With Israel having launched its preemptive attack against Iran and its nuclear program last Thursday, the fight for the survival of the Jewish State against a genocidal dictatorship has certainly been in the news. Such a fight is going on as President Donald Trump and his administration fight antisemitism in the United States. Trump must also contend with those who take issue with this fight against Iran being able to acquire a nuclear weapon somehow being against "America First." Throughout all of this, polling shows that Trump supporters and Republicans overall are indeed concerned with antisemitism.
Trump, as Katie covered earlier this week, reminded in an interview with The Atlantic that he gets to decide what "America First" means, and he's also been fully transparent when it comes to making clear that Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon. He's reiterated this over Truth Social as well. Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday mentioned Trump's consistency when supporting the president in a post over X, as Katie also covered.
Look, I'm seeing this from the inside, and am admittedly biased towards our president (and my friend), but there's a lot of crazy stuff on social media, so I wanted to address some things directly on the Iran issue:
— JD Vance (@JDVance) June 17, 2025
First, POTUS has been amazingly consistent, over 10 years, that…
In addition to being clear about Iran for over 10 years now, Trump has also now began to call out Tucker Carlson over his concerns about any involvement in Iran. "Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, 'IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!'" Trump said in a post on Monday night.
The post came after Trump had been asked in person at the G7 summit about Carlson, as well as the same day as when Carlson appeared on Steve Bannon's "War Room" to express concerns about Trump's presidency and even the American empire when it comes to any involvement from the United States in Iran.
In his comments that have certainly received plenty of attention over social media and in the news, Carlson expressed concerns to Bannon, though he started off by making clear that "I actually really love Trump, I think he's a deeply humane, kind person."
Carlson added that "I am saying this because I'm really afraid that my country is going to be further weakened by this. I think we're going to see the end of the American Empire," even adding an "obviously" and pointing out that "other nations would like to see that."
"But it's also going to end, I believe, Trump's presidency, effectively end it," Carlson continued, which prompted Bannon to ask him to clarify what he meant by such a stunning prediction. Carlson went on to bring up how President George W. Bush's presidency was affected so much by the Iraq War, as well as how he believes the United States is "scary unprepared" for a serious conflict.
Carlson also went on to stress that "the only reason I'm saying any of this is because I really, really care."
TUCKER CARLSON: The reason I'm speaking out is because if we get dragged into this, we could be witnessing the end of the American empire.
— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) June 16, 2025
It could effectively end Trump's presidency.
I've seen it happen myself with George W. Bush and Iraq.@TuckerCarlson pic.twitter.com/bFzAEA7hff
Carlson and Bannon also discussed the matter on Carlson's show, shared over X, at the beginning of the interview, specifically if war with Iran could be the downfall of the MAGA movement, which Trump is also in charge of.
Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon on how the president’s enemies are working to destroy MAGA with the war on Iran.
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 16, 2025
(0:00) Will the Iran War Be the Downfall of MAGA?
(6:55) Fox News’ Pro-War Propaganda
(12:42) The Never-Trumpers Pretending to Be On Trump’s Team
(15:30)… pic.twitter.com/PdUZFiUNNZ
It is in this landscape that Cygnal's Brent Buchanan put out his Tuesday daily takes. Citing coverage from Mediaite about the "War Room" appearance, Buchanan highlighted a "GOP divider," adding that "83% of Trump voters are concerned about rising antisemitism. Trump voters are the most likely at 55% to say the Jewish people aren't treated fairly. Tucker is just wrong on this one as to where Trump's base is." Buchanan went on to cite some data from the latest Cygnal poll, which was released last week.
Although the poll had a heavy focus on support for Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill," the poll also showed that 81.5 percent of respondents are "concerned" about "rising antisemitism" in this country. Eighty-three percent of Republicans and Democrats, as well as 77 percent of Independents said they were concerned. They were about the same for those who voted for Trump versus then Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, at 83 percent and 82 percent, respectively.
The poll also looked to how fairly various groups of people were treated, including white people, black people, Hispanic people, Asian people, Native American people, Muslim people, Jewish people, and Palestinian people. The demographic that respondents were most likely to say was treated "very unfairly" was Native Americans (28.4 percent), followed by Palestinian people (25.0 percent) and Jewish people (23.9 percent).
Buchanan highlighted in his daily takes from Tuesday how this very much is split along party lines. "Republicans say Jewish (57%), White (40%), and Native American (38%) peoples were treated most unfairly," he mentioned, while "Democrats say Black (73%), Palestinian (70%), and Native American (70%) peoples." He also noted that "Older voters are 10 points more likely than those under 55 to say Jewish people face unfair treatment."
As the poll's "Insights & Analysis" also mentioned [emphasis original]:
- 82% of voters are concerned about rising antisemitism. When asked which groups are treated most unfairly, voters believe Jewish people (-12 net) and Native Americans (-17 net) are treated the most unfairly in society today.
- Older voters are over 10 points more likely than those under 55 to say Jewish people face unfair treatment.
- Notably, among those who say the country is headed in the right direction, Jewish people are the only group seen as treated as net-unfairly.
The poll was conducted June 3-4 with 1,500 likely general election voters for 2026 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.51 percentage points.
Although it was conducted and released before Israel went through with its attack against Iran, attacks against Jews had already taken place, including the assassination of a soon-to-be engaged couple last month as the two, who worked at the Israeli embassy, left the Jewish Capital Museum, and the fire bombing of Jews in Boulder, Colorado who were marching in support of those held hostage by Hamas after being taken captive as part of the October 7, 2023 attack.
