Tucker Carlson’s contentious interview with Sen. Ted Cruz broke down into a tit-for-tat over who has more “love” for Donald Trump as the two debated whether the U.S. should bomb Iran.
After flat-lining with ignorant answers on Iran, Cruz accused Carlson of spouting “reckless rhetoric” by opposing the U.S.’ potential intervention. When Carlson retorted that he wasn’t calling for regime change in Iran—as Cruz has—Cruz tried to highlight Carlson’s recent feud with Trump over the prospect of intervention.
“You put out a newsletter attacking Donald Trump and calling him complicit!” Cruz snarled. “You put out a whole newsletter saying Trump has abandoned America first.”
Cruz was referring to Carlson’s Friday newsletter to his subscribers, which claimed that “politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with” Israel’s assault on Iran after years of U.S. support for Israel. Trump later claimed since he “developed” the phrase “America First” only he can decide what violates it.
Carlson dismissed the comments to Cruz and highlighted how he campaigned for Trump last year.
“I like Trump, I campaigned for Trump, I know Trump,” he said. “I talked to him last night. I’m not against Trump, and you know that. I think that we should be very careful about entering into more foreign wars that don’t help us when our country is dying.”
As Cruz continued to push, Carlson added. “After anti-Semitism, this is the last refuge, ‘You’re an anti-Semite and you hate Trump!’ I love Trump!”
Cruz then continued to use Carlson’s opposition to intervention as a litmus test for support for Trump, a common tactic that has caused fissures among MAGA types as Trump considers whether to engage the military.
“Your foreign policy is the foreign policy of Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, and it doesn’t work,” Cruz said.
“Yeah, I’m a big leftist,” Carlson said. “This is so silly. Now I’m Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, OK.”
Both men have had tumultuous histories with the president. Cruz and Trump repeatedly bickered during the 2016 presidential campaign as the two vied for the Republican nomination, prompting Trump to link Cruz’s father to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and mock Cruz’s wife’s face. Cruz later called Trump a “sniveling coward” before endorsing him.
Carlson has also gone through cycles of criticizing Trump. The former Fox News host called Trump the “most repulsive person on the planet” in a 1999 post, and he later told a Fox News staffer days before the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that he “hated” him “passionately.” Still, he supported Trump regularly on his Fox News show and after his 2023 firing.
However, Carlson has rankled Trump in recent days by advocating for the U.S. not to aide Israel’s assault. He claimed on X that “warmongers” such as Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson” were trying to goad Trump into the war.
Trump later dismissed Carlson’s critiques, telling reporters on Monday that Carlson should “go get a television network and say it so that people listen” before later calling him “kooky” on Truth Social.
Tensions appeared to have thawed between Carlson and Trump, however. Trump told reporters on Monday that he wasn’t worried about losing supporters over any intervention and claimed Carlson called to apologize “because he thought he said things that were a little bit too strong, and I appreciated that.”
“Tucker’s a nice guy,” Trump added.
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