U.S. President Donald Trump said that Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who regularly shares antisemitic conspiracy theories, is “not MAGA,” following Carlson’s sharp criticisms of the administration’s military strikes on Iran.
“Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, of ABC News, in a March 5 interview. “I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA.”
MAGA refers to the president’s Make America Great Again movement.
“MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things,” Trump said. “Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”
Carlson has publicly condemned the joint U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran as “absolutely disgusting and evil” and warned the conflict could reshape Trump’s political movement.
He has also drawn criticism for unfounded claims linking the Chabad‑Lubavitch movement to the war, which Jewish leaders have rejected as baseless and inflammatory.
Responding to the president’s comments, Carlson told Status that “there are times I get annoyed with Trump, right now definitely included. But I’ll always love him no matter what he says about me.”
Supporters of Trump’s position have applauded the president’s remarks.
The Republican Jewish Coalition praised Trump for distancing himself from Carlson’s rhetoric. Leo Terrell, chair of the U.S. Department of Justice’s task force to fight Jew-hatred, stated that “if you are with Tucker, you are not with President Trump. Trump is MAGA.”
