President Donald Trump clashed with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Monday, calling him “kooky Tucker” and questioning his overall influence after Carlson criticized Trump’s support for Israeli strikes on Iran.
The feud escalated when Trump, after leaving the G7 Summit in Canada, responded to questions about Carlson’s accusations that the president was “complicit” in the Israel-Iran conflict.
Trump is returning to the White House to monitor the conflict from the Situation Room back in Washington, D.C.
“I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying,” Trump said. “Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen.”
Trump later amplified his criticism on his Truth Social platform, writing: “Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, ‘Iran CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!'”
Take a look —
Carlson broke with Trump suddenly during an appearance on former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast Monday, where he accused the Trump administration of following direction from “foreign governments” seeking “regime change” in Iran.
Carlson said Trump had abandoned his “America First” policy by supporting Israel in the conflict.
“While the American military may not have physically perpetrated the assault, years of funding and sending weapons to Israel, which Donald Trump just bragged about on Truth Social, undeniably place the U.S. at the center of last night’s events,” Carlson wrote following Israel’s first strikes on Iran.
“Washington knew these attacks would happen. They aided Israel in carrying them out. Politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it.”
Trump has firmly rejected Carlson’s argument that supporting Israel means he has abandoned his America First principles.
Instead, the president called himself as the final authority on the America First movement, and said preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons aligns with America First goals.
“Well, considering that I’m the one that developed ‘America First,’ and considering that the term wasn’t used until I came along, I think I’m the one that decides that,” the president told The Atlantic on Saturday.
“For those people who say they want peace—you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon,” he said. “So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon—that’s not peace.”
As the feud has escalated, Carlson has also targeted former Fox News coworkers. He told Bannon that Fox News star Mark Levin was “screechy” and “terrible on TV,” and also went after popular late night star Sean Hannity.
“Levin’s the funniest because he’s terrible on TV, and again, I never had any problems with him at Fox. He kind of controls Hannity in this weird way. I never understood what that was about. I never really cared to learn,” Carlson said. “Sean pushed, and they gave him some kind of weekend show that nobody watched.”
Carlson compared watching Levin’s show to “listening to your ex-wife scream about alimony payments” and accused Fox News of being propaganda machine for American intervention.
“What they’re doing is what they always do, which is just turning up the propaganda hose to full blast and just trying to, you know, knock elderly Fox viewers off their feet and make them submit to where you want them to,” Carlson said.
Carlson accused Levin, Hannity, and Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch of being “warmongers” that are pushing Trump to involve the United States in the escalating Israel-Iran conflict.
“I’m really afraid that my country’s gonna be further weakened by this. I think we’re gonna see the end of the American empire,” he said.
After Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites and killed top military officials, Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized that “We are not involved in strikes against Iran.” However, the United States has assisted Israel in defending itself from retaliatory Iranian strikes.
Trump later posted on Truth Social that Iran ignored the 60-day deadline he had given the countries Islamic theocracy to reach a nuclear deal.
“The U.S. had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight,” Trump warned at the beginning of the conflict. “If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before. However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!”
He reinforced this warning to Iran on Monday.
“We’ll come down so hard if they do anything to our people,” Mr Trump told a gaggle of reporters on Air Force One as he returned to the White House. “The gloves are off. I think they know not to touch our troops.”
The U.S. and Iran were expected to hold talks Sunday in Oman about the regime’s nuclear program, but those negotiations were cancelled following the Israeli strikes. The Trump administration has accused Iran of negotiating in bad faith, and said they were continuing to advance their nuclear ambitions while using negotiations to stall for time.
Still, the president’s dismissal of Carlson represents a significant clash with a longtime political ally who had been a key supporter during Trump’s campaigns and whose son works for Vice President JD Vance’s team.