Report: Israel Ran an Influence Campaign Among Trump’s Base to Push Back on an Iran Deal

Israel conducted a broad influence campaign designed to strengthen support for the country among the conservative base of U.S. President Donald Trump and prevent young conservatives from drifting away, according to a report published by Time magazine on Tuesday. The investigation found that while Trump was advancing a memorandum of understanding with Iran, the campaign also became a channel for sharp criticism of the move.

At the center of the operation was Brad Parscale, who previously managed Trump’s election campaign and is regarded as one of the leading digital and social media experts in the Republican camp. According to the report, Parscale was hired by Israel to lead a digital campaign whose official goal was to combat antisemitism, but which was also intended to preserve support for Israel among young conservatives in the United States.

According to the investigation, Parscale committed to producing 100 original pieces of content each month, with at least 80 percent targeting Gen Z on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and podcasts. At the same time, private chat groups were used to send conservative influencers suggested wording for posts on X, Instagram, and TikTok. The influencers were paid based on the reach and engagement generated by their posts.

Parscale acknowledged that the goal of the operation was to prevent young conservatives from withdrawing their support for Israel, but denied any involvement in an effort to influence public opinion against Trump’s objectives. He said that neither he nor any of the companies he owns participated in activity intended to undermine the president’s goals.

According to Time, White House officials began to suspect that the unusual wave of criticism surrounding the memorandum of understanding with Iran was being driven by a coordinated campaign. A Trump administration official who was monitoring social media discourse noticed that several influencers associated with the MAGA movement had posted strikingly similar messages criticizing the president at almost the same time.

Among the examples cited, one influencer shared an Israeli opinion article titled “You Could Have Been the Greatest President of All, But You Failed.” Another argued that countries in the region were mocking Trump’s “naivete,” while others accused him of giving in before achieving his stated goal of dismantling Iran’s nuclear program. The similarity in the wording and timing of the posts raised the official’s suspicions, prompting him to collect screenshots and trace their source.

He later concluded that the similarities were not coincidental. After tracking the activity of prominent figures on the American right, he became convinced that Parscale, once one of Trump’s closest political associates, was the central figure behind the wave of messages.

According to the report, the campaign is still ongoing, but both Israel and the Trump administration appear to be disappointed with the results. A source in Israel’s Foreign Ministry told the magazine: “We’re angry at Brad Parscale. He was supposed to improve the situation. We paid him a lot of money. But what did he do with it? Things only got worse.”