Donald Trump won last year’s US election promising to be a president of peace. With America now at risk of being dragged into a new war between Israel and Iran, that pledge is looking increasingly hollow.

Trump famously said on the campaign trail that he could easily resolve the conflict in Gaza, use diplomacy to halt Iran’s nuclear programme and end the war between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office.

In his victory speech last November, he said: “They said, ‘he will start a war’. I’m not going to start a war, I’m going to stop wars.”

It was a message that held huge appeal for American voters tired of decades of US military interventions in the Middle East and Afghanistan — the seemingly interminable engagements Trump frequently referred to as America’s “forever wars”.

Yet the fear is growing among Trump’s loyal Maga base that Israel’s strikes against Iran on Thursday night will embroil an anti-war president in another foreign military entanglement — this time between the two biggest military powers in the Middle East.

Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist in his first term, said US and Israeli interests were not necessarily identical in the current crisis.

“They [the Israelis] are Israel First, we need to always be America First,” he said. “And in Jerusalem they should reflect on the message of Christ: live by the sword, die by the sword.”

Asked by the Financial Times whether he feared the US would be dragged into a war with Iran, he replied: “Very much.”

It is a fear that is widely shared among Trump’s supporters, as concerns grow that beyond the missile attacks on Israel on Friday afternoon, Tehran might also hit at US military assets in the region. “Israel is trying to get Iran to attack us just like your bitchy ex who tried goading some dude in a bar to fight you,” Tim Pool, the popular rightwing podcaster, wrote on X.

“Is the United States about to be sucked into yet another war in the Middle East?” said Jack Posobiec, an alt-right media personality. “Because that’s exactly the opposite of what . . . President Trump campaigned for back in Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin.”

Posobiec was speaking on Thoughtcrime, a video roundtable hosted by rightwing influencer Charlie Kirk, just as details of the Israeli strikes were coming in. Both indicated the Israeli action would set alarm bells ringing among Trump’s base.

“This is going to schism Maga terribly online,” Kirk said. “You’re going to see — I don’t want to say a Maga civil war, but it’s going to be a Maga online food fight [which] is going to be very hard to navigate.”

Kirk later posted hawks would be urging the US to “finish off the mullahs”. But he warned: “America’s interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya were all easy at the start. It was in the months and years afterwards that they became costly, wasteful quagmires. None of them were worth it.”

On the same podcast, Tyler Bowyer, an activist at conservative non-profit Turning Point USA said: “If you could probably sum up President Trump’s campaign from 2024, it was that electing me is going to prevent world war three.”

“One of Trump’s biggest promises was ‘with me you’ll get less war — I’m the anti-war president’,” Bowyer added.

Matthew Boyle, Washington bureau chief of rightwing populist news website Breitbart, said Trump faces a precarious balancing act, keeping the US out of a wider war while continuing to back Israel, one of America’s closest allies, and ensuring Iran never gets a nuclear bomb.

“What he does from here could define his presidency,” he said. “But if there’s anyone who can handle such a perilous situation, it’s President Trump.”

Complicating matters for the president’s Maga supporters was the fog of uncertainty over Trump’s real position on the Israeli attack. In late May, he said he had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Iran while Washington was negotiating with Tehran over a nuclear deal.

That initially led some observers to speculate that Netanyahu had gone against US wishes in launching its attack, an impression enhanced by secretary of state Marco Rubio who said the US had not been involved and described the strikes as a “unilateral action” by Israel.

But on Friday Trump came out in support of the Israeli strikes, telling the Wall Street Journal that Washington had known about them in advance. He called them the “greatest thing ever for the market” because they would stop Iran developing “a nuclear weapon that was a great threat to humanity”.

“Trump has now praised Israel’s strike, affirmed US material support, and Israeli media is reporting his public opposition was a disinformation campaign to mislead Iran,” said Saagar Enjeti, rightwing co-host of the podcast Breaking Points. “So in other words Trump, not Israel, has made a mockery of all of us [who] wanted to avoid this war.”

But Breitbart’s Boyle said he firmly believed Trump’s goal of a historic deal to end Iran’s nuclear programme could still be in reach, despite the Israeli assault — and that the chances of it happening had now increased.

“If anything, what Israel did strengthens Trump’s hand in negotiations with the Iranians,” he said. “It might create leverage that didn’t exist before.”

This echoed Trump’s comments. In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Friday he said the Iranian “hardliners” the US had been dealing with in the nuclear negotiations were “all dead”.

