Trump Hits Back on Tucker Carlson’s Claim That He’s Abandoning ‘America First’ for Israel

The dispute erupted after Carlson accused Trump of betraying the MAGA base.

Jun 16, 2025

This article originally aired on The Gateway Pundit and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Jim Hᴏft

President Donald Trump slammed accusations from Tucker Carlson that he has “abandoned” his hallmark America First doctrine by siding with Israel’s preemptive airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites, according to New York Post.

The dispute erupted after Carlson accused Trump of betraying the MAGA base in his newsletter titled “This Could Be the Final Newsletter Before All-Out War,”

“Despite being complicit in the act of war, the president hopes last night’s events will help his ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran,” Carlson wrote, according to The Independent.

“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 events,” Carlson added.

“Washington knew these attacks would happen. They aided Israel in carrying them out,” Carlson said, adding, “Politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it.”

In an interview with The Atlantic, Trump reasserted that the very term “America First” was forged under his leadership—and only he gets to define its meaning.

“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 said.

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

Trump also positioned himself as a peacemaker, claiming he vetoed an Israeli plan to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader—warning allies that such actions risked a broader conflict.

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More from the New York Post:

Initially, the Trump administration had drawn distance from Israel’s aggressive posture towards Iran. Ahead of the strikes, Trump told reporters that “I don’t want them going in because I think it [an attack] would blow” the US nuclear negotiations with Iran.
Right after Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites, took out top scientists and killed top military brass, Secretary of State Marco Rubio put out a statement underscoring that, “We are not involved in strikes against Iran.”
Trump later took to Truth Social, reminding Iran that it had blown past the 60-day deadline he gave to make a deal and urged the theocratic regime to cut a new pact on its nuclear program.
Carlson had long been a skeptic of foreign policy hawks drumming up hostility towards Iran and was adamant that the US should avoid war with