Donald Trump responded to Tucker Carlson‘s criticism of the administration’s support of Israeli strikes on Iran, with the president getting in a gig at the media personality’s post-Fox News career.
“I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying,” Trump said, as he attended the G7 summit in Canada on Monday. “Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen.”
Since Israel launched its attacks on Iran, Carlson, a Trump supporter, has warned of U.S. involvement, underscoring a split in the MAGA movement.
On Steve Bannon‘s War Room podcast earlier on Monday, Carlson said that he actually does “really love Trump. He is a deeply humane kind person, and I am saying this because I am really afraid that my country is going to be further weakened by this. I think we are going to see the end of American empire. Other nations would like to see that, and this is a perfect way to scuttle the U.S.S. America on the shoals of Iran. But it is also going to end Trump’s presidency.”
He cited George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, which became a quagmire.
“The only reason I am saying any of this is I really really care,” Carlson said.
Carlson also was critical of Fox News’ coverage, having earlier singled out Rupert Murdoch and personalities Mark Levin and Sean Hannity “warmongers.” He wrote on X on Friday, “The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians. The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers. Who are the warmongers? They would include anyone who’s calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran. On that list: Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson. At some point they will all have to answer for this, but you should know their names now.”
On the War Room podcast, he said that in his time at Fox News, Hannity and Levin were both nice to him. Carlson, though, called Levin “screechy,” and claimed that he got his show because Hannity pushed for him to get a weekend program.
Now, Carlson said, Levin “is like all over primetime. So what is that? That is not by popular acclaim. This is not like there are viewer surveys saying, ‘We need a lot more Mark Levin. Less Jesse Watters, more Mark Levin.’” Carlson then made a screeching noise, and said of his former network, “What they are doing is what they always do, which is just turning up the propaganda hose, to full blast, and just trying to knock elderly Fox viewers off their feet and make them submit to more wars.”
Fox News did not respond to Carlson’s attacks.
Carlson was dropped from Fox News in 2023, a decision that came just days after the network reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in their defamation lawsuit. Carlson then went on to start his own media venture, Tucker Carlson Network.
