Has Donald Trump sided with the hawks?

That was fast. In the space of a few weeks, President Donald J. Trump has gone from being the idol of the Republican isolationists to the hero of the hawks. Only a few days ago, the Wall Street Journal editorial page was complaining that “MAGA isolationists want the President to pressure Israel to stop the war before Iran’s nuclear sites are destroyed.” Now, as Israel pounds Iran, Trump increasingly appears to be embracing the role, not of peacemaker, but of a war president – one ready and willing to unleash, or at the very least abet, fire and fury against the mullahs.

The hawks are rejoicing, and they have plenty to rejoice about. “Bombs away,” Florida Congressman Randy Fine observed on X after Trump announced that it was time for Iranians to “immediately evacuate” Tehran or else. Trump himself lashed out at the detractors in his MAGA base who have decried his embrace of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. For former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s complaint that he was providing succor to “warmongers,” Trump expressed nothing but contempt. “I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen,” Trump said on Monday at the G7 conference. On Truth Social, Trump made it personal: “Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.” So much for Trump’s antiwar votaries – or “America First.”

Despite numerous claims that Trump would intervene to end the conflict diplomatically, it appears that he is upping the ante. He and Netanyahu are not aiming for a modus vivendi with a defanged Iran but for something that Trump has for over a decade campaigned against in the Middle East: regime change. What was once out is now in. 

What gives? As ever with the morally flexible Trump, he is biased in favor of success. Now that Israel’s assault on Iran appears to be successful, Trump wants in on the action. NBC News is reporting that Trump has instructed the White House National Security Council to be prepared to meet him in the situation room upon his early return from the G7 meeting. 

So far, Trump has provided Israel with vital assistance in helping to impede Iranian ballistic missiles from striking Israel. But the big question is whether it really will be “bombs away,” as the hawks are advocating, or whether Trump will stay on the sidelines. It would be no small irony if Trump were to bury the Iraq syndrome by unleashing American B-52s to launch bunker-busting bombs to demolish Iran’s nuclear site Fordow. Trump has never hesitated to go big in the past, as when he decided to eliminate the Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. My belief is that Trump will approve an American bombing campaign targeting Fordow. After he does, the die will be cast and his administration, as Steve Bannon is warning. Trump’s stock will rise or fall on the outcome of his decision.

Once upon Trump decried wars of choice in the Middle East. No longer. As Israel pummels Iran, Trump appears to be jettisoning his former MAGA comrades and embracing his inner neocon.