Iraq War In 2004, Macgregor stated that he strongly supported the US
war in Iraq, and regretted that the US had not enacted
regime change in Iraq in 1991. During the
beginning of the Iraq War, Macgregor disagreed with those who wanted to slow the advance into Baghdad in order to fight
Fedayeen paramilitary forces. In 2006, after seven retired generals criticized then Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld's handling of the war, Macgregor faulted the generals themselves for poor war planning and the resulting complications in Iraq. In 2008, Macgregor stated that he would argue that American military action in Iraq and Afghanistan "has produced very serious and negative consequences for American national-security interests". Macgregor's 2009 book, ''Warrior's Rage: The Great Tank Battle of 73 Easting'', argues that the failure to finish the battle with the
Republican Guard in 1991 led to Iraq's second major confrontation with the United States in 2003. Macgregor says that
David Petraeus,
Martin Dempsey, and other generals consistently exaggerated or falsified the effectiveness of the Iraqi army because "the generals were simply cultivating their Bush administration sponsors in pursuit of further promotion". By 2020, his website called the war in Iraq a failure.
"Underclass" and slavery In a 2013 radio appearance, Macgregor spoke of an "entitled" "
underclass" of people that were concentrated in "large urban areas", and the threat he said they posed: "And when the
food stamps stop, when the free services end, when the heating bills aren't paid and the heating doesn't come through in many of these large cities—Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles—this underclass that resides in these places, I think could become very violent."
Immigration A
CNN report in 2020 said Macgregor had often used racist comments and had "demonized immigrants and refugees". It quoted Macgregor as alleging that
Mexican cartels were "driving millions of Mexicans with no education, no skills and the wrong culture into the United States". It noted that Macgregor had "repeatedly advocated instituting
martial law at the
Mexico–United States border and to 'shoot people' if necessary". Another CNN report said he had described Muslim migrants in Europe as "unwanted invaders", arriving "with the goal of eventually turning Europe into an Islamic state". Such comments by Macgregor were described by
Maddow Blog,
Media Matters for America, and
Insider as a version of
Great Replacement Theory.
Kosovo War In 2014, Macgregor went on Russian state-owned
RT and criticized U.S. intervention in the
Kosovo War in the late 1990s.
Israel Macgregor has made statements in support of Israel having defensible borders, the annexation of the
Golan Heights, and the decision to move the U.S. embassy to
Jerusalem. On several occasions he has said that U.S. support for Israel is due to the "
Israeli lobby" and "AIPAC" making top officials "very, very rich".
Ukraine and Russia 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea In 2014, after the
annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and during a conflict with
Ukraine over its eastern parts, Macgregor appeared on Russian state-owned network
RT where he called for annexation of
Donbas and said residents of the region "are in fact Russians, not Ukrainians, and at the same time, you have Ukrainians in the west and in the north, who are not Russians".
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine After
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Macgregor appeared on three
Fox News programs in February and early March to speak in support of Russia's actions. Three days after the war began, he said, "The battle in eastern Ukraine is really almost over," and predicted "If [Ukraine] don't surrender in the next 24 hours, I suspect Russia will ultimately annihilate them." Macgregor said he believed Russia should be allowed to seize whatever parts of Ukraine it wanted. In his second appearance, he revised his prediction: "The first five days Russian forces I think frankly were too gentle. They've now corrected that. So, I would say another 10 days this should be completely over. ... I think the most heroic thing he could do right now is come to terms with reality. Neutralize Ukraine." After one of his appearances, Macgregor's comments were characterized by veteran Fox News Pentagon correspondent
Jennifer Griffin as "distorting" and "
appeasement" and that he was being an "apologist" for Putin. After Griffin's remarks,
Tucker Carlson—who hosted Macgregor on two successive nights—remarked, "Unlike many of the so-called reporters you see on television, he is not acting secretly as a flack for
Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon. No, Doug Macgregor is an honest man."
Trey Gowdy, another Fox News host who interviewed Macgregor, said his viewpoint was "stunning and disappointing". Russian state television channels
RT and
VGTRK broadcast excerpts of Macgregor's second Carlson appearance, which included a characterization of Ukrainian president
Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a "puppet," that Russian forces had been "too gentle" in the early days of the invasion and that Russian president
Vladimir Putin was being "demonized" by the United States and
NATO. His opinions on Russia and Ukraine have caused controversy, with some including
Liz Cheney describing Macgregor as being a member of the "
Putin wing of the
GOP." In a fourth appearance in early March, Macgregor said a ceasefire was close as Ukrainian forces had been "grounded to bits. There's no question about that despite what we report on our mainstream media". In July 2022, on
Real America's Voice he told
Charlie Kirk that: "The war, with the exception of Kharkiv and Odesa, as far as the Russians are concerned is largely over. There is no intention to do anything else because the Russians don't have a very large army. ... This nonsense that Putin wants to conquer all of Ukraine was never true. All he ever did in the Minsk agreement was ask that Russian speakers, Russian citizens inside Ukraine be treated equally before the law. That they not be penalized for being Russians." In September 2022, he again predicted on Carlson's show that "this war may be over soon" and later in the month "the Ukrainian army is bled white, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded, Ukraine is really on the ropes". Liz Cheney tweeted in response: "
Rupert and
Lachlan Murdoch – Why do you continually put Douglas MacGregor on @FoxNews to spread Putin's propaganda and lies? This is absolutely not in America's interest."
"Cosmopolitans" trope In an October 2021 speech to the Serbian American Voters Alliance, Macgregor blamed America's problems on what "the Russians used to call certain individuals many, many years ago, rootless cosmopolitans". Commentators noted that "
rootless cosmopolitans" (Russian: Безродные Космополиты) was a
Soviet antisemitic trope.
Iran Macgregor warned that the United States entered the
2026 Iran war without a clear strategy and was underestimating Iran's resilience and military capacity, particularly its ability to sustain long-term resistance. He also rejected the idea of regime change as unrealistic, stating that military pressure or leadership strikes would likely strengthen Iranian unity rather than collapse the state. He suggested the war would likely be long, costly, and damaging to U.S. global standing, with logistical strain and regional escalation risks outweighing any potential gains. He further dismissed proposals for
Pakistan to act as a mediator in the conflict as ineffective, arguing instead that
India would be a more credible and capable intermediary given its geopolitical position and relations with both sides.
Women in combat Macgregor opposes diversity and
affirmative action programs in the military. In a 2021 interview, while serving on the West Point board, he said: "What we call diversity—in the extreme. In other words, affirmative action programs for every conceivable category of humanity that the left wants to come up with. Whether it's someone who is a gender neutral or homosexual or whatever else, the left loves to put us into categories and push this. And the people that went along with it and said, 'sure, let's put women into the combat forces. Let's have women everywhere.' Let's do whatever we want to do. We're going to create this brave new world where everyone is the same. There are no differences, nothing matters. So I think that's where we are." ==Select bibliography==