Conservative pundits and members of the white nationalist-friendly alt-right, who triumphantly boosted Trump’s “America First,” anti-interventionist campaign message, found themselves at a loss. The Breitbart News commentariat was outraged by support for the attack from “neo-conservatives” like Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Marco Rubio (R-FL).
Paul Watson, a writer for the conspiracy theory website InfoWars, pushed out dozens of tweets lashing out at Trump for being a “deep state/Neo-Con puppet.”
“I’m officially OFF the Trump train,” he wrote.
I guess Trump wasn't "Putin's puppet" after all, he was just another deep state/Neo-Con puppet.
I'm officially OFF the Trump train.
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 7, 2017
Brexit orchestrator and Trump ally Nigel Farage said the President’s voters were likely “worried” about the implications of the military intervention, while Jim Hoff, the editor of the far-right blog Gateway Pundit, retweeted a 2013 Trump post in which the real estate mogul warned “many very bad things will happen” if the U.S. attacks Syria.
Backers of Trump’s anti-immigration, anti-refugee policies were similarly put out.
“All I want once in my life, is a President who simply enforces immigration laws and doesn’t start pointless wars. Too much to ask,” Virginia Dare, a white nationalist website, wrote on Twitter.
Conservative pundit Ann Coulter mocked Trump for making this significant foreign policy shift after seeing photographs on cable news of Syrian children killed in a chemical attack, which U.S. officials believe was carried out by Bashar al-Assad's regime:
Trump campaigned on not getting involved in Mideast. Said it always helps our enemies & creates more refugees. Then he saw a picture on TV.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) April 7, 2017
Some longtime Trump boosters did take the opposite tack, praising the President’s rapid action and use of military force in jingoistic terms.
“President Trump is sending a clear message: the apology tour is over. We fight when you rattle our cage,” wrote conservative talking head Tomi Lahren.
Bill Mitchell, one of Trump’s most relentless promoters on social media, proclaimed that Trump “struck fear into the hearts of his enemies and united the world behind his leadership” while simultaneously preventing World War III and obliterating "Obama's 8 year p*ssification of America":
Trump campaigned on "no war." He just prevented the 3rd big one. Promise kept.
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) April 7, 2017
Trump struck fear into the hearts of his enemies and united the world behind his leadership. Stop me when I get to the part you hate.
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) April 7, 2017
Donald Trump just obliterated Obama's 8 year p*ssification of America in one bold stroke.
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) April 7, 2017
