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June 16, 2025 - Lionel Nation
13:36
What Happened to AMERICA FIRST? Trump’s Foreign War Frenzy Has MAGA Patriots Asking Questions
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As you can probably imagine, maybe you've got these stupid friends of mine who love to protest against Trump.
And I said, well, it's interesting.
I said, you know, believe it or not, if you want to protest against him, maybe I can give you some good reasons or good bases for you to protest.
because there are some things that I think he has definitely done wrong.
I don't want him removed like they do, but...
I mean, this is as far as they go.
Or that he's destroying the Constitution.
I'm saying, how is he destroying the Constitution?
How?
I don't know.
What are you talking about?
Well, the real issue that I have, and a lot of people are having more and more, is what happened to America first?
This is huge.
This is huge.
I mentioned I put in an email or a newsletter and somebody said, yeah!
You talk about Iran.
Wait till they start sending missiles your way.
Iran's going to send missiles here?
Are we losing our minds?
Iran is just becoming this chimera, this horrible monster, this Cerberus.
It's incredible.
So the question I have, and I think a lot of people should ask, is what happened to America first?
And the question that I'm saying isn't coming from CNN or the New York Times or Ms. DNC.
It's coming from the very heart of those of us who are 100% for Trump.
From the heart of the MAGA movement.
From people who campaigned for Donald Trump.
People who remember 2020.
From those who packed rallies, who chanted, build the wall, lock her up, drain the swamp.
Remember that?
And who believed in the fundamental reset, the great reset of U.S. foreign policy.
And now those same voices, those same people, absolutely are asking a brutal, direct, but fair question.
Why are we involved in so many wars?
And don't give me this business about, well, we're anti-Semitic.
Stop.
That trope is done.
It's like racist.
No, no, no, no, no.
This has nothing to do with being anti-Semitic.
You know it and I know it.
Now, Tucker Carlson's led the way.
And Tucker, whether you like it or not, whether he deserves this position or not, I don't know, but he recently posed this very dilemma.
And it's triggered a seismic wave.
Alex Jones and others and people who really, I don't, perhaps maybe I, I don't follow these people, but I see who's saying what.
Marjorie Taylor Greene?
There is a seismic wave across the MAGA landscape, if you will.
And once among Trump's staunchest supporters is Tucker, and others as well, not just him.
But they're listening to Sachs, and they're listening to Judge Knapp, and they're listening to Colonel McGregor and John Mearsheimer.
They're now raising red flags over the administration's backing of foreign military strikes, particularly in the Middle East.
And by the way, when we say the Middle East, we mean Israel.
We say Middle East.
We're not going to Israel.
And now it's Iran.
And it's not just rhetoric, it's policy.
And it's a tremendous departure from the America First platform that helped redefine the Republican Party.
So when Trump first ran for president, as you know, he denounced the endless wars.
He called out the Bush-era neocons.
He slammed...
He talked about the deep state, whatever.
And he promised to bring our troops home.
And then it changed from day to day.
He would say this.
I don't know if he was double-crossing.
Was he trying to pretend he was negotiating with Iran so they'd be thrown off?
I don't know.
A lot of people say, who cares whether we lie to Iran or not?
Well, that's not a good way to think.
I know.
I know it's that exceptionalism.
America thinks like, ah, we don't need that.
We can do whatever we want.
Screw you.
We're the king of the hell.
I don't buy that, though.
Trump promised to bring our troops home and rebuild America, the infrastructure.
But in 2025, under his, I guess, renewed or different leadership, we see U.S. weapons and U.S. dollars and U.S. intel supporting multiple, multiple Proxy battles, Iran, Ukraine, Africa, even now whispers of engagement in the South China Sea.
Dear God!
And the White House, remember Nancy Pelosi wanted Taiwan.
I mean, this is the weirdest thing.
And the White House claimed that these moves are about preemptive defense, whatever that means.
That's like anticipatory self-defense, you know, anticipatory, these unique doctors.
Triinal bases for this.
That we must protect our allies.
That rogue regimes and nations like Iran and North Korea must be checked and stopped.
But who defines what a threat is?
And why is the burden always placed on American taxpayers and American weapons systems and American intel and satellites and potentially American lives?
Why?
And I'm sorry, this isn't about Tucker.
Tucker ain't alone in this.
Large segments, huge swaths of Trump's base, blue-collar conservatives and independent thinkers and young anti-globalists who believed him are now questioning whether this new posture, if it is a new posture, is in essence a betrayal of the core principles that was MAGA.
Or is it simply I don't want to use this fancy word, realpolitik in a dangerous world.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know what's going on here.
