Steve Bannon warns Trump against heavy US involvement in Iran

Steve Bannon warned in stark terms against the Trump administration getting involved in a lengthy conflict in Iran, lighting into Republicans and conservative talking heads who he said have been beating the drums of war.

“We can’t have another Iraq,” Mr. Bannon warned at a breakfast with reporters hosted Wednesday by The Christian Science Monitor, saying that another war in the Middle East would “tear this country apart.”

Mr. Bannon, who described himself as “one of the biggest names in MAGA,” served as White House chief strategist at the beginning of the first Trump administration. His “War Room” podcast has a huge following of Trump supporters, and he retains some sway with the president.

In recent days, Mr. Bannon has led the charge against the Trump administration getting more involved in the growing military conflict between Israel and Iran, fighting back against more hawkish Republicans who don’t share his “America First” foreign policy views.

Mr. Bannon criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for seeming to expect that the United States would back up Israel in the conflict. He suggested that even faster-paced estimates are that Iran is at least a year from having atomic weapons, and said that the onus is on Israel – not the U.S. – to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

“The Israelis have to finish what they started. They started this. They should finish it,” he said.

He also took aim at Fox News, a mostly pro-Trump conservative news network that has featured a number of commentators taking a more bellicose tone toward Iran in recent days. Mr. Bannon called them “Johnny-come-latelies” in supporting the president and Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, accusing them of abandoning the president immediately after the 2020 election, which he falsely claimed was “stolen” from President Trump.

“Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, where were they in the darkest days of the MAGA movement?” he asked rhetorically.

Israel’s attacks on Iran have so far been highly successful militarily. Prime Minister Netanyahu has suggested that toppling the Iranian regime may be a goal, floating the idea of assassinating Iran’s supreme leader. Some U.S. Republicans have pushed regime change as well.

Mr. Bannon warned against that path, mocking the “absurdity” of discussing potential U.S.-backed successors in Iran whom few people had even considered seriously until recent days.

“It hasn’t been relevant until 72 hours ago, because we never considered that we’re going to have immediate regime change,” he said. “We never talked about regime change in Iran.”

President Trump is weighing his options for supporting Israel’s strikes against Iran, and demanded Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” on social media Tuesday, without making clear what that would mean. He added that the U.S. didn’t plan to assassinate Iran’s leader “at least not for now.” Mr. Trump has refused to say exactly what he’ll do – with options including potential airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities that Israeli bombs aren’t big enough to damage.

“I may do it, I may not do it,” he told reporters Wednesday morning. “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded in a televised address, saying any U.S. military intervention in Iran “will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage.”

Mr. Bannon cited recent YouGov polling for The Economist showing that only 16% of Americans think the U.S. military should get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran, including less than a quarter of Republicans.

“The American people overwhelmingly tell you we want to get out of the Middle East. We don’t want any more forever wars. We’ve spent 20 years in Afghanistan. We’re still in Iraq today,” he said. If President Trump decides to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities or escalate more broadly, the president knows he needs to “make the case not just to MAGA, but to the American people of why we would get involved in another war over there as a combatant, particularly given everybody’s bitter feelings about Iraq and Afghanistan.”

While Mr. Bannon had harsh words for the Republicans pushing for the U.S. to back up Israel more aggressively in the conflict, he was careful not to criticize the president himself, and defended Mr. Trump’s top Cabinet officials.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, a strong skeptic of foreign military intervention whose foreign policy views largely align with Mr. Bannon’s, has reportedly fallen out of favor with President Trump and wasn’t included at a recent Iran-related national security meeting. Mr. Bannon said that she was in the Situation Room on Tuesday, and praised her – as well as the rest of Mr. Trump’s immediate Cabinet, including more traditionally hawkish members like Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Mr. Bannon said that he “went to fixed bayonets” to get many of these officials confirmed by the Senate, particularly singling out Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s tough nomination fight. He also noted he had recommended that Mr. Trump give Secretary Rubio the dual position of acting national security adviser, describing him as a “safe pair of hands” who has the trust of the president. Mr. Rubio currently holds both positions.

“I think he’s got an extraordinary Cabinet,” Mr. Bannon said.

He said there were still opportunities to avoid a dramatic escalation of U.S. involvement in Iran, which Israel attacked last Thursday.

“There’s a lot of hot talking back and forth. The ayatollah certainly didn’t help the cause of diplomacy this morning by doing a hard throwdown on this talk he gave the Iranian people. But I think leveler heads will prevail,” he says. “I think the president’s going to look for a broad range of input.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated with an expanded version on June 18, the day of initial publication.