President Trump’s growing support for the Israeli attack on Iran has created a divide among his usual allies in the right-wing media world — one that has not gone unnoticed by the White House.
In interviews posted on Monday, Tucker Carlson and Stephen K. Bannon warned Mr. Trump against American military involvement in the Middle East, invoking the specter of the Iraq War. “I am really afraid that my country is going to be further weakened by this,” Mr. Carlson said on Mr. Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. “I think we are going to see the end of American empire.”
The president dismissed those comments by needling Mr. Carlson about his ouster from Fox News. “I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying,” Mr. Trump said at the G7 summit in Canada on Monday. “Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen.” Later, on social media, he described Mr. Carlson as “kooky.”
Although Mr. Carlson lost his prime-time perch on Fox News in 2023, he has amassed a substantial following as an independent commentator with his podcast and YouTube program. In the interview with Mr. Bannon, he extended his criticisms of Mr. Trump to the cable network that fired him.
“The one theme that runs longitudinally through the history of Fox is the promotion of wars that don’t help the United States,” Mr. Carlson said, though he hastened to add that he personally liked Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, who control the network, and remained friendly with them.
Mr. Carlson was less kind to several of his former colleagues. He called Mark Levin, the conservative pundit and Trump loyalist, “screechy,” and then delivered an unflattering impression of Mr. Levin’s speaking style. “It’s like listening to your ex-wife scream about alimony payments,” Mr. Carlson said, marveling that Fox News had allowed Mr. Levin to host a weekend show.
Mr. Carlson’s critique of his former employer was centered on what he deemed its on-air support of American military intervention abroad. “What they are doing is what they always do,” he said of Fox News, “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 Mr. Carlson’s comments.
The exchange between Mr. Carlson and Mr. Bannon reflected a broader divide in the Republican Party over America’s involvement in the Iran conflict. Charlie Kirk, the influential conservative activist, described “a major schism in the MAGA online community” over the issue. Mr. Carlson is in the isolationist camp; a more hawkish faction has long called for military engagement in Iran.
In a post last Friday on X, Mr. Carlson had described Sean Hannity, Mr. Levin and Rupert Murdoch as “warmongers.”
Speaking with Mr. Bannon, Mr. Carlson said that when he worked with Mr. Hannity and Mr. Levin, they were always nice to him.
Michael M. Grynbaum writes about the intersection of media, politics and culture. He has been a media correspondent at The Times since 2016.
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