Inside the MAGA vs. hawk battle to sway Trump on bombing Iran

Inside the MAGA vs. hawk battle to sway Trump on bombing Iran

Politico-June10th2025

An influential group of GOP hawks has launched a behind-the-scenes lobbying offensive pressing President Donald Trump to not only back off his administration’s quest for a nuclear deal with Iran, but greenlight an attack on Tehran by Israel.

The campaign is raising alarms among Trump and his allies, who have launched a counteroffensive to keep the president’s diplomacy on track.

During a private lunch with the president at the White House last Wednesday, conservative talk show host Mark Levin told Trump that Iran was days away from building a nuclear weapon, an argument Trump’s own intelligence team has told the president is not accurate, according to an intelligence official as well as another Trump ally familiar with the matter. Levin urged Trump to allow the Israeli government to strike Iranian nuclear sites, which Trump has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would torpedo the diplomacy.

Levin has been waging a public war against Trump’s longtime friend and special envoy leading talks, Steve Witkoff, who also attended the meeting. They were joined by GOP megadonor Ike Perlmutter, the onetime Marvel Entertainment executive who is friendly with Witkoff.

On a separate front, MAGA loyalists have been warily eyeing Rupert Murdoch’s papers, particularly the New York Post, as they’ve savaged Witkoff, suggesting at one point that he’s a mouthpiece for Qatar. The allegations have infuriated some in Trump’s inner circle, who see them as an effort to undercut the talks.

Murdoch has, meanwhile, privately complained to confidants about Witkoff’s effort, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“They’re trying to push the president to make a decision that’s not what he wants,” a senior administration official told POLITICO. This person, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak freely. “There’s clearly a lobby for war with Iran vs. those who are more aligned with the president, that know he is the one that has been able to bring them to the negotiating table.”

The lobbying has triggered a coordinated effort to defend Trump and Witkoff’s diplomatic posture. Hours after Levin’s meeting with Trump, Tucker Carlson, who had clearly been alerted to the gathering by someone familiar with what happened, took to X to accuse Levin of trying to bully the U.S. into war.