Trump: Tucker Has Lost His Way

Hotair ^ | 03/05/2026 | John Sexton

[SeekAndFind]

ABC's Jonathan Karl just had a conversation with President Trump in which Trump described Tucker Carlson as someone who had lost his way.

In a lengthy conversation just now, President Trump hit back at Tucker Carlson who called the Iran war “absolutely disgusting and evil.”

"Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told me. “I knew that a long time ago, and he's not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our…— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) March 5, 2026

In a lengthy conversation just now, President Trump hit back at Tucker Carlson who called the Iran war “absolutely disgusting and evil.” 

"Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told me. “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."

This conversation is a response to something Karl reported earlier. Tucker Carlson told him the attack on Iran was “absolutely disgusting and evil.”

MAGA divide — Tucker Carlson tells me the attack on Iran is “absolutely disgusting and evil.” pic.twitter.com/1zz8YNGY2r— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) February 28, 2026

Carlson's criticism came after several visits to the White House this year, reportedly meeting with Trump, Sec. of State Rubio and others. His most recent visit was described as an attempt to talk Trump out of launching an attack on Iran.

For Trump there might be a bit of personal concern mixed in with his longstanding opposition to allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons. In yet another discussion with Jonathan Karl, he said that Iran had tried to have him killed twice but that he'd succeeded where Khamenei had failed.

More on the call — pic.twitter.com/WOltZFGOF9— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) March 2, 2026

Carlson has been repeatedly skeptical of the claims that Iran attempted to kill Trump. He denied knowing anything about it during his interview with Sen. Cruz and then a minute later was demanding the US nuke Tehran if the allegations were true.

Tucker Qatarlson says that we should nuke Iran if it's proven that they've tried to kiII President Trump.

He thought this was a gotcha, not realizing that Iran regime agents were already arrested for trying to kiII President Trump.pic.twitter.com/TGLulmUSly— Max 📟 (@MaxNordau) June 18, 2025

Cruz responded at the time:

1/x @MattWalshBlog I agree that it was interesting. But it would have more so had Tucker not been utterly fact-free.

“I’ve never heard of Iran trying to kill Trump!” [high-pitched laughter]

It’s an objective fact. Here’s the DOJ indictment: https://t.co/vkFJDNb8S2 https://t.co/cX6nTbRI3m— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 19, 2025

3/x Here’s the head of the IRGC saying they are trying to kill Trump: https://t.co/sfGFlEMQl8— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 19, 2025

There's currently a Pakistani businessman on trial for hiring hitmen to kill Trump (and others) supposedly under pressure from Iran.

The allegation sounded like the stuff of spy movies: A Pakistani businessman trying to hire hit men, even handing them $5,000 in cash, to kill a U.S. politician on behalf of Iran 's powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

It was true, and potential targets of the 2024 scheme included now-President Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate and ex-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the man told jurors at his attempted terrorism trial in New York on Wednesday. But he insisted his actions were driven by fear for loved ones in Iran, and he figured he'd be apprehended before anything came of the scheme.

"My family was under threat, and I had to do this," the defendant, Asif Merchant, testified through an Urdu interpreter. "I was not wanting to do this so willingly."

In any case Carlson's hawkish stance toward Iran didn't last long. He's now saying that the claims about Iran wanting to kill Trump can't be trusted because they came from Israel.

Tucker Carlson suggested that Iran didn't actually plot to kill President Trump, let alone twice.

Why? Because he claimed the intelligence "came from Israel," which has "manipulated [the US] a lot."

Except, in both cases, those indicted told authorities Iran WAS behind their plots.

Despite Tucker's claims that Iran's attempts to assassinate Trump are only known because of Israeli intelligence, both Asif Merchant and Farhad Shakeri told investigators how they had been trained and funded by Iran.

(It is worth noting that it's not clear if there was any Israeli intelligence that helped crack either case, as both indictments indicate that authorities learned about Iran's involvement from the defendants directly.)

The trial just got underway last week for Asif Merchant, who has a wife and children in Iran and had spent at least a month in Iran shortly before he allegedly recruited what he thought were hit men (but were actually feds) to kill Trump.

