Some Democrats tout their version of "America First"

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.