What Meghan McCain’s Iran Fist-Bump Means for Trump’s Reelection Fight
Could Iran help Donald Trump reunite the Reagan coalition? | Source: AP Photo/Evan Vucci
- Meghan McCain praised President Trump for killing Iran’s general, and she confronted Elizabeth Warren for not calling Soleimani “a terrorist.”
- After years of bad blood between Trump and the McCains, this sudden shift would have been inconceivable until very recently.
- Trump may have just consolidated GOP support from the “Never Trump” crowd for his reelection in 2020.
In a surprising twist to a yearslong feud, Meghan McCain praised President Donald Trump on “The View” for killing Iran’s top general . On the show’s first broadcast of the new year, McCain endorsed Trump’s targeted airstrike that eliminated Qassem Soleimani:
For me, when a big, bad terrorist gets blown up, I’m happy about it.
She wasn’t too impressed with the trending World War 3 posts either:
I was actually really surprised to see things like World War III trending, just given the fact that Soleimani was responsible for over 600 American deaths.
Then on Tuesday, McCain confronted Sen. Elizabeth Warren on “The View” for not calling Soleimani a terrorist.
The Trump-McCain Feud Has Been Bitter
Until recently, it would have been hard to imagine Meghan McCain rushing to Donald Trump’s defense.
He alienated both her father and the wing of the establishment the McCains represent during his 2016 White House run.
Politicos were stunned when Trump called John McCain a “loser” and “not a war hero” in 2016. In what may be the holy grail of politically incorrect statements , Trump said:
He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.
Even as a sitting president, Donald Trump was not invited to John McCain’s funeral in 2018. And Meghan McCain trashed the president in her eulogy to her father . The New York Times called it “powerful.”
When Donald Trump Jr. went on “The View” last November, Meghan McCain attacked :
You and your family have hurt a lot of people and put a lot of people through a lot of pain.
Earlier last year, McCain said :
Trump gets nothing from me.
But after taking out Iran’s top general, Trump got her support.
Has Meghan McCain Buried the Hatchet?
After all the bad blood between Trump and the McCains, this one show of force against Iran was enough for Meghan McCain to change her tune.
That’s big news.
This could guarantee a Trump victory in November. The Trump-McCain feud wasn’t merely personal. It was the visible part of a deep-rooted conflict between Trump and establishment Republicans over foreign policy.
It’s a conflict that crosses party lines too. That was evidenced by the effusive participation of Washington Democrats in mourning John McCain .
Against all odds, Donald Trump ascended to the Oval Office on a wave of MAGA hats trampling establishment Republicans underfoot. He cut down the Bush, McCain, and Romney wing of the GOP at the knees.
Then he prevailed in 2016 without the support of the Never Trumpers. Even over their vehement objections.
With his move on Iran, Trump may have tapped a groundswell of support from the once “Never Trump” Republicans. If so, he’ll go into November with the fully-reunited Reagan coalition.
Trump won Midwestern blue-collar workers and Southern evangelicals in 2016. If he wins national defense hawks in 2020, he might take swing states like Virginia back off the table for Democrats.
That could make 2020 look a lot like 1984.
