The Shadow War Against President Trump

Josh Hammer
Thu, 19 Mar 2026 17:12:39 -0700
Opinion

The joint American-Israeli military operation against the Iranian regime is now three weeks old, but there is another war — a more silent one — raging here on the home front. President Donald Trump's second administration is facing a highly coordinated shadow war — one waged both by some influential outside voices on the Right and, more dangerously, by their subversive allies within Trump's very own government.

If this campaign is not confronted and decisively defeated, the result will be calamitous: a second Trump term that drifts into lame-duck status not due to a voter backlash but because of an insurrection from within. What this column has previously referred to as "Operation Divide MAGA" has reached fever pitch. And Trump, to his great credit, has begun to settle all the MAGA family business. But an even more concerted effort is needed to clean out the Augean Stables once and for all.

First, let's take a step back.
Updated: Fri Mar 20, 2026

The joint American-Israeli military operation against the Iranian regime is now three weeks old, but there is another war — a more silent one — raging here on the home front. President Donald Trump's second administration is facing a highly coordinated shadow war — one waged both by some influential outside voices on the Right and, more dangerously, by their subversive allies within Trump's very own government.

If this campaign is not confronted and decisively defeated, the result will be calamitous: a second Trump term that drifts into lame-duck status not due to a voter backlash but because of an insurrection from within. What this column has previously referred to as "Operation Divide MAGA" has reached fever pitch. And Trump, to his great credit, has begun to settle all the MAGA family business. But an even more concerted effort is needed to clean out the Augean Stables once and for all.

First, let's take a step back.

In any healthy political coalition or movement, debate is inevitable and often desirable. But what we have seen from certain high-profile podcasters, such as Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, is nothing less than a full-scale assault on Trump and his agenda. These provocateurs first outed themselves last summer, when they all but accused Trump of covering up a global (Mossad-tied?) pedophile ring over his Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files. But above all, the podcasters' subversion has focused on foreign policy — most recently, on Iran and Operation Epic Fury.

Trump is a conservative nationalist. His foreign policy is rooted in confidence and "peace through strength"-style deterrence. Yet Carlson, Kelly and their fellow travelers have blasted the Iran conflict as everything from "evil" (Carlson) to "clearly Israel's war" (Kelly). The not-so-dynamic duo is thus accusing the man they quite literally campaigned for in 2024 of engaging in heinous acts and of being the unwitting dupe of a foreign government.

True, Carlson and Kelly do not actually speak for the MAGA base: A brand-new poll from J.L. Partners shows that 83% of Republican voters support Epic Fury. Moreover, Republicans agree with Trump over Carlson and Kelly on foreign policy by a whopping 84%-6% margin. But still: Their platforms are enormous. When Carlson, Kelly and their allies consistently excoriate the leading priorities of the administration they purport to support, the effect is Republican voter confusion, resentment and depression as we head toward November in a midterm election year.

Even worse, the shadow war subversives are not merely shouting into their microphones from the rafters. They have allies inside the administration, with whom they are all but assuredly coordinating, engaging in outright sabotage against the one man — the president of the United States — who was actually elected to wield the "executive Power" of the federal government and serve as commander in chief.

The most alarming developments are emerging from within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. A former Democratic congresswoman with a pro-Moscow slant once seen as a heterodox ally, Gabbard now oversees an environment that increasingly bears the markings of an anti-MAGA coup.

Take Gabbard's recent rehiring of Dan Caldwell. Dismissed last year by his (former longtime friend) Secretary of War Pete Hegseth amid allegations of leaking, Caldwell is now back in a highly sensitive role. Leaks of this nature are not bureaucratic slip-ups; they are direct assaults on national security and the integrity of the constitutional chain of command. It is difficult to interpret the isolationist-leaning Gabbard's move as anything other than a direct shot across the bow at Hegseth — and, by extension, the boss Hegseth has so passionately defended since Epic Fury began, Trump.

Consider also Joe Kent, who until recently served under Gabbard as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Kent resigned this week in flamboyant fashion, rationalizing his stunt with hyper-conspiratorial, antisemitic rhetoric better suited for a Code Pink rally than government letterhead. Within hours after tendering his resignation, Kent announced he would be joining — who else? — Carlson to tell his story. An alleged serial leaker, Kent is now under FBI investigation for spilling national security secrets. Unsurprisingly, Iranian regime propaganda television gobbled up the interview and regurgitated it for an impressionable English-speaking audience.

That Kent came to Carlson's platform to try to get ahead of the FBI investigation revelation is not coincidence. It is all orchestrated. After being fired by Hegseth last year, Caldwell similarly ran to Carlson to tell his side of the story. Moreover, one of Caldwell's higher-ranking colleagues at ODNI, Will Ruger, shares Caldwell's professional background in the isolationist Koch network. Surprise!

The White House Presidential Personnel Office, formerly directed by ex-Rand Paul staffer Sergio Gor (since shipped halfway around the world to India), has allowed in individuals across the defense, intelligence and national security spaces that are functionally anti-MAGA. Perhaps this was done for self-serving reasons. Perhaps Gor and PPO were under the understanding that MAGA is something other than what the boss says it is. Frankly, it does not really matter.

Because the boss has now spoken. He's cast Carlson and Kelly out of MAGA in emphatic fashion. And after Kent's obnoxious resignation stunt, Trump said of those (like Kent) who do not believe Iran is a threat to the United States: "We don't want those people." Translation: Get out. The message could not possibly be clearer.

But is Trump's PPO listening? Is Gabbard's ODNI fully in line? Gabbard, in Senate testimony this week, couldn't bring herself to agree with her boss's assessment that Iran posed an "imminent threat" prior to the launch of Epic Fury.

It's time for the president to team up with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and other arch-loyalists, such as Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and clean house. The internal anti-MAGA sabotage must be ended, and the external anti-MAGA sabotage must be combated. The success of the remainder of Trump's second term hangs in the balance.