Politics

U.S. Airstrikes on Syria Have Trump Supporters Enraged

April 7th 2017

President Donald Trump’s attack against a Syrian airbase Thursday evening sent Twitter into frenzy. But this time, his harshest critics came from his own base.

Paul Joseph Watson, a writer for the alt-right conspiracy site Infowars, was one of many to voice his concerns about the attack, which was largely seen as punishment to the Syrian regime for its use of chemical weapons.

Watson and others who are critical of the decision to punish Assad's regime are branding Trump as a "Neo-Con," or neo-conservative, which is someone who believes in free-market capitalism and interventionist foreign policy.

These views were echoed by the co-editor of AltRight.com, Richard Spencer, and Mike Cernovich, a self-proclaimed nationalist who's garnered a massive following on Twitter for his continued support of Trump. Cernovich wrote on Twitter that 90 percent of the president's supporters don't want to be at war with Syria.

Trump's promises on the campaign trail to stay out of Syria favored well with Breitbart readers and far-right supporters who railed on Hillary Clinton for excessive foreign intervention, calling her a Neo-Con puppet. In the past, Trump has used Twitter to chastise the Obama administration for its use of force abroad, often saying he's against any military action in the Middle East, beyond bombing ISIS.

Did the impossible just happen?

One thing we knew about Trump supporters from the election was that they would support him no matter what he did. This was something Trump seemed to believe, too, when he said "I can shoot someone and still win," at a 2016 campaign rally in Iowa.

After the election, some less-enthused supporters who had voted in favor of "draining the swamp," voiced concern over the appointment of Wall Street executives, one percent-ers, and CEOs who had millions of dollar to their name. But most of the people on Twitter stood by him, saying they would take tax breaks over a "career criminal politician."

Now, after Trump pulled what most alt-righters would consider a Clinton move by intervening in foreign affairs to push a democratic agenda, they're throwing in the towel. The most common refrain being that he has become a "Neo-Con puppet."

From the looks of the tweets in recent hours, it's likely Trump supporters hold one thing in higher regard than their excitement about a Trump presidency or the #MAGA slogan, and that's their despise for Clinton or the leftist agenda to push democratic ideals abroad by meddling in foreign governments.

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Is Trump going to war with Syria?

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