Carlson accuses Trump of choosing Israel over US

Tucker Carlson on Thursday accused President Donald Trump of choosing Israel over the United States, comparing the president's foreign policy alignment with Jerusalem to a parent who feeds a neighbor's children while allowing his own to go without sustenance.

Carlson's critique

Speaking on a podcast published on social media platform X, Carlson framed Trump's support for Israeli military objectives as a dereliction of domestic duty. "It's wrong for a leader to choose another country over you," Carlson said, employing a metaphor about taking a neighbor's children to Disney World while one's own children starve. "That's just, that's immoral. That's exactly what Trump did," he added, asserting that "He chose Israel over the United States. People lie about it, but everyone can see it."

Iraq War claims

Carlson extended his critique to longstanding US military interventions in the Middle East, arguing that Washington has repeatedly waged wars at Israel's behest while diminishing American power. "We did this in the Iraq War over 20 years ago, 23 years ago. We followed Israel's demands into a war, but that's been like basically a race from history," he said, attributing the 2003 invasion to pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Ask anyone who's involved in it; they'll tell you, 'Oh, that's absolutely what happened.' It was Netanyahu, by the way, same guy," Carlson noted.

The podcast was released Thursday on X as Republican Party officials continued assessing the party's performance in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Carlson departed Fox News in 2023 after serving as the network's highest-rated primetime host.