Is Trump still the outsider fighting the swamp and draining the swamp, or has he been slowly swallowed by it?
Now, that's the elephant in the room, okay?
Ask anyone on the street what America First means, and they'll tell you, no more foreign wars, strong borders, fair trade, and a government that finally puts its citizens.
Before the bureaucrats in Brussels or Beijing, great.
But today, today those same voters see headlines of airstrikes and weapon shipments and covert operations and they hear talk of defending democracy abroad?
And there's quotes around it.
What?
While our cities rot?
Potholes?
Infrastructure?
Bridges falling apart?
Our border is breached.
What about our wall?
Did we stop the wall?
Did we build the wall yet?
Are we done with the wall?
Are they coming over the border?
Did that stop?
Our young men and women overdosing on fentanyl.
What are we doing?
And then you see Lindsey Graham, Gomer Pyle, cheering from the sidelines.
They see, I guess, think tanks and all these folks salivating over new conflicts.
And they wonder, who's really shaping the policy?
Nobody doubts that Trump still commands a unique authority.
There's no doubt about that.
He's still the most charismatic political figure in modern history, and maybe in my lifetime.
He still fills arenas.
People love him.
His economic vision still resonates with those of us.
But power brings pressure.
And with a second term comes a different kind of challenge.
You know, internal enemies.
And I talk about that.
Not just external ones.
The real threat to MAGA may no longer be the left.
It may be from within.
It may be from within his own administration.
The danger isn't that Trump has changed.
It's that the people around him have.
Or maybe they haven't changed and all of a sudden they're coming out of their shell.
His advisors, the big donors, generals, many are legacy operators.
Who never wanted America First to succeed in the first place.
They tolerated the movement to ride the wave.
And now they want to tame it.
Now, if Trump can't hold the line, if Trump can maintain it, then the dream unravels.
And not because of media lies or democratic sabotage, but because the soul of the movement Gets, in essence, diluted, forgotten.
America First is not just a slogan.
It's not just a euphemism or a sobriquet.
It's a doctrine.
And doctrines require adherence and fidelity.
Now, again, Tucker is doing what real patriots should do.
Questioning power.
Even when it's inconvenient.
Even when it hurts you.
Even when it hurts you.
Loyalty to truth.
Absolutely must come first before loyalty to a man.
If the MAGA movement is to survive, if it means something, it must stay grounded in principle.
Wars that do not involve direct threats to the American people are not patriotic.
They are distractions.
And if we learn anything from Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya, it's that noble and good intentions, as noble and good as they are, often...
You see, regime change, just hearing that makes me cringe, it doesn't bring peace, especially when it creates a vacuum and you don't know what the replacement change is.
Occupation doesn't bring liberty.
And aligning with foreign nations for tactical gains can entangle us in generational bloodshed.
It's time, my friend.
It's time for a reckoning.
It's time for a new reset of the reset.
Trump has got to make it absolutely clear where he stands.
Not in slogans, not in policy, not with Lee Greenwood.
No, no, no, no.
He's got to confront the neocon holdovers.
Have his own little kind of Operation Gladio.
And he must reject think tanks and war hawks and neocons and war profiteers and these warmongers.
And he must reaffirm that America first means what it means.
And nobody elected Bibi Netanyahu.
Nobody elected Macron.
Nobody elected NATO.
Nobody elected any of these people.
I don't understand what this is.
Is BB calling the shots here?
When he comes and addresses...
I'll never forget that.
Just like Zelensky, who addresses Congress?
What are we kidding?
Remember, peace through strength, not provocation, not perturbation, okay?
Now, his base, us, we deserve that clarity.
We didn't vote for another Bush.
We voted for a fighter, a fighter who would break this system, not bend it.
Now, can Trump still course-correct?
Absolutely.
He's done it before.
He listens to his people, but only if they speak.
And he has to understand that they may not necessarily be setting him up.
They're immediately trying to exert their own power.
When Trump said, I didn't know anything about Putin's helicopter being almost shot, I said, what are you talking about?
This is the moment for those inside the movement to rise up.
Not in rebellion.
But in resolve, in determination, to remind the president of the promise, to reject this creeping and encroaching normalization of globalist nonsense.
This globalism, these policies disguised as defense.
We're not buying this.
To insist that we do not trade our sons for someone else's border.
How many times throughout history have we been saying this?
We must demand that the flag waving You know, the MAGA dream still can survive.
I'm sorry, I think I mean something.
Maybe I'm naive.
But it can survive this crossroads.
But only if its core, you and me, remain intact.
Only if we the people hold the line.
Because if we compromise here, we lose everything.
America first has got to mean America only.
Let that be the test.
What do you think, my friends?
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