Bannon, the former chief of Breitbart News, now runs a pro-Trump podcast, “War Room: Impeachment.” In the interview, he said he was concerned that a burgeoning conflict in Iran could threaten Trump’s support among “working-class, middle-class people, particularly people whose sons and daughters actually fight in these wars,” a group that believed the president opposed significant foreign intervention.

“Why was it necessary to kill this guy and to kill him now and to exacerbate the military issues, given the fact that President Trump looks to us as someone who’s not trigger-happy?” Bannon said, paraphrasing a question he said he was hearing from independent voters.

“That still has to be explained,” Bannon continued. “I don’t know if it’s the president addressing the nation. I don’t know if it’s the president getting on ‘Fox & Friends.’ But clearly, at some point and time, the president’s got to walk through not just what his logic was, but also where he wants to take this.”

Indeed, part of the problem for conservative media commentators was the lack of guidance from the White House, which has been slow to settle on a public narrative around Soleimani’s death.