary, riding roughshod over long-standing constitutional interpretations and societal norms. Fascist trajectories are revolutionary and are distinct from conservatism. While the parallel between domestic and foreign policy is not exact, Trump 2.0 applies the pattern of “you are either with us or against us” internationally to established NATO allies as much as to adversaries, in a way that is transactional and interest-based rather than grounded in shared values. The Iran war is a logical foreign policy outcome of Trump’s revolutionary project.
Nitasha Kaul is a professor of politics, international relations and critical interdisciplinary studies, and director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster, London
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