Political pundit Tucker Carlson doubled down on his criticism of Israel’s strikes against Iran, rebuking several media figures, including his former colleagues at Fox News, over what he described as their push for President Trump to engage in the region.
“Who are the warmongers? They would include anyone who’s calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran,” Carlson wrote in a post on the social media platform X.
“On that list: Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson. At some point they will all have to answer for this, but you should know their names now,” he continued.
Hannity and Levin both work for Fox News, which is owned by Murdoch. Perlmutter is the former CEO of Marvel, and Adelson is a well-endowed GOP donor who co-hosted a January reception with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in honor of Trump’s campaign win.
Carlson said on Friday that the right is divided between those who encourage Trump to wage war and those who do not.
“The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians. The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers,” Carlson, who left Fox in 2022, outlined in the post.
Levin, a radio host, has railed against Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, since early May when he accused the official of negotiating a nuclear deal with a “warmonger Iranian terrorist regime.”
Politco reported earlier this week that Levin ramped up his criticism of Iran alongside GOP insiders, including Perlmutter, who urged Trump to support Israel’s attack during a private lunch at the White House.
On Friday, Levin responded to Carlson, denying that he advised Trump to “bomb” Iran.
“You’re a reckless and deceitful propagandist, and that’s the best I can say,” he wrote on X. “You promote antisemitism and conspiracy nuts.”
Iran lost three top military leaders, six nuclear scientists and dozens of senior commanders as a result of Israel’s attack on their nation late Thursday.
Iran responded with a round of ballistic missiles sent toward Israel after Trump said the U.S. would increase the pressure on Iran if a nuclear deal wasn’t soon reached.
“There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end…,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come — And they know how to use it,” he continued.
In recent weeks, Carlson alongside Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, have warned of the threat of nuclear warfare.
“While the American military may not have physically perpetrated the assault, years of funding and sending weapons to Israel, which Donald Trump just bragged about on Truth Social, undeniably place the U.S. at the center of last night’s event,” Carlson wrote earlier in the day.
“Washington knew these attacks would happen. They aided Israel in carrying them out. Politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it. Our country is in deep.”