Talk show host and opinion maker Tucker Carlson harshly criticized President Donald Trump’s stance on Iran on Friday, writing in a sharply critical commentary that the US should “drop Israel” and “let them fight their own wars”.
“If Israel wants to wage this war, it has every right to do so. It is a sovereign country, and it can do as it pleases”, Carlson wrote in his newsletter, adding: “But not with America’s backing”.
Trump, for his part, has expressed support for Israel’s attacks, which he called “very successful”, and emphasized in an interview with Fox News that the US will defend Israel if Iran retaliates. He also warned that the situation “will only get worse” if Iran does not agree to a nuclear deal “before there is nothing left”.
In recent days, Carlson has argued that fears that Iran will soon acquire nuclear weapons are unfounded and said that a war with the Islamic republic would not only lead to “thousands” of American deaths in the Middle East, but also “amount to a profound betrayal” of Trump’s voter base and effectively “mean the end of his presidency”.
The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians. The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers. Who are the warmongers? They would…
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 13, 2025
He repeated this in his newsletter, accusing Trump of “being complicit in the act of war” through “years of funding and sending weapons to Israel”. Direct US involvement in a war with Iran, Carlson said, “would be a middle finger in the faces of the millions of voters who cast their ballots in hopes of creating a government that would finally put the United States first”,
“What happens next will define Donald Trump’s presidency”, he concluded.
“Americans don’t want to bomb Iran”
Republican Senator Rand Paul also expressed opposition to a possible war with Iran and directed criticism at the hawkish neoconservatives in Washington.
“The American people overwhelmingly oppose our endless wars, and they showed that when they voted for Donald Trump in 2024″, Paul wrote on social media.
“I urge President Trump to stay the course, keep putting America first, and avoid getting involved in another foreign war.”, he continued.
The American people overwhelming oppose our endless wars, and they voted that way when they voted for Donald Trump in 2024.
I urge President Trump to stay the course, keep putting America first, and to not join in any war between other countries.
Every American should hope and…
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 13, 2025
Republican figure Marjorie Taylor Greene also spoke out against US involvement, emphasizing on Twitter that “Americans don’t want to bomb Iran because the secular government of Israel says that Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb any day now”.
Greene added that she doesn’t even know any American voters who are thinking about Iran.
I don’t know anyone that even thinks about Iran.
Americans don’t want to bomb Iran because the secular government of Israel says that Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb any day now.
We’ve been told that for the past 20 years.
The same story.
Everyone I know…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) June 12, 2025
Promised to “end all wars”
After being sworn in for his second term in January, President Trump promised to “stop all wars” and be remembered as a “peacemaker and unifier”. But six months later, tensions in the Middle East are escalating sharply following Israel’s attack on Iran, increasing the risk of a regional conflict that could draw in US forces.
Trump’s support for the Israeli attacks is now testing his promise of peace and creating divisions within his voter base. Many right-wing politicians and commentators argue that unconditional support for Israel runs counter to the “America First” principles that got Trump elected in the first place.
– There’s a strong sense of betrayal and anger within much of the ‘America First’ base, said Swedish-Iranian Trita Parsi, vice president of the Quincy Institute, an American think tank focusing on diplomacy.
– They’ve grown increasingly skeptical of Israel and believe wars like this are what turn Republican presidencies into failures – and derail their domestic agendas.
