A longtime MAGA ally has furiously flipped on Donald Trump and called for his impeachment after the president threatened to go to war with Iran.
Podcaster Dave Smith, a frequent guest on the popular Joe Rogan show, apologized for endorsing Trump in the presidential election as he fumed over the potential outbreak of war.
‘I supported him, I apologize for doing so,’ Smith said on an appearance on Breaking Points. ‘He should be impeached and removed.’
Smith cited Trump’s isolationist platform for his reason for supporting him, and pointed to the president’s remarks that he ‘may’ strike Iran and assassinate its leader.
‘This is an absolute betrayal of everything that he ran and campaigned on—and everything he has stood for,’ Smith said.
‘He is going to lose his coalition over this.’
Smith’s condemnation of Trump’s handling of the Israel – Iran conflict joins a growing chorus of his supporters who have broken ranks and urged the president not to go to war.
Earlier this week, Trump slammed Tucker Carlson after the former Fox News host and MAGA diehard said strikes on Iran could ‘end his presidency’.
In his appearance on Breaking Points, Smith echoed Carlson’s warning that the war in the Middle East could doom Trump’s second term in the White House.
‘He is going to lose his coalition over this,’ Smith said.
The comedian also tore into Trump’s apparent willingness to return to the negotiating table with Iran, with the US having previously been locked in talks over Iranian nuclear capabilities before Israel attacked with a ‘pre-emptive strike’ on Friday.
Smith said Trump’s attempts to get Iran back into negotiations ‘is a joke’, branding him an ‘impotent leader.’
‘To be sitting there talking about coming back to the negotiating table—it’s like sitting there after Pearl Harbor and telling FDR now is the time to go negotiate with the Japanese,’ he said.
‘Negotiations are over now.’
After Carlson publicly criticized Trump earlier in the week over potentially striking Iran, the conservative released a bombshell interview with Ted Cruz, who has backed more US military presence in the region.
In one jaw-dropping exchange, the Texas Senator appeared to admit U.S. is already actively engaged against Iranian targets.
Cruz told Carlson that, ‘we’ are conducting strikes in Iran, to which Carlson noted that the senator ‘said Israel was’ previously.
‘Israel is leading them, but we’re supporting them,’ Cruz clarified.
‘You’re breaking news here,’ Carlson responded. ‘The U.S. government last night denied… on behalf of Trump, that we’re acting on Israel’s behalf in any offensive capacity.’
After Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he ‘may or may not’ strike Iran, the president was raced to the Situation Room later in the day after at least three Iranian planes landed on Wednesday in the capital of Oman – the previous site of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks.
The flights raised an alert as they came after Trump said he had ‘run out’ of patience with the Iranian regime, saying ‘they made a mistake’ by letting his 60-day deadline to strike a nuclear deal expire.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he hasn’t made a decision on whether to use U.S. forces to strike Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility, which would officially pull the United States into Israel’s current war with Iran.
‘I’ve been asked about it by everybody but I haven’t made a decision,’ he said, adding that he liked to make a final decision, ‘one second before it’s due.’
During his back-and-forth reporters, he again cracked the door open for a diplomatic solution, though suggested it was less possible now with Israel’s bombing campaign.
‘You know, Iran was very close to signing what would have been a very good agreement for them, and maybe that could still happen. I guess they do want to come and see us, and they want to see me in the White House,’ he said.
‘It’s not that easy for them to come. They can’t get out. You know, they’re in Iran, and in one case, they want to come so badly, but he can’t get out because his bombs dropping all over,’ Trump added.