Asked by Bash if Israel had killed them, he replied: “They didn’t die of the flu.”

Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring costs.

This morning (June 13), Rob Stringer, Chairman of Sony Music Group and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, updated investors on the music company’s performance and strategy.

Also this week, Universal Music Group launched a joint venture with WTSL, the Silver Lake-backed investment firm founded by Hollywood agent and WME co-founder Patrick Whitesell.

Meanwhile, we learned that legendary UK independent music company Cooking Vinyl will be acquired by US-headquartered Exceleration Music.

Elsewhere, on Wednesday (June 11) The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) said that Spotify‘s ‘bundling’ move could cost music publishers $3.1 billion through 2032.

Finally, Harbourview Equity Partners secured $500 million in debt refinancing, led by investment giant KKR.

Here’s what happened this week…

1) SONY MUSIC SPENT $2.5BN ON 60+ DEALS IN THE PAST YEAR (AND 7 MORE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW FROM ROB STRINGER’S LATEST INVESTOR PRESENTATION)

Rob Stringer, the Chairman of Sony Music Group and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, updated investors on the music company’s performance and strategy on Friday morning (June 13).

Delivered as part of Sony Group’s 2025 Business Segment Presentation for investors, Stringer covered Sony’s financial performance, catalog deals, distribution strategy, AI opportunities, music streaming subscription prices, and more. He also took part in a fireside chat with Justin Hill, Senior Vice President, Finance & Investor Relations, Sony Corporation of America.

During the presentation, Stringer revealed Sony “completed more than 60 investments in the past year alone” and spent “over $2.5 billion for frontline, catalog, as well as creative and service ventures with outside entrepreneurs across a vast number of territories.”

Stringer discussed Sony’s strategy in greater detail during the presentation and Q&A. Here are seven more things you should know…

2) Universal Music and Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell launch joint venture with backing from Silver Lake

Universal Music Group has formed a joint venture with WTSL, the Silver Lake-backed investment firm founded by prominent Hollywood agent and WME co-founder, Patrick Whitesell.

According to the official announcement, the venture’s goal is to “accelerate commercial opportunities for UMG’s artists and artist estates in rapidly growing areas outside traditional recorded music and music publishing”.

The press release added that the JV will pursue opportunities that “extend music’s value across film, television, fashion, consumer products, branded experiences, and other emerging growth areas.”

3) Cooking Vinyl, a prominent UK-headquartered music company, to be acquired by Exceleration Music

Exceleration Music has entered into an agreement to acquire iconic UK-headquartered independent music company Cooking Vinyl, which it describes as “one of the UK’s most successful and long-standing music companies”.

Founded in 1986, Cooking Vinyl is home to a roster of artists that includes Shed Seven, Suzanne Vega, Passenger, The Prodigy, The Cranberries, Billy Bragg, The Darkness, Deacon Blue, 47 Soul, Roger Waters and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Exceleration said on Monday (June 9) that Cooking Vinyl will continue to operate independently, led by Managing Director Rob Collins and his team.

4) NMPA says Spotify ‘bundling’ move could cost music publishers $3.1bn through 2032

The National Music Publishers’ Association projects that music publishers will “lose over $3.1 billion” through 2032 due to Spotify‘s audiobook “bundling practices”.

That’s according to Executive Vice President and General Counsel Danielle Aguirre, who, speaking at the NMPA’s 2025 Annual Meeting in New York on Wednesday (June 11), detailed how Spotify‘s decision to reclassify its premium music service as a bundled offering in March 2024 has, “by Spotify’s own numbers” resulted in a $230 million loss for publishers during its first year of implementation.

Aguirre added that “these losses will continue if we can’t reverse or correct Spotify’s actions. In fact, if we don’t stop them, we are projected to lose over $3.1 billion through the next CRB period,” which will be Phonorecords V, which determines mechanical royalty rates for 2028 through 2032.

5) HarbourView secures $500m in additional debt financing from KKR

HarbourView Equity Partners has secured $500 million in additional debt financing from investment giant KKR, secured via a private securitization backed by its music portfolio.

This latest transaction follows a previous $500 million in debt financing secured by HarbourView in March 2024, through a private securitization backed by its catalog of music royalties, and led by KKR.

Citing an interview with HarbourView Founder and CEO Sherrese Clarke on Monday (June 9), Bloomberg reported that the company plans to use the new financing “to scale up, to add to its portfolio of music content and to push deeper into film and TV-rights management”.

MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.Music Business Worldwide