Trump, Tucker Carlson Spat Illustrates a Bigger Debate

President Trump and Tucker Carlson are having a public fight about the Iran-Israel conflict, and the Hill sees it as a "microcosm" of a dispute within MAGA about "America First" principles.

• Carlson has been loudly criticizing Israel's preemptive strike and warning that the US shouldn't get more involved, reports Newsweek. "The point is, if you think that saying, 'Hey, let's focus on my country, where I was born, where my family's been for hundreds of years, that was the promise of the last election, please do it,' if you think that's hate, you know, you've really lost perspective, I guess, is what I would say," he told former White House adviser Steve Bannon on Monday.
• In his newsletter, Carlson accused Trump of being "complicit in the act of war," per the New Republic.

• Carlson also complained that US support of Israel in its attack on Iran defied "America First" ideals, but Trump rejected that. "Well, considering that I'm the one that developed 'America First,' and considering that the term wasn't used until I came along, I think I'm the one that decides that," Trump told the Atlantic. "For those people who say they want peace—you can't have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon."
• Trump also shaded Carlson, a former Fox host, to reporters when asked about the criticism, per the Hill: "I don't know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen." And on Truth Social: "Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, 'IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!'"
• Marjorie Taylor Greene, a usually staunch supporter of Trump, is taking Carlson's side: "[F]oreign wars/intervention/regime change put America last, kill innocent people, are making us broke, and will ultimately lead to our destruction," she tweeted. "That's not kooky. That's what millions of Americans voted for. It's what we believe is America First."
• Vox has a deep-dive analysis into the schism, noting that Carlson is typically aligned with Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr. in what's seen as an anti-hawk "axis." The question is how much influence they'll have over the president.

(More Tucker Carlson stories.)