Calls on the right are growing to stop the antisemitism that has pervaded the Democratic Party from infiltrating the GOP — and that means banishing anti-Israel provocateurs like Tucker Carlson.
Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, sounded the battle cry at Tuesday’s Symposium on Antisemitism, warning that the time has come for conservatives to purge antisemitic figures from the movement just as National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. did 60 years ago.
He described Mr. Carlson, who embraced Israel-bashing after being fired from the Fox News Channel in 2023, as “the single-most dangerous demagogue in this country.”
“I don’t want to wake up in five years and find myself in a country where both major political parties are unambiguously anti-Israel and unapologetically antisemitic,” said Mr. Cruz at the symposium sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition and National Review. “And I think that is a real possibility. If Tucker and his minions prevail, that will happen.”
He urged the crowd at the Museum of the Bible to “fight this battle on every front. Fight it on the historical revisionism, fight it on the foreign policy.”
Joining Mr. Cruz at the symposium were fellow Republican Sens. Jim Banks of Indiana and Tom Cotton of Arkansas; prominent conservative commentators, and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who heads the White House Religious Liberty Commission.
“Why am I here today? Because I’m in the same fight as Ted, and we’re not going to let the Republican Party become an antisemitic party led by people like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens and others,” Mr. Patrick said.
The comments came as Mr. Carlson faces growing pushback on the right over his vehement opposition to the U.S.-Israeli air strikes on Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.
President Trump offered his strongest condemnation of Mr. Carlson to date last week, telling ABC News host Jonathan Karl that “Tucker has lost his way.”
“I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country,” Mr. Trump said, as reported by Mr. Karl. “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.”
Fox News Channel personalities have steered clear of criticizing Mr. Carlson, with the notable exception of “Life, Liberty and Levin” host Mark Levin. But Sean Hannity broke his silence last week in a podcast interview with Katie Miller, wife of White House adviser Stephen Miller.
Asked about his relationship with Mr. Carlson, the “Hannity” host said, “I don’t ever talk to him. Ever.”
“I wish him well,” Mr. Hannity said. “I’ve read a lot of what he says. I just completely disagree with it, and it’s not the person that I knew when he was at Fox.”
The blowback has failed to deter Mr. Carlson, who outraged the right by declaring Friday that Mr. Trump’s demand for “unconditional surrender” in Iran means that U.S. troops will have an opportunity to rape Iranian women.
“Unconditional surrender means foreign troops get to rape your wife and daughter if they want. And everyone knows that,” Mr. Carlson told podcast host Saagar Enjeti.
Rep. Randy Fine, Florida Republican, called it a “disgusting thing to say about both Trump and our military,” adding on X that “Tucker is not MAGA. He is bat-s—- crazy.”
Further, since the airstrikes began Feb. 28, Mr. Carlson has accused Israel of convincing the president to attack Iran; reporting that Qatar arrested Mossad agents in a bombing plot, which Qatar’s foreign ministry denied; and suggesting the Jewish community-service group Chabad is responsible for the war against Iran.
The blast at Chabad was a step too far for numerous Jewish organizations and individuals, including billionaire Trump supporter Bill Ackman, who warned that the host’s harangues are becoming dangerous.
“@TuckerCarlson has reached a level of absurdity that is going to get somebody killed,” Mr. Ackman said Thursday on X. “He needs to stop this now. Someone who knows him well needs to intervene or he will have blood on his hands.”
Other critics pointed out that the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have both been active in Chabad, a charitable outreach effort known for its houses on hundreds of university campuses.
.https://twitter.com/tedcruz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“>@tedcruz addresses the rise of antisemitism among Conservative youth: “I don’t want to wake up in 5 years and find myself in a country where both parties are… unapologetically antisemitic.” https://twitter.com/hashtag/StopAntisemitism?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“>#StopAntisemitism https://t.co/9J7QoMYUuV“>pic.twitter.com/9J7QoMYUuV
— National Review (@NRO) https://twitter.com/NRO/status/2031390000646889841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“>March 10, 2026
The rise of antisemitic voices on the right comes even though Mr. Trump has been hailed as the most pro-Israel president in U.S. history.
Assistant Attorney General Leo Terrell, who heads the Trump administration’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, said the president’s commitment is unwavering.
“If you think I’ve done a good job, if you think I’ve been effective, it’s because of President Trump, who has told me over and over again, whatever you need to fight antisemitism, just ask,” he told the symposium. “He has never said no to me.”
Mr. Cotton argued that anti-Israel “influencers on the right” are neither influential nor part of the right.
“They are at least not influential with Donald Trump, who continues to reject their kooky advice,” he said. “They are not influential with Republicans in the Senate, who continue to reject their kooky advice, and if you look at public opinion polls, they are least influential of all with normal voting Republicans all across the country.”
He didn’t mention Mr. Carlson by name, but Mr. Trump famously called him “kooky Tucker Carlson” in June after he decried the U.S. bombing of the Iranian nuclear program.
Even if Mr. Carlson isn’t taken seriously by the president, however, he and other podcasters causing consternation on the right — including Nick Fuentes and Ms. Owens — are known for their large followings of younger listeners.
Right-tilting podcaster Gates Garcia warned that “we’re losing what it means to be conservative,” in large part because Generation Z is “perhaps the most uneducated generation we’ve ever had.”
“The reason I think some of the kids say, ’I love Hitler’ or ’Hitler was cool,’ is they don’t know anything about Hitler,” Mr. Garcia said. “They don’t know who he is, they don’t know the last thing or the first thing about him. They’re just saying these things because it trends online. We need to reeducate an entire generation.”
Mr. Carlson still has friends in high places. An ally of Vice President J.D. Vance, he’s reportedly visited the White House three times this year to argue against military action against Iran.
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard Divinity School graduate who filed an antisemitism lawsuit against the university, said that the RJC has done a “tremendous job” in recruiting disaffected Jewish Democrats, but warned that such progress could be lost if the GOP runs a Carlson-friendly candidate in 2028.
“I’m not going to mention names because I don’t want to get in trouble, but if you are planning to run for president in 2028, and you are in the Trump administration right now, and you want to — I didn’t say anyone’s name — and you want to sort of nod and wink to this terminally online Groyper base … then we will lose elections, and quite frankly we will deserve to lose elections,” said Mr. Kestenbaum.
Mr. Carlson’s podcast was ranked fourth in the nation in Spotify’s most recent rankings, while Ms. Owens’ show was 10th.
