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… 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… 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… 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.
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