President Trump on Thursday unleashed a lengthy personal attack on four conservative media figures who have broken with him over his Iran policy, calling Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens and Alex Jones “stupid people” with “low IQs” in a post on Truth Social.
The broadside came after a days-long public break between Mr. Trump and several prominent right-wing commentators who helped build his political brand. Mr. Carlson, on Monday’s episode of his video podcast, laid into Mr. Trump over his Easter Truth Social post, calling it “vile on every level” and accusing the president of threatening to commit a war crime. The monologue ran 43 minutes before turning to other subjects, including a lengthy segment on the president’s spiritual advisor. Ms. Owens called the president a “genocidal lunatic” and demanded that Congress and the military intervene, while Mr. Jones, overcome with emotion on air, called the president a “dementia risk” who must be removed from office.
The fractures stem from Mr. Trump’s escalating rhetoric around the Iran war. Mr. Trump had threatened on Truth Social to destroy Iranian civilian infrastructure — including power plants and bridges — if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened by Tuesday evening.
In Thursday’s post, Mr. Trump dismissed the critics as irrelevant, claiming they had “been thrown off Television, lost their Shows, and aren’t even invited on TV.” He accused them of wanting Iran to have a nuclear weapon — a characterization none of the four have made — and said their podcasts draw no audience. He also took personal aim at each figure individually, suggesting Mr. Carlson “should see a good psychiatrist,” referencing Ms. Kelly’s 2015 debate question about his treatment of women, calling Ms. Owens “crazy,” and citing Mr. Jones’s financial losses stemming from his false claims that the Sandy Hook mass shooting was staged.
Mr. Trump also took a swipe at former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, whom he called “Marjorie ’Traitor’ Brown,” who had called his Iran rhetoric “evil and madness” and demanded his removal via the 25th Amendment.
Ms. Kelly, for her part, told her audience this week that there is little the president could do to cost Republicans her vote. “I mean, honestly, Trump could drop a nuke and I’d still vote Republican over those people,” she said. The conservative media landscape has been increasingly divided between a personality-driven ecosystem anchored by Mr. Carlson, Ms. Owens and Ms. Kelly, and a more traditional pro-Trump faction that has drawn sharper lines around conspiracy rhetoric.
The feud had been building for weeks before this week’s Iran-related break. In mid-March, Mr. Trump weighed in on a dispute between Ms. Kelly and radio host Mark Levin, taking Mr. Levin’s side and warning that Ms. Kelly and her allies, including Mr. Carlson and Ms. Owens, were not truly aligned with MAGA.
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