Washington, DC — The political right in the United States, once nearly unanimous in its support for Israel, is beginning to fracture.

In recent weeks, a small but very significant group of MAGA-aligned conservatives has begun to voice public unease, if not outright condemnation, of Israel's ongoing war in Gaza, as the death toll climbs and images of starving children saturate American screens.

Professor Russell Lucas of James Madison College at Michigan State University told TRT World that this moment may mark a rebalancing within Trump's conservative base.

"We need to keep in mind that the MAGA base of President Trump has more than one outlook," he said.

"There is a strong commitment of Evangelical Christians towards supporting Israel. However, there is also an isolationist wing that wishes to put America First by pulling out of foreign commitments."

That tension is beginning to show.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a noted fixture of Trump-era politics, last week became the first Republican in Congress to describe Israel's war in Gaza as a "genocide."

In a post on X, she said:

"Are innocent Israeli lives more valuable than innocent Palestinian and Christian lives? And why should America continue funding this?"

She went further, accusing Israel's government of "systematically cleansing" Palestinians from the land and urged Christians to confront the morality of US support.

"Many of us, even though we are Christians, no longer want to fund and fight nuclear-armed secular Israel's wars, especially when it leads to starving children and killing innocent people, including Christians," she wrote.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry report, published on August 2, 2025, at least 169 people, including 93 children, have died because of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza.

The UN's children's fund has denounced the scale of children being killed in Gaza, which it says averages out to 28 a day — "the size of a classroom".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies that any starvation is taking place.

US President Donald Trump, however, has acknowledged there is "real starvation" in Gaza. Trump recently asserted that the scenes in Gaza were "real starvation" and that "you can't fake that."

That remark reverberated across conservative circles.

Vice President JD Vance, speaking at an Ohio event, called images of starving children in Gaza "heartbreaking," and pressed Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave.

Steve Bannon, a former Trump strategist and influential voice among the populist right, told Politico that Trump's public shift "would hasten a collapse of support" for Israel among conservatives.

"For the under-30-year-old MAGA base, Israel has almost no support," Bannon said.

Tucker Carlson, a leading conservative commentator, in an interview with the progressive host Ana Kasparian, said, "They (Israel) are not allowed to use my tax dollars to bomb Gaza," accusing Tel Aviv of war crimes and questioning the wisdom of continued US military assistance.

Professor Lucas, who teaches international relations, domestic politics, and the culture of the Middle East, as well as theories of global studies, said this fracturing reflects a deeper ideological battle within the conservative movement.

"Since the US has invested heavily in supporting Israel — with diplomatic support and more problematically to this group, large transfers of weapons — isolationists are objecting," he noted.

"With the humanitarian horror clearly visible of not only a perceived genocide but a policy of famine as well, the isolationist trend is growing in strength."

Professor Lucas noted it shows the evolving influence of factions within the MAGA movement, adding, "It also reflects that supporting the starvation of the people of Gaza is hard to reconcile with Christian values that Evangelicals claim."

Michelle Parsons, president of the 38th District Republican Club PAC in Delaware, echoed that concern, telling TRT World, "Make America Great Again (MAGA), the slogan popularised by Trump, I believe, just want peace."

Still, backlash to Greene's remarks was swift in parts of Washington. Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.), a staunch supporter of Israel, dismissed her claims.

"It's not a genocide. She's entitled to her opinion, but I'm entitled to not really care what her views on that is," he told reporters.

RelatedTRT Global - 'Are innocent Israeli lives more valuable than innocent Palestinian and Christian lives?' — Greene

'Manipulative label'

Despite such pushback, Greene doubled down on Thursday:

"None of this is anti-Semitic and I, along with millions of Americans, refuse that manipulative label."

Her remarks — and those of figures like Bannon and Vance — come as several European nations and Canada have announced their intent to recognise Palestinian statehood in recent days.

Whether these tremors on the American right evolve into an electoral earthquake remains to be seen. In the Senate last week, most Republicans held the line.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said there was no genocide taking place in Gaza.

As agenda-setting voices like Israeli author David Grossman have started speaking out against the "genocide in Gaza", pro-Israel voices in the US like Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street's founder and director, now say they "won’t argue" with those calling it genocide.

However, it is the vocal conservative podcast scene, social media, rightwing radio stations in America, and among parts of the Trump-aligned base, that a subtle shift appears to be under way.

This moment, Professor Lucas stressed, "may be more about what kind of conservative identity the MAGA movement wants to project in the post-war world."