Prominent figures associated with the “alt-right” movement and other previously impassioned advocates of President Trump’s administration reacted with disbelief and outrage after the U.S. military launched a missile strike on a Syrian airfield Thursday in spite of the president having campaigned against foreign intervention.
Several of Mr. Trump’s most vocal proponents quickly turned critical Thursday evening after U.S. forces fired dozens of Tomahawk missiles at an airfield used by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, which is accused of launching a chemical attack on Tuesday.
In some instances, Mr. Trump’s supporters outright rescinded their support in response to Thursday’s airstrike.
“I guess Trump wasn’t ’Putin’s puppet’ after all, he was just another deep state/Neo-Con puppet,” tweeted Paul Joseph Watson, an editor of the Infowars website founded by pro-Trump media personality and noted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
“I’m officially OFF the Trump train,” Mr. Watson wrote from his verified Twitter account to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers.
Cassandra Fairbanks, an American writer for the Russian state-owned website Sputnik and an adamant self-professed Trump supporter, responded negatively to the news as well.
“I am devastated,” she wrote on Twitter to Mr. Watson.
“This isn’t who we voted for,” Ms. Fairbanks said in a since-deleted tweet.
“I’m too annoyed, between neo cons pretending they are Trump supporters and liberals gloating, I’m ready to punch someone,” she continued. “Your supporters didn’t vote for this @realDonaldTrump.”
Richard Spencer — a notorious white nationalist widely credited with coining the term “alt-right” — took aim at the White House as well while appearing to walk back his support in a video uploaded to YouTube early Friday.
“I have to be brutally honest: I am deeply disappointed in Donald Trump,” Mr. Spencer said in the video. “I am shocked, and I am angry, and I am ready to condemn Donald Trump.”
Milo Yiannopoulos, the former Breitbart editor associated with modern far-right conservatism, described Thursday’s airstrike as “FAKE and GAY,” Politico reported, but declined to elaborate further.
Other notable far-right Trump supporters taken aback by Thursday’s military strike include former Breitbart writer Mike Cernovich, conservative commentator Ann Coulter and Mr. Jones, the Infowars founder, among others.
“I hope this is the beginning of the end of military action,” Mr. Jones said in a video uploaded to YouTube late Thursday.
Mr. Trump campaigned firmly against foreign intervention prior to his election last November, and encouraged former President Barack Obama previously against taking military action against Mr. Assad’s regime. On Thursday, however, Mr. Trump said he authorized the Pentagon to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles “to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”
In 2013, Mr. Trump tweeted: “We should stop talking, stay out of Syria and other countries that hate us, rebuild our own country and make it strong and great again-USA!”
The FBI, meanwhile, is reportedly investigating whether Infowars, Sputnik and Breitbart were used by Russian operatives to boost Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, McClatchy reported last month.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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