None of that is a full-throated denunciation, of course, but it does evince some small degree of reluctance.
Within days, Ingraham’s weathervane had caught the breeze and her tone was markedly more hawkish. Her March 2 show was a full endorsement of Trump’s war of aggression.
“Only a few days into military strikes, none of the major objections to this action withstand serious scrutiny,” Ingraham said.
This is not a “pointless war,” she said, adding: “Trump has given us no indication that he is going to betray his supporters by asking them to make unnecessary sacrifices.”
Her guest and Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump falsely claimed that Iran was “very clearly on the path to making another nuclear weapon,” and Ingraham fueled baseless and Islamophobic speculation “about sleeper cells in the U.S.”
On March 5, Ingraham declared: “Trump has already won in Iran.”
On March 25, she cautioned that the conflict with Iran could be creating “a series of cascading problems for the region, including maybe outside the region — political problems for the president in a midterm election year.” Later in the episode, she warned that voters are “very impatient for victory,” and polling suggests “the American people are sending a message to President Trump that it’s time to put the focus back on the home front.”
But by March 31, Ingraham had fully reverted to the Fox News neocon mean.
“Why are people calling this a quagmire after a month?” she wondered. “Trump is taking some big risks. But, with big risks come great rewards. Eliminating the Iranian threat is a gift to future generations.”
Ingraham has not been the loudest voice at Fox News in favor of the Iran war. But to claim she has opposed it “from day one” is a self-serving fantasy.