Why Trump’s Iran decision is splitting the Republican party

Americast

BBC

Politics, Government, News

4.2 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As the world waits for Donald Trump’s decison on whether to join Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear sites, he is quickly losing support from his own party.

Donald Trump has generally enjoyed party unity since returning to office in January but now faces an open revolt over the possibility of US strikes against Iran. Some of Trump’s biggest supporters, including the Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, have publicly come out against the prospect of war with Iran. Why are some of his MAGA supporters against military involvement, and does it fit with the ‘America First’ agenda? Sarah, Justin and Anthony discuss how the legacy of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan loom over the current situation with Iran, and whether Donald Trump even needs the support of his party to join the Israel-Iran conflict.

And Justin speaks to Elliott Abrams, who served as Special Representative for Iran from 2020 to 2021, during Donald Trump’s first term. He was also an Assistant Secretary of State in the Reagan Administration. In 1992, Abrams was pardoned after he was convicted of misleading Congress about out the Iran-Contra affair, which involved the secret sale of arms to Iran.

HOSTS: * Sarah Smith, North America Editor * Justin Webb, Radio 4 Presenter * Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent

GET IN TOUCH: * Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB * Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 * Email [email protected] * Or use #Americast

This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles and Julia Webster. The technical producer was Rohan Madison. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app.

You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers.

US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155

Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including Radical, Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.

Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl Ukrainecast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0bqztzm Radical: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:04.8	Here we go again.
0:05.6	We are at a pivotal moment.
0:07.4	A pivotal moment, it is fair to say, in world history,
0:10.2	as the world tries to decide whether Donald Trump is going to give the go-ahead for military strikes on Iran.
0:17.0	And the man himself plays his cards close to his chest.
0:20.4	I have ideas as to what to do, but I haven't made a final.
0:23.1	I like to make the final decision one second before it's due, you know,
0:26.3	because things change.
0:27.3	I mean, especially with war.
0:29.0	Things change with war.
0:30.1	It can go from one extreme to the other.
0:32.7	As he weighs up his decisions for this episode,
0:35.7	who is Donald Trump listening to? And how much does the
0:39.6	support of Republicans, his MAGA base, matter to him? What about the wider American public
0:45.1	to? What say, if any, do they get to have? Welcome to Ameriast.
0:52.5	Ameriast. Americaast from BBC News.
0:55.7	You're gambling with the lives of millions of people.
0:58.4	You're gambling with World War III.
1:00.6	President Trump's message is very simple.
1:02.7	We are done being taken advantage of.
1:04.5	Mr. President, in the name of our God, have mercy upon the people.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 7 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.