Trump fires back at Tucker Carlson’s accusations of betraying ‘America First’ agenda

Donald Trump has emphasized that he remains the figurehead of the MAGA movement in response to Tucker Carlson’s suggestion that he has strayed from ‘America First’ principles to favor Israel.

Declaring, ‘Since I originated the concept of America First and the term didn’t exist before my time, I believe it’s up to me to make that determination,’ Trump reaffirmed his position.

Lately, the ex-Fox News anchor has been critical of conservatives for urging the U.S. to emulate Israel with preemptive strikes against Iran, warning that this could escalate into a full-blown conflict.

In a newsletter sent out Friday, Carlson called his long-time ally Trump ‘complicit in an act of war,’ while he slammed conservatives close to the president as ‘warmongers’ in a social media post the same day.

Trump told The Atlantic he was not familiar with Carlson’s comments but said the framing he used of ‘warmongers and peacemakers’ as naive. 

‘For those people who say they want peace – you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon – that’s not peace.’  

‘Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb, very simple. Regardless – Israel or not Israel – Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb,’ the president added.

In a sensational development Sunday, two US officials revealed that the president vetoed an Israeli plan this week to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The plot signals the intent and velocity with which Israel is moving to dismantle Iran’s leadership amid fears it is deliberately fomenting regime change.

The president is now facing calls from Iran hawks in the GOP to join Israel’s bombing campaign.

Any military action in the region threatens to put Trump at odds with major allies in the MAGA movement, not least Carlson, who has accused the commander-in-chief of being ‘complicit’ in Israel’s strikes.

Trump heavily campaigned last year as the man who would keep America out of foreign wars, while at the same time projecting ‘peace through strenght.’ 

Earlier this week, Carlson cautioned the Trump administration publicly on social media after he learned that Levin had visited the White House.

‘Mark Levin was at the White House today, lobbying for war with Iran,’ Carlson wrote in a social media post. 

‘To be clear, Levin has no plans to fight in this or any other war. He’s demanding that American troops do it.’

Carlson wrote that Levin’s ‘hyperventilating’ about Iran’s nuclear plans was a distraction from the dangers of sending American troops back into the Middle East.

‘A war with Iran would amount to a profound betrayal of his supporters. It would end his presidency. That may explain why so many of Trump’s enemies are advocating for it,’ he wrote.

Levin responded to the Politico report on his radio show Tuesday evening telling his listeners that he met with President Trump last week after he was invited to the White House.

‘He and I are very close friends,’ Levin said, adding that ‘the president knows exactly where I stand on Iran and he told me he knows exactly where I stand on Iran because he watches my shows on Fox.’

He described the Politico report as sourced by ‘a group of people who were pushing propaganda.’

‘What I am not doing and what I would not do to Donald Trump is lead a lobbying campaign of hawks,’ he said.

It comes as Trump this morning refused to rule out involvement in the conflict, while at the same time denying any American participation to this point. 

Speaking with ABC News Sunday morning, Trump addressed reports that Israel was encouraging Administration to join the conflict with Iran to eliminate its nuclear program.

“We’re not involved in it. It’s possible we could get involved. But we are not at this moment involved,” the president said.

‘The U.S. had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight,’ the president wrote on Truth Social in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Trump vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran’s Khamenei, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday.

“Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” said one of the sources, a senior U.S. administration official.

Israel launched “Operation Rising Lion” with a surprise attack on Friday morning that wiped out the top echelon of Iran’s military command and damaged its nuclear sites, and says the campaign will continue to escalate in coming days. Iran has vowed to “open the gates of hell” in retaliation.

Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday, killing scores and raising fears of a wider conflict.

Israeli rescue teams combed through rubble of residential buildings destroyed by Iranian missiles, using sniffer dogs and heavy excavators to look for survivors after at least 10 people, including children, were killed, raising the two-day toll to 13.

Sirens rang out across Israel after 4 p.m. on Sunday in the first such daylight alert, and fresh explosions could be heard in Tel Aviv.

In Iran, images from the capital showed the night sky lit up by a huge blaze at a fuel depot after Israel began strikes against Iran’s oil and gas sector – raising the stakes for the global economy and the functioning of the Iranian state.

Iran has not given a full death toll but said 78 people were killed on Friday and scores more have died since, including in a single attack that killed 60 on Saturday, half of them children, in a 14-storey apartment block flattened in Tehran.