Rubio's war remarks blow open MAGA elites' Israel split

• "And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties ... And then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn't act," Rubio continued.
• Rubio added later: "Obviously, we were aware of Israeli intentions and understood what that would mean for us, and we had to be prepared to act as a result of it.  But this had to happen no matter what."

The widely repeated translation: The U.S. couldn't stop its ally — a far smaller nation that America arms, funds and protects — from attacking Iran on Saturday. So the U.S. had to strike Iran, too.

• Not quite, U.S. officials said later. Regardless of Israel, they said, Trump ordered the strikes because he felt Iran was negotiating a nuclear deal in bad faith, and the U.S. needed to destroy the country's offensive military infrastructure.
• "This operation needed to happen," Rubio told reporters, because Iran was developing too many missiles too quickly and was rebuilding its nuclear capabilities.

The big picture: Rubio's remarks were widely interpreted as making the U.S. look subordinate to Israel's interests. And they inflamed already angry MAGA elites who had spent the day railing against President Trump's decision to go to war.

On their podcasts and social media, frustrated pro-Trump influencers argued the president had become beholden to the military hawks and neocons he explicitly ran against.

• Anti-Israel voices on the right — as well as openly antisemitic influencers who've clawed toward the mainstream in recent years — claimed vindication.

Between the lines: Even some traditional Trump allies think the White House's messaging has been muddled. The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh wrote on X as MAGA fractured over Rubio's remarks: "So he's flat out telling us that we're in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand. This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said."

• But Philip Klein, editor of National Review Online, wrote that those who think Rubio "said that Netanyahu forced the U.S. into war ... are conflating the question 'Why?' with the question of 'Why now?' ... Rubio was not trying to argue that Israel dragged the U.S. into this war."

Zoom in: Rubio was on Capitol Hill to make the case for military action to Congress — and to bring clarity to a series of open questions and shifting explanations for Trump's war against Iran.

• On Saturday, administration officials told reporters in a background briefing that the U.S. struck because Iran was preparing to attack American forces in the region. No intelligence backed that claim.
• What the briefing left out: Iran was preparing to retaliate only because Israel was about to strike first.

Reality check: The picture critics are painting — of a U.S. reluctantly pulled into war by a smaller ally — obscures the deep coordination between the two countries in the weeks before the strike.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been urging Trump to strike Iran since December — but Israeli officials say he wouldn't have moved without Trump's explicit approval.
• It's highly unlikely Netanyahu would've struck Iran without Trump's green light, Israeli officials added. If Trump had preferred to keep negotiating, the strike would have been postponed.

Over the past year, Trump has repeatedly reined in Netanyahu from aggressive military operations, including his bombing campaign last year in Syria.

• And Trump essentially forced the Israeli prime minister to accept a Gaza peace plan that resulted in Hamas releasing all of its remaining hostages and the remains of others.

• Netanyahu pushed back Monday night, telling Fox News' Sean Hannity that Trump "can't be dragged" into anything — and that the president acts on his own judgment.

Mike Cernovich, a prominent pro-Trump social media figure, said on X: "Rubio's comments are a record scratch moment. He said what most guessed was the case. That he said [this] out loud ... is a sea change in foreign policy. There will be massive calls for a walk back."

• Megyn Kelly said on her show that she has "serious doubts about what we're doing."
• Trump donor Erik Prince, who founded the Blackwater security firm, said the decision would "uncork a significant can of worms and chaos and destruction."

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon expressed befuddlement on his "War Room" podcast.

• "If we knew Israel would strike and Iran would retaliate against us, where was the coordination?" Bannon said. "We need a strategic explanation."

Nick Fuentes, the influential white nationalist who opposes Trump over his support for Israel, wrote Sunday: "This is a war of aggression for Israel."

• "Americans will die in terrorist attacks and in missile strikes so that Israel can expand its borders in every direction. Trump, Vance, and Rubio sold us out," Fuentes said.

Zoom out: As with last year's bombing campaign, which many of the same critics opposed, a majority of Republicans still back Trump's decision, and a small minority opposes it.

• The GOP support level for Trump, however, varies from poll to poll.
• A supermajority of independent and Democratic voters oppose the bombing.

Some in the MAGAsphere are lining up in support of Trump's Iran attacks.

• Laura Loomer, a pro-Trump activist, took to X to recount a phone call she had with Trump over the weekend in which she congratulated him on the strikes. "He's a hero, and he makes our country proud," she posted Saturday.

Radio host Mark Levin said Saturday that Trump's move shows "what a real leader looks like."

What they're saying: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that "President Trump's courageous decision to launch Operation Epic Fury is grounded in a truth that presidents for nearly 50 years have been talking about, but no president had the courage to confront: Iran poses a direct and imminent threat to the United States of America and our troops in the Middle East."

• "The rogue Iranian regime under the evil hand of the ayatollah has killed and maimed thousands of American citizens and soldiers over the years — and that ends with President Trump."

Read Rubio's full remarks.