President Donald Trump publicly slammed conservative news star Tucker Carlson on Thursday, telling ABC News that the former Fox News host has “lost his way” and no longer belongs in the MAGA movement — a stunning break with one of conservative media’s most prominent voices.
The split was triggered by Carlson’s angry opposition to the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” which began on February 28 with joint strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of other senior Iranian officials.
Carlson said that the decision to attack Iran was “absolutely disgusting and evil,” and warned that the strikes would “shuffle the deck in a profound way” within Trump’s MAGA movement.
Carlson had reportedly visited the White House multiple times in the weeks prior to lobby against a war against Iran.
Trump didn’t hold back when Karl brought him Carlson’s comments.
“Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told Karl. “I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things. And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”
Take a look –
In a lengthy conversation just now, President Trump hit back at Tucker Carlson who called the Iran war “absolutely disgusting and evil.”
"Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told me. “I knew that a long time ago, and he's not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our…
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) March 5, 2026
Trump had already taken a first swing at Carlson earlier in the week. In a separate interview, he grouped Carlson with Megyn Kelly — another vocal critic of the Iran strikes — and dismissed both as outside the movement’s mainstream.
“I think that MAGA is Trump — MAGA’s not the other two,” Trump said. “MAGA wants to see our country thrive and be safe. And MAGA loves what I’m doing — every aspect of it… This is a detour that we have to take in order to keep our country safe and keep other countries safe, frankly.”
It’s a major shakeup in the conservative world, and not everyone in MAGA lined up behind Trump.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene sided with Carlson, writing on X that his isolationist position “is what millions of Americans voted for.”
Steve Bannon took a more measured tone.
“Tucker has always worked at this a little more with a jaundiced eye,” Bannon said. “He came to this movement late. He waited and measured it. He respects President Trump; he supported President Trump.”
Carlson has been building friction with the Trump administration for months, publicly challenging the White House on Ukraine, the Epstein files, and now Iran.