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Trump Has Had Enough of Tucker Carlson
Eli Lake
February 22, 2026

Donald Trump has a Tucker Carlson problem. Since January, the president has privately urged the popular podcast host to end his battle with prominent pro-Israel MAGA influencers, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversations. People close to Trump have routinely brought Carlson’s attacks on Israel to his attention. And they have warned, as one Republican fundraiser close to the White House said, that the split Carlson was creating in Trump’s coalition was “destroying the chances of winning the midterms and the next election.” The interview that Carlson aired on Friday with Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, could have been a chance for Carlson to create a reset. But instead of marking a truce, Carlson used the combative three-hour interview to open up a new front. Since the October 7, 2023 massacre, Carlson has condemned Israel’s response, and claimed that the Jewish state exercises a stranglehold on U.S. foreign policy. READ MORE

TABLET MAG Lee Smith: The Man Setting Fire to the GOP While audiences are eagerly awaiting broadcast of the conversation between U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Tucker Carlson, the podcaster has already scored a decisive win. Carlson and his team leaked to a friendly reporter that after the interview with Huckabee at Ben Gurion Airport, Israeli airport authorities detained and harassed them. According to Carlson, “Men who identified themselves as airport security took our passports, hauled our executive producer into a side room, and then demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about.”

NEW ZIONIST TIMES The Many Lies of Tucker Carlson: A Point-by-Point Rebuttal of Exaggeration, Historical Erasure, and Double Standards Carlson repeatedly labels Israel “useless,” “insignificant,” resource-poor, and a strategic liability, claiming it has “no resources,” “its gasoline comes from Azerbaijan,” and the alliance is “the biggest burden we face outside our borders.” These assertions are contradicted by verifiable data. Israel’s economy grew 3.1 percent in 2025 (outpacing the OECD average), with high-tech driving 56–57 percent of exports and $111 billion in capital deals.Natural gas production from Leviathan and Tamar fields is on track to exceed 3 billion cubic feet per day in 2026, powering a $35 billion export deal to Egypt and additional supplies to Jordan and Europe. Two modern refineries produce gasoline and other products. Defense exports reached $14.8 billion, with systems like Iron Dome, Trophy, and Iron Beam battle-tested and integrated into U.S. forces. Israeli intelligence sharing on Iran and terrorism has been valued by U.S. officials as “worth five CIAs,” accelerating American technological superiority.