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Tucker Carlson: America’s right-wing insurgent-in-chief

The former Fox News presenter, who now wields more influence over US politics than he did at the network from 2009-23, is now a vehement critic of Trump in recent months, in part over Israel

ANGELA WEISS / AFP

US political commentator Tucker Carlson speaks during the last day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 18 July 2024.

Tucker Carlson: America’s right-wing insurgent-in-chief

Kamal Alam

last update on 12 Aug 2026

Former Fox News presenter and right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson has become one of the biggest thorns in Israel’s side across the Atlantic. His argument, that America should not be fighting Israel’s wars, has landed on receptive ears in the conservative movement, which remembers US President Donald Trump promising on the campaign trail not to involve the United States in any new Middle East conflict.

Carlson, 57, was once a vocal advocate for Trump, and arguably one of the reasons he won a second term in 2024, but today he is one of the president’s most piercing critics. Interestingly, Carlson has also become something of an outlet for US Vice President JD Vance’s possible 2028 presidential bid. Both men feel alike in that Israel dragged the US into war against Iran, and want to keep American troops engaged militarily.

Vance has openly criticised Israel and its US-based lobbyists but has been careful not to criticise either Trump or Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Some have suggested that Carlson says what Vance cannot. In this vein, it was of note when Carlson and other former Trump supporters recently laid out a ten-point plan to ‘take back America’. So, how did this right-wing ideologue gain such prominence?

Champion of the right

Tucker Carlson’s career ascent mirrored the rise of Fox News and the neo-conservative foreign policy thinking that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on America in 2001, Fox became the most-watched news channel domestically, and its presenters were principal cheerleaders for the ‘War on Terrorism’ that led to the US war in Afghanistan and later Iraq, where systemic abuse at places like Abu Ghraib and Bagram took place.

As a Fox News anchor, Carlson became a right-wing celebrity, and this continued during the presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump’s first term, and Joe Biden. During the Obama era, Carlson championed white working-class America, and accused Obama, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the wider liberal agenda of engendering a form of reverse racism.

Carlson's argument to his millions of listeners is that Trump betrayed his base and reneged on his promise of 'no more foreign wars'.

Yet after the Arab Spring (during Obama's presidency), Carlson's views on the Middle East started to shift, beginning perhaps with the murder of the US Ambassador to Libya. Angered at what he thought was Obama's attention being diverted away from problems at home, Carlson became increasingly vocal in his opposition to US foreign policy in the Arab world.

He questioned US intervention in Syria and championed the cause of Arab Christians, who he saw as vulnerable and persecuted. This led him into the world of Palestinian Christians and their ill-treatment by Israel in the occupied territories, including in the holy cities of Bethlehem and Nazareth. At the same time, Trump's was campaigning to withdraw US troops from the region and not to get involved in another "forever war" in the Middle East. He even dedicated a good portion of his inaugural speech in his second term as president, emphasising this.

America, not Israel first

Carlson fully embraced Trump's 'America First' agenda but increasingly differed from the president in terms of what that meant. This continued after he left Fox News in 2023, ending a 14-year employment relationship. Now an independent podcaster and influencer, he has been in demand from Moscow to Dubai, around dinner tables and on lecture circuits. It is widely accepted that Carlson helped Trump win the presidential election against Kamala Harris in November 2024.

Carlson was still a big fan of Trump until the president ordered Americans to join Israel in attacking Iran in 2025 and 2026. The commentator then began questioning and criticising Republican war-hawks like the late Senator Lindsey Graham, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee (who said, in relation to Israel's occupation of neighbouring states, "it would be fine if they took it all"), and Senator Ted Cruz (who later described Carlson as "the single most dangerous demagogue in this country").

Carlson's argument to his millions of listeners was that Trump had betrayed those who voted for him and supported him by reneging on a principal Middle East commitment. With American infrastructure, healthcare, and education failing, he asked: why are we going to war in Venezuela and Iran? On Iran, Carlson appears to have influenced not just Vance but former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and former Director of the National Counterterrorism Centre Joe Kent, both of whom were opposed to Israeli influence in the White House.

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Playing the gadfly

Carlson interviewed America's celebrity Christian preachers and podcasters about their views on Israel and the need to rescue American Christianity. Vance later criticised Israeli ministers and others, including for their influence operations in American media and politics. This makes him the first sitting US vice-president in a generation to publicly question America's unwavering support for Israel.

Carlson has now launched a ten-point plan with other former Trump loyalists like Kent, former Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Kentucky Congressman Thoman Massie for a potential third party to run for the 2028 elections. Massie recently lost a Republican renomination battle after criticising Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide," something Greene also did.

In the lead-up to this year's pivotal mid-term elections, and with Trump now 80 years of age, the American political rumour mill is whirring about a possible Vance-Carlson joint ticket for the Republicans in 2028. Carlson's influence over American Christians and conservatives would be of interest to Vance, whose real thoughts about Israel and the Middle East may thus far have been constrained by what he can say. For Tucker Carlson, there is no such leash.

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