MAGA’s Iran Divide

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson's criticism of U.S. intervention in the Middle East has highlighted a split among Donald Trump's supporters on the issue

- by JESUS MESA

COMEDIAN JON STEWART NEVER EXPECTED TO nod in agreement with Tucker Carlson. But as the former Fox News host grilled Texas Senator Ted Cruz over U.S. involvement in Israel’s war with Iran, Stewart—a longtime critic of Carlson—found himself aligned with an unlikely ally.

“We're in such a bizarro world, you've got me nodding my head to Tucker Carlson videos,” Stewart said on his podcast recently. “You got Tucker Carlson going, ‘Why are we going to war with Iran again?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, you tell him, brother.”

The fiery exchange between Carlson and Cruz, part of a now-viral two-hour interview, illustrated the public civil war erupting among Trump allies over the conflict between Israel and Iran, and redefined Carlson’s role in the current landscape—not just as a conservative firebrand, but as one of the leading critics of Trump-era foreign policy.

On June 21, days after Stewart’s podcast episode, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. had conducted successful airstrikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites, adding the targets were “completely and totally obliterated.” He said on his social media platform Truth Social that any retaliation against the United States would be “met with force far greater” than the unprecedented attack, which was the first time the U.S. has targeted Iran directly. The strikes were carried out without congressional approval.

Tehran responded with missile strikes on a U.S. military base in Qatar, saying that the number of missiles fired matched the number of bombs dropped by the U.S. over the weekend. Trump later said Iran and Israel had agreed a ceasefire.

Carlson tweeted after the ceasefire announcement: “Thank God.”