But it has been public knowledge for quite some time that Merchant told investigators that he had been trained to be a spy by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps — and that his cousin, an Iranian agent, had given him "the money to pay for the assassination."

As for the other, unrelated case, that defendant told the FBI that almost immediately after Merchant's arrest became public in September 2024, the IRGC had "asked Shakeri [in mid-to-late September 2024] to put aside his other efforts on behalf of the IRGC and focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating, former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump."

When Shakeri indicated would need a "'huge' amount of money," per the indictment, "IRGC Official-I said that 'we have already spent a lot of money .. . [s]o the money's not an issue,' which Shakeri understood to mean that the IRGC previously had spent a significant sum of money on efforts to murder Victim-4 [Trump] and was willing to continue spending a lot of money in its attempt to procure Victim-4's [Trump's] assassination."

Shakeri has not yet been tried or even arrested, as he is believed to be in Iran. But at least one of his alleged co-conspirators was sentenced earlier this year for a related IRGC assassination plot on U.S. soil, this one targeting American journalist and activist, Masih Alinejad.

None of this information regarding Merchant and Shakeri has been hidden from public view. To the extent there was Israeli intelligence involved in uncovering either plot targeting Trump is actually unclear — at least publicly — and the U.S. government's own charging documents clearly lay out that both men detailed Iran's involvement in their respective cases.

In other words, Tucker lied.

Again.

And he could have debunked his own lie in less than 15 minutes.

That is, of course, if Tucker had even wanted to do anything other than blame Israel for everything.

pic.twitter.com/LdBviCyBfh— Joel Mowbray (@joelmowbray) March 3, 2026

This is just one aspect of this ongoing disagreement over Iran but it seems like a crucial one. Trump clearly believes he was targeted by Iran and Carlson seems to be doing his best to deny or downplay that in order to deny that Iran has done anything that would be a cause for war. By Carlson's own admission, if the claims about Iran and Trump are true, then we should be at war with them. But he doesn't want that outcome so he denies those claims are true.

There's one more element to the conflict which I haven't mentioned. Laura Loomer has been one of the loudest critics of Tucker Carlson's anti-Israel turn. She said today that she spoke to President Trump after the attack on Iran and informed Trump directly about the comments Carlson had made to Jonathan Karl (see above). Loomer says that before they spoke, Trump wasn't aware of what Carlson was saying (that the attack was  “absolutely disgusting and evil”). Some NSFW language in this clip:

I spoke on the phone with President @realDonaldTrump for 20 minutes after his highly successful strikes on Iran, and he was completely unaware of the way Tucker Qatarlson was badmouthing him and the Iran strikes.

While our President is actively wiping out foreign Islamic terrorists, @TuckerCarlson is calling the strikes "disgusting and evil."

To make matters worse, Tucker's former employee Philip Nieto, who worked for Tucker at the Daily Caller, is using the @DailyMail to publish shameless propaganda puff pieces to cover up his former boss's sabotage of the Trump administration and President Trump’s foreign policy in the Middle East.

Tucker is actively running interference for the Iranian regime and he’s deliberately trying to fracture the America First MAGA base from within.

Tucker is a massive liability to the President, and his sick betrayal of our country must be completely EXPOSED AND CONDEMNED!

pic.twitter.com/DiALcxj5UF— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) March 5, 2026

So if we were to try to unravel all of this, it looks like Carlson was lobbying Trump not to attack Iran. When Carlson criticized the attack to Jonathan Karl, Loomer informed Trump about that and Trump subsequently came out with this statement that Carlson wasn't MAGA and was a dummy. Loomer is definitely taking credit for this.

🚨 BREAKING 🚨

Less than one week after I showed President Trump all of the nasty things @TuckerCarlson has been saying about him and his administration, including his vicious campaign against Jews, Evangelicals and his support for Islamic radicals, President Trump just SLAMMED Tucker Qatarlson.

Trump told @jonkarl :

“Tucker has lost his way… 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."

Thank you, President Trump! I knew Trump would come through.

Now it’s time for @JDVance to also disavow his dear friend Tucker Carlson.

https://t.co/xQs1543IY2 pic.twitter.com/abuGhUbTPT— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) March 5, 2026

I showed President Trump everything you said about him, @TuckerCarlson.

