{"id":20681,"date":"2026-03-28T11:02:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T11:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/the-war-in-iran-is-driving-a-generational-divide-between-maga-men-at-cpac\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T11:02:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T11:02:05","slug":"the-war-in-iran-is-driving-a-generational-divide-between-maga-men-at-cpac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/the-war-in-iran-is-driving-a-generational-divide-between-maga-men-at-cpac\/","title":{"rendered":"The war in Iran is driving a generational divide between MAGA men at CPAC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

GRAPEVINE, TEXAS \u2014 Joseph Bolick feels betrayed by President Donald Trump. And it\u2019s because of the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran voted for Trump in 2024. But at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference gathering this week he sported a hat emblazoned with \u201cAmerica First\u201d \u2014 a slogan Trump championed during his campaign, along with the promise not to start new wars in foreign countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s lied about everything,\u201d said Bolick. \u201cIf you go into a war where there\u2019s no end game, how is it going to end? There\u2019s no clear objective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolick is part of a cohort of young MAGA loyalists who are increasingly frustrated with Trump over the war in Iran. While Trump\u2019s decision to join Israel in attacking Iran has rallied war hawks and his older supporters, it has alienated many of the young men who swung toward the GOP in 2024. That split is resonating among not only the rank-and-file, but also conservative media influencers and some corners of the White House.<\/p>\n

The generational divide was on stark display at CPAC, the annual conservative base-rallying gathering, where some young MAGA loyalists expressed deep frustration and even anger at the Trump administration\u2019s choice to reignite conflict in the Middle East. One month into the war, Trump\u2019s shaky ground with young men threatens to fracture an already-fragile GOP coalition ahead of a hostile midterm in November.<\/p>\n

At the conference in north Texas, some attendees carried around Iranian flags, pledging loyalty to the U.S. mission overseas, while others donned America First hats and preached about the need for anti-interventionism.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump and Republicans in general are going to have major issues in the midterms, in 2028, if we can\u2019t wrap this up in a relatively quick amount of time,\u201d said 21-year-old Andrew Belcher, president of the Ohio College Republicans. He added that Trump is doing \u201crelatively poorly\u201d with hyper online young men who are influenced heavily by media figures like Tucker Carlson and other isolationists in the GOP.<\/p>\n

A Blue Light News poll this month<\/a> found that Trump voters largely continue to back him. But men who self-identified as \u201cMAGA Republicans\u201d and voted for Trump in 2024 are deeply split by generation over their trust in the president and their view of the war, especially if the number of U.S. casualties rises.<\/p>\n

The contrast was striking, even with the larger margins of error that come from the smaller sample sizes: More than 70 percent of those over 35 believe Trump has a plan, compared with 49 percent of those under 35. A 66 percent majority of older MAGA men are willing to sacrifice American lives in order for the U.S. to achieve its goals in Iran, compared with less than half of younger MAGA men who say the same. And the younger men are significantly less likely to say the war is aligned with MAGA principles and in the interests of American people.<\/p>\n

\"Scores<\/p>\n

Some of the most prominent MAGA voices are opposed to the Iran war, like Carlson and Megyn Kelly, along with influential figures like Joe Rogan, who holds tremendous sway with young men. There\u2019s even growing consternation among younger, more-right wing White House staffers, said one person familiar with the dynamics who was granted anonymity to discuss them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re very frustrated. They didn’t love the war to start with, and since it began, the constantly contradictory messaging from the president himself, is just brutal, brutal for staff to deal with and making their life really hard,\u201d the person said. \u201cHe puts his people in a really tough position, especially people who are public-facing.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat matters most to the American people \u2013 including young men \u2013 is having a Commander-in-Chief who takes decisive action to eliminate threats and keep them safe, which is exactly what President Trump is doing with the ongoing successful Operation Epic Fury,\u201d said White House spokesperson Davis Ingle.<\/p>\n

Part of CPAC\u2019s intent, a hallmark grassroots gathering that has been held for more than 50 years, is to hype up conservatives, a particularly important mission for party leaders in critical election years. If Republicans want to prevent Democrats from flipping the House this midterm cycle, they need to ensure they don’t lose any gains they made with key parts of their coalition in 2024, namely young men.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need you,\u201d said former RNC chair Michael Whatley, who is running for Senate in North Carolina. \u201cWe need every conservative, every Republican, every patriot across this country to focus on two things: get out the vote and protect the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes Schlapp, senior fellow for the CPAC Foundation, opened Thursday\u2019s session by pleading with conservatives to remain united. \u201cWe cannot divide from within,\u201d she cautioned attendees.<\/p>\n

But interviews with a dozen young men at CPAC revealed broad concern that Trump is imperiling the U.S. economy, which has seen spiking gas and fuel prices caused by the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the young generation feels that there\u2019s just not a lot of hope for the economy,\u201d said a 30-year old attendee who was granted anonymity to speak freely about party dynamics.<\/p>\n

Onstage and in hallway conversations, older attendees celebrated Trump for ending what they called a 47-year conflict in Iran, marked by the death of Iran\u2019s supreme leader.<\/p>\n

A panel featuring Iranian women speaking about human rights abuses was met with loud cheers from the audience. Scores of mostly older conservatives milled about wearing shirts with the image of exiled Iran Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who is set to speak at the conference on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe President Trump\u2019s shock and awe is what they needed,\u201d said Lawrence Ligas, a 63-year-old conservative Chicago activist who was pardoned by Trump for charges related to the Jan. 6 insurrection. \u201cYoung MAGA is causing this divide because they\u2019re concerned about being drafted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple speakers on stage both directly and indirectly roasted online influencers for their opposition to the war. Conservative political commentator Josh Hammer blasted Carlson and Kelly in particular as \u201cdoomsayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his speech, former Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz told the audience that \u201cdissent and disagreement has to be allowed. Tucker Carlson isn’t going anywhere.\u201d Gaetz, who resigned in 2024 after being briefly nominated by Trump for attorney general, then warned about the risks of military occupation in Iran.<\/p>\n

“A ground invasion of Iran will make our country poorer and less safe,\u201d the 43-year-old said. \u201cIt will mean higher gas prices, higher food prices. And I’m not sure if we would end up killing more terrorists than we would create.”<\/p>\n

Megan Messerly contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GRAPEVINE, TEXAS \u2014 Joseph Bolick feels betrayed by President Donald Trump. And it\u2019s because of the war in Iran. The 30-year-old Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran voted for Trump in 2024. But at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference gathering this week he sported a hat emblazoned with \u201cAmerica First\u201d \u2014 a slogan Trump championed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}