WASHINGTON: The prospect of a US strike against Iran has exposed divisions in the coalition of supporters that brought President Donald Trump to power, with some of his base urging him not to get the country involved in a new Middle East war. Some of Trump’s most prominent Republican allies, including top lieutenant Steve Bannon, have found themselves in the unusual position of being at odds with a president who largely shares their isolationist tendencies.

Bannon, one of many influential voices from Trump’s “America First” coalition, on Wednesday urged caution about the US military joining Israel in trying to destroy Iran’s nuclear program in the absence of a diplomatic deal.

“We can’t do this again,” Bannon told reporters at an event sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor in Washington. “We’ll tear the country apart. We can’t have another Iraq.”

Bannon continued to preach patience on his popular “War Room” podcast on Thursday, contending that Trump was being set up to be responsible for toppling the Iranian regime. He was joined by Jack Posobiec, another prominent MAGA figure. The goal, Posobiec said, is to “suck the United States in, have the regime change go off and, unfortunately, have the United States finish something that was started not by us.”

Bannon replied, “The way you have regime change is that it’s got to come from the street. It has to come from the people. If it comes from the top, from a foreign power, it never works.” The anti-interventionist part of the Republican Party is watching with alarm as Trump has moved swiftly from seeking a peaceful diplomatic settlement with Iran to possibly having the United States support Israel’s military campaign, including the use of a 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bomb.—Reuters