When news broke that President Donald Trump was preparing to launch cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield, some of the most prominent critics of the action weren't the center-leftists who've knocked almost every decision he's made since taking office.
Rather, it was Trump's most vocal and controversial online supporters themselves, the far-right mediasphere that rallied behind his candidacy.
While traditional conservative analysts and outlets applauded the decision to strike after Syria President Bashar Assad's chemical attack on his own people earlier this week, the reaction was radically different among supporters online.
Paul Joseph Watson, a vlogger at the conspiracy-peddling blog InfoWars, announced the end of his support for the president, vowing to support far-right French presidential candidate Marie Le Pen.
It's been fun lads, but the fun is over. I'll be focusing my efforts on Le Pen, who tried to warn Trump against this disaster.
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 7, 2017
I guess Trump wasn't "Putin's puppet" after all, he was just another deep state/Neo-Con puppet.
I'm officially OFF the Trump train.
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 7, 2017
The only thing that can unite Dems behind Trump is another disastrous Middle Eastern quagmire & possibly war with Russia.
Incredible. pic.twitter.com/HKQ8ZDd5qz
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 6, 2017
Banned from Twitter, ousted Breitbart provocateur Milo Yiannopoulous spent much of Thursday railing against Trump's decision on Facebook.
Right-wing pseudo-journalist Chuck Johnson took to Facebook to criticize American intervention in Syria.
"I will spend every minute of 2020 working to defeat Trump if we invade Syria," Johnson promised.
They were far from alone.
Ann Coulter declared that Trump was destroying his own presidency while Lauren Southern — a Canadian alt-right personality known for highly controversial stunts like faking a gender transition and confronting progressive protesters — live-streamed herself drinking wine and blasting "neo-cons" like senior adviser Jared Kushner and Sen. John McCain.
"We're going to war — isn't this fun, guys? Isn't this great?" she rhetorically asked. "I don't get this. Literally no one wants to do this."
WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING https://t.co/tNMkFi9BnS
— Lauren Southern (@Lauren_Southern) April 7, 2017
What are you drinking tonight?
— Lauren Southern (@Lauren_Southern) April 7, 2017
We tried - all we could do was postpone the war these people wanted.
— Lauren Southern (@Lauren_Southern) April 7, 2017
Others floated conspiracy theories about the nature of the strike.
"New Right" personality Mike Cernovich urged his almost 250,000 Twitter followers to call the White House, demanding a stop to the strike, and floated a number of conspiracy theories.
Did McCain give "moderate rebels" (ISIS) in Syria poison gas and Hollywood style film equipment?
— Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) April 7, 2017
Live on the phone with @StefanMolyneux taking #SyriaHoaxhttps://t.co/QfjftNyrLD
— Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) April 6, 2017
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones also perpetuated the conspiratorial false-flag narrative, declaring that the strike could plunge the US into World War III.
Will a false flag chemical attack in Syria’s Idlib province trigger #WW3 to erupt in the Middle East?
https://t.co/7qKoyRk2ej#tcot#tlot
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) April 6, 2017
LIVE: Evidence Mounts That Syrian Gas Attack Is False Flag -
https://t.co/zuyd0W0ONy#InfowarsLIVE#SyriaHoax
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) April 6, 2017
Other figures appeared more unsure or telegraphed their disapproval.
Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft and Michael Flynn Jr., former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's outspoken son, both spent the evening retweeting posts disapproving of the strike. A source inside Breitbart told Business Insider that the far-right publication's staffers were split over the decision to strike.
The split between hawkish Trump supporters paraded on outlets like Fox News and antipathy to the strike online reflected the president's own flip-flops on interventionism during the campaign.
While he occasionally threatened to "bomb the s---" out of foes like ISIS, he proposed working with Russia and Assad to fight ISIS, and expressed suspicion about Syrian rebels.
"I don't like Assad at all, but Assad is killing ISIS," Trump said during the second presidential debate.
The split further harkened back to the pre-Trump roots of the alternate online conservative movement.
Many figures like Jones and white nationalist Richard Spencer expressed interest in Ron Paul's 2008 candidacy, partially citing his anti-interventionist ideology.
Some right-wing figures pleaded for unity among Trump supporters online.
In a live stream, Tim Treadstone, better known as the occasionallyanti-Semitic Twitter personality Baked Alaska, attempted to spin division between Trump supporters as a critique of "zombie" leftists.
"I personally am against the airstrikes and I think Trump made a bad decision, but we need to listen to each other right now and not go against each other," Treadstone said.
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