Everything.— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) March 3, 2026

It's a side story compared to the conflict in Iran but it does suggest that Carlson's turn against Israel and toward places like Iran and Qatar may finally have created a breach in his connection to the Trump White House.

---

TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Iran; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cuckertarlson; frmossadbrigade; iran; israel; jihadistkeywordtroll; nevertrumpkywrdtroll; quckerqatarlson; randpaulsucks; tdskeywordtroll; tuckercarlson; tuckerqatarlson

[MNJohnnie]

I will explain it to you Tucker.

Pry open your welded shut mind, put your mindless bigotry aside and learn something for once

Since the 1980s the US has been embroiled with the ME tar baby because the free flow of oil out of the gulf is critical to the health of the US Economy. Allow anyone hostile to control the oil and they control the world’s economy

So the US has spent trillions of dollars and thousands of lives trying to maintain stability in the Middle East and keep the oil flowing.

The Iranian mullahs have been the biggest threat to that stability. They fund terrorists groups all over the region. They try to overthrow governments from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Egypt in order to put their puppet groups in power. Iran has been funding and providing weapons to kill Americans for decades. They been counterfeiting our currency and using it to buy influence around the ME against us.
Our “geniuses” in DC response from DC to all this was “Contain Iran”

Them along come 0bama who decided he can buy peace with Iran. He gives them billions and relaxes sanction. His puppet Biden givens them even more billions in a vain attempt to buy peace.

So we have a well funded hostile regime in Iran, on the verge of getting nukes, who made it clear they are more then willing to screw with the stability of the region.

Containment failed, Appeasement failed, DC has no effective strategy on how to deal with a hostile Iran. Then the Iranian Resistance showed it can mobilize millions of Iranians against the regime. The IPP is a very smart plan on how to replace the Mullahs with a secular Democracy

So the time is ripe for one hard punch to topple the criminal Islamic regime in Iran before it gets nuclear weapons and dominates most of the worlds oil supply.

But I know Tucker. Your sort of “It’s the joos fault” cultists cannot pry you heads out of your asses long enough to grasp any facts that challenge your infantile ignorance and mindless bigotry.

[BipolarBob]

Never go full retard.

[Alberta's Child]

There was a time when a Republican politician bad-mouthing Tucker Carlson to a jackass like Jonathan Karl would have gotten him soundly ridiculed on FR.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Tucker hasn’t lost his way - he’s following Candance Owners straight to Conspiracy-Nut Land.

[pissant]

I’m well beyond caring what Marjorie Tucker Latrine says about Iran, Israel, or anything else. He’s just huffin’ Fuentes’ discarded panties at this point.

[Jan_Sobieski]

But I know Tucker. Your sort of “It’s the joos fault” cultists cannot pry you heads out of your asses long enough to grasp any facts that challenge your infantile ignorance and mindless bigotry.

Well said

[MNJohnnie]

Nope. There was a time Freepers though about issues instead of being mindless cultists worshiping what ever clickbait artists like Bannon, Owens and Carlson told them to think

Too bad the rational adults left and the mindless bots are still here screaming the same know nothing slogans they were posting the 1st day they showed up here.

[pissant]

there was also a time when Tucker Carlson was slightly less of an imbecile than he is now. He and Candace apparently had a suicide pact

[Jan_Sobieski]

Are you a Cenk Uygur fan? Does Cenk deserve a fawning softball interview?

[US_MilitaryRules]

His new name is Tucker Qatarlson!

[PROCON]

Agreed, I used to watch Tucker’s FOXNEWS show every time he was on but after he left almost 3 years ago he has gone off of the deep end, very sad.

[Bob Wills is still the king]

Tucker has lost his mind. At least his father wasn’t a traitor.

[daniel1212]

Tucker and Candace, two souls lost in spirit and truth

[quantim]

Tucker “Qatarlson”

LOL

[dforest]

Perhaps we need 10 more repetitious hate Tucker threads to make us feel real good about ourselves before turning in tonight. LOL The Amen chorus will get all “tuckered” out eventually. 🤣🤣

[Republican Wildcat]

Well of course...I mean, it is extraordinary and a shock that someone like President Donald Trump wouldn't have anything but complimentary things to say about someone who called him "absolutely disgusting and evil."

---------------------------------------------

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4363285/posts A new edition of Tucker Carlson’s newsletter is drawing sharp backlash after he argued that an Iranian nuclear weapon could ultimately be a stabilizing force in the Middle East

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4356594/posts Tucker Carlson Tells Forum in Doha That He’s Buying a House in Qatar to ‘Make a Statement That I’m an American and a Free Man’

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/4351202/posts ‘Bulls***’: Tucker Carlson Mounts Full-Throated Defense of Mamdani From Anti-Semitism Charges and Slams ‘Ethno-Narcissist’ Jews

---------------------------------------------

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4262726/posts Carlson’s interview on Tuesday with alleged historian Darryl Cooper — like his interview in April with Reverend Munther Isaac, referenced in today’s flashbacks — was so much worse than merely glib or incurious.

Carlson chose to interview Cooper, whom he endorsed as “the best and most honest popular historian in the United States” to learn exactly how World War II didn’t happen. According to Cooper — and Carlson nodded along the entire time — Winston Churchill was perhaps “the chief villain of the Second World War” and “primarily responsible for that war becoming what it did.”

It’s true that Hitler did not want or expect Britain to fight. He wanted Britain to acquiesce to German dominance of Europe from the Urals to Gibraltar and subsume the UK to Nazi interests. This is all a matter of historical record. Britain could fight or submit — that was Hitler’s choice, not Churchill’s.

FLASHBACK: Carlson chose to interview Isaac to find out how the Jewish State of Israel treats Christians. Isaac is a priest who neither lives nor works in Israel and who uses the loaded phrase “Occupied Palestine” as his location on his Twitter/X profile. He is a Palestinian Christian from Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem, where Christian ministers serve at the mercy of the Palestinian Authority.

---------------------------------------------

To: fruser1 <> This is more Tucker's speed - along with his segment on the "benefits" of tanning your testicles, which he aired 2 years ago.

He is way too **** retarded for anything serious, like foreign policy.

37 posted on 6/18/2025, 4:46:32 PM by montag813 [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]

------------------------------------------------------

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4361190/posts Insanity in Tehran: Regime Cuts Internet to 80 Million, Streams Tucker Carlson on Loop

[Captain Jack Aubrey]

Good.

[boycott]

MTG needs to come down off her moral high horse after having multiple affairs.

She’s a trashy redneck woman. She became a never-Trumper because he got tired of her wasting his time. She really thought far more of herself than anyone else in DC. She did, however, load her pockets nicely when in DC.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

"Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told me. “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 posted on the other thread with the same source, I've been thinking a lot this week about how President Trump seems to have lost his way. In primaries and general elections, I have voted for him six times. I was also a big defender of him here on this forum in the dark days of 2021 and 2022 when many people here wanted him to never return to politics. However, I didn't vote for this. There have been no convictions, no real budget cuts, no meaningful election reforms, no release of the JFK assassination or Epstein files, and fewer deportations of illegal aliens than Barack Obama.

I watched the Tucker Carlson video which I believe is the source for all of these controversial quotes against the current attacks on Iran: Tucker Carlson Responds to Israel’s War on Iran. Although I may not agree with everything he said, there doesn't appear to be anything unpatriotic or antisemitic in context in it. If anything, it seems to be a plea for actually putting America first. Calling Tucker Carlson antisemitic or stupid doesn't do anything to refute the point he is making, and trying to silence him only reveals the inherent weakness of the position of those who oppose him.

Donald Trump told us that "We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn't be involved with." Yet now, we are bombing Iran without any clear objective. The timeline for all this has gone, in just five days, from less than a month to talking about ceasing hostilities sometime in September. None of this is Making America Great Again. I fear that when this war-fever finally subsides, it will the Trump presidency and perhaps even Israel that will be destroyed. I think that President Trump is now listening to some very bad people who are leading him to ruin, and that perhaps it is sadly him who is "really not smart enough to understand that."