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Trump: Tucker Carlson Is Not ‘America First’
Eli Lake
March 5, 2026

Of the first political casualties of President Donald Trump’s second Iran war is his relationship with populist movement leader and social media broadcaster Tucker Carlson. In an interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Trump cast Tucker out of the MAGA tent. “Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told Karl on Thursday. “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.” As I reported last month, Trump’s patience with Carlson was growing thin. The president has privately asked Carlson to tone down his criticism of pro-Israel supporters of the president since January. But until this week, Trump did not share his irritation with the wider public. Carlson’s outbursts about Operation Epic Fury were too much. He called the war “absolutely disgusting and evil” in an earlier interview with Karl. Carlson devoted Monday’s show on his own podcast to advancing claims that Trump had caved to pressure from Israel to launch another endless war. READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA Tucker Carlson attacks Chabad and Holy Temple ‘patches’ Anti-Israel media personality Tucker Carlson sparked controversy after claiming that Israel’s war is allegedly driven by a goal of destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque and building the Third Temple in its place. In an episode of the “Tucker Carlson Show,” he asked, “How did all these guys wind up wearing patches suggesting the point of this war was the destruction of one of the holiest places in Islam and the rebuilding of a temple that is totally anathema to Christianity?” He answered, “This has been going on a long time in public through, in part, the efforts of a group called Chabad, C-H-A-B-A-D.” 

MIDDLE EAST FORUM Gregg Roman: Tucker Carlson Has Become Tehran’s Most Effective English-Language Propagandist …According to Tucker: The war serves only Israel. The Gulf States are the real victims. America should declare victory and leave immediately. Dual-loyalty fifth columnists dragged the country into a foreign war. The Ayatollah’s death is a tragedy that will unleash chaos. The neocons are possessed by demonic blood lust. And then, in the second broadcast, the escalation: the war is really about rebuilding the Jewish Third Temple on the ruins of Islam’s third-holiest site, a conspiracy involving Hasidic organizations, the Secretary of Defense, IDF soldiers wearing temple patches, and evangelical preachers calling for the annihilation of Gaza. The logical terminus of this narrative is not policy criticism, but a blood libel for the digital age.