President Donald Trump has pushed back against mounting criticism that he has not done enough to explain why it was necessary to start a war with Iran now or to articulate his vision for an endgame to the escalating conflict.

The frustration is coming not just from the political left but also from his “Make America Great Again” base, as the conflict expands, energy prices surge, and the death toll in the Middle East rises in a war that the administration suggests may only be in the opening stages.

Trump also seemed to leave open the possibility for a more extensive U.S. military involvement, telling the New York Post on Monday, March 2, 2026, that he was not ruling out the possibility of boots on the ground. It came as Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that the administration would not get into the “foolish” exercise of telegraphing “what we will or will not do.”

“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground, like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump said. “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ (or) ‘if they were necessary.’”

The president and top aides sought to defend his approach as Iran continues to retaliate by firing drones and missiles at Israel, American bases in the region, and at Persian Gulf neighbours. Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia in Lebanon, also traded strikes on Monday, opening another front in the conflict.

Some in the MAGA world are fuming

Trump strode back into office in 2025 on an “America First” pledge to keep the U.S. out of the sort of “forever wars” that bogged down some of his recent White House predecessors. Central to his foreign policy outlook, dating to his first campaign, has been his call to “abandon the failed policy of nation building and regime change.”

He echoed this call during a visit to Saudi Arabia last year, saying that “so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built, and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.”

But now Trump finds himself in a war of his own choosing that’s spurring concern the U.S. could be dragged into another prolonged conflict in the Middle East.

“I’m not happy about the whole thing. I don’t think this was in America’s interests,” Erik Prince, a longtime Trump ally and a prominent private security contractor, said Sunday in an appearance on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. “It’s gonna uncork a significant can of worms and chaos, and destruction in Iran now.”

Prince added, “I don’t see how this is in keeping with the president’s MAGA commitment. I am disappointed.”

Other prominent allies questioning the decision to strike Iran include YouTube host Benny Johnson, influencer Andrew Tate, and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.

Trump, in an interview with journalist Rachael Bade published Monday evening, dismissed some of the concerns as being out of step with the MAGA movement writ large.

“MAGA wants to see our country thrive and be safe. And MAGA loves what I’m doing, every aspect of it,” Trump said. He added that Iran “is a detour that we have to take in order to keep our country safe and keep other countries safe, frankly.”