RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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A small but growing number of Democrats are embracing their own version of "America First" in response to Donald Trump 's ongoing war with Iran in partnership with Israel.
Why it matters: Trump's war is scrambling the politics of a slogan he once owned, fracturing the right even as some Democrats — including potential 2028 presidential candidates — embrace it.
Driving the news: Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive Senate candidate in Michigan who campaigned with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) last weekend, told Axios: "I'm the most America First candidate in the country, proudly."
"When you keep our money here rather than sending it to some other country's war machine, that's America First ," he said.
California Rep. Ro Khanna , who's weighing a run for the White House, also is embracing the label.
In April, he said it's time to "put America first" when he reintroduced a bill to ban gas exports during periods of high gas prices.
In February on the House floor, Khanna said that "another war in the Middle East is not America First."
And Dan Osborn, a union leader running for Senate in Nebraska as an independent against the Republican incumbent, wrote on Friday : "We need to be putting America first, not Israel first."
"We can't undermine the independence of the American military for any ally," he added, "much less an untrustworthy one that's already forced us to throw money at a useless forever war overseas."
Zoom out: Some Republicans agree with Democrats that Trump's war with Iran was a betrayal of his pledge to put Americans first — and that it's given Democrats a political opening.
Tucker Carlson, who introduced Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2024, lobbied the president against attacking Iran and has since apologized for "misleading people" about Trump.
El-Sayed agreed with Trump's critics on the right, saying that "the MAGA version of America First is to make a show out of America First, only to sell you out."
"They'll always be beholden to the interests of a foreign interest lobby like AIPAC, and always be beholden to the interests of the corporate war machine, the military-industrial complex, the folks who win every single time we send our weapons abroad," he added.
Between the lines: Most national Democrats still stop short of using Trump's phrase, but they increasingly echo its main arguments.
Campaigning in Memphis this month, Ocasio-Cortez — who's considering a run for president or the Senate in 2028 — said that "all that money we're spending on bombs abroad could be spent on schools right here."
In a speech to Arkansas' Democratic Party in April, former Vice President Kamala Harris said , "To spark an American revival, we must start with a bold agenda where our public dollars go to affordable housing and healthcare and childcare, not spent on reckless foreign wars that no one wants."
Trump himself repeatedly decried "stupid foreign wars" during the 2024 campaign.
Beyond antiwar statements, many Democrats have embraced domestic industrial policies aimed at reviving American manufacturing.
In June, Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Cory Booker of New Jersey — both potential presidential contenders — were among those introducing the Make More in America Act .
Kelly argued the bill would "build more things here at home and create good-paying jobs while reducing our dependency on foreign adversaries."
Bottom line: Trump will finish his term in 2029, but the politics that led him to embrace "America First" now appear bipartisan, and here to stay.
Polls indicate voters are tired of the decades of battles in the Middle East, particularly when they don't feel positive about their economic situation at home.
Now politicians in both parties are trying to meet voters where they already are.
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