With President Donald Trump’s move to launch airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen the MAGA leader has apparently drawn criticism from some of his loyal supporters. They include former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), among others.
Trump announced Saturday in a Truth Social post that he had “ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen,” citing Houthi attacks on U.S. ships in the Red Sea and disruption of access to the Suez Canal.
Per The Independent, the Yemeni health ministry said Sunday that dozens of people were killed by U.S. strikes over the weekend, most of them civilians, including women and children.
This week, Lindsay P. Cohn, an associate professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, joined Audacy to explain what exactly is going on with the U.S. and the Houthis. She clarified that she was not representing the views of the college, but her own.
Cohn said that Yemen’s North and South regions have been in conflict since the 1990s and that “the Houthis have been occasionally engaging in flare-ups and against the usual rule of the majority Sunni tribes.” The most recent bout of Houthi aggression is also linked to the Israel-Hamas war.
“The recent fighting between sort of the U.S. and Israel and the U.K. and the Houthis stems from the attacks of Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s response to invade Gaza,” Cohn said. “And the Houthis have been firing at shipping in the Red Sea in support of the Palestinian cause. So that’s where we are.”
She said that the Houthis – designated as a terrorist organization this month by the U.S. State Department – are trying to establish themselves as the legitimate governmental authority in Yemen. Attacking the U.S. and Israel, “putting them on the map in the Arab world,” and “giving them what you might call street cred,” from Houthi’s perspective, Cohn added.
In Monday Truth Social post, the president said that: “The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN.”
He added that any further attacks would be met with “great force” and that the U.S. would hold Iran responsible. Iran has also been identified as a backer of Hamas and other groups in the region.
“It’s worth pointing out that a strike on the Iranian nuclear sites will almost certainly result in thousands of American deaths at bases throughout the Middle East, and cost the United States tens of billions of dollars,” said Carlson in a Monday X post that The Independent said appeared critical of Trump’s threats. “The cost of future acts of terrorIsm on American soil may be even higher. Those aren’t guesses. Those are the Pentagon’s own estimates. A bombing campaign against Iran will set off a war, and it will be America’s war.
Don’t let the propagandists lie to you.”
According The Independent, “Carlson’s intervention is all the more relevant because he was considered vital in talking Trump out of striking Iran during his first term.”
Yet, in another Truth Social post from Wednesday, Trump again put pressure on Iran.
“Reports are coming in that while Iran has lessened its intensity on Military Equipment and General Support to the Houthis, they are still sending large levels of Supplies. Iran must stop the sending of these Supplies IMMEDIATELY,” he said. “Let the Houthis fight it out themselves. Either way they lose, but this way they lose quickly. Tremendous damage has been inflicted upon the Houthi barbarians, and watch how it will get progressively worse – It’s not even a fair fight, and never will be. They will be completely annihilated!”
Greene, a vocal MAGA supporter with one X account that features a cover photo of her standing with Carlson and Trump, also appeared critical of military action in the Middle East in a Monday X post (from her other account).
“I have not heard a single American say they want another war in the Middle East or anywhere else,” she said. “Not one. All I’ve heard is a loud cry demanding our government and its leaders ‘PUT AMERICA FIRST!’ I don’t support going to war on behalf of other countries. I support peace and fixing our own massive problems for our own people. It’s literally my job title. U.S. Representative.”
Other Trump supporters who appeared to be less than enthusiastic about the ramped up military action in Yemen included Glenn Greenwald, a former liberal commentator who switched to supporting Trump and Ann Coulter and Ron Paul and Grace Chong, a producer on Steve Bannon’s War Room, the Independent reported. Additionally, the outlet noted that Trump himself was critical of former President Joe Biden when the previous administration bombed Yemen.
“There are… sort of three possible aims the Trump administration might have with this,” said Cohn in her interview with Audacy. “One would be to deter the Houthis from further attacks. Another would be to degrade their ability to do further attacks. And the third one is kind of to get at Iran via the Houthis.”
She said that, at least for the first aim, that bombing won’t work as a deterrent mission. That’s because Yemenis have become accustomed to casualties during the past 10 years of civil war there, Cohn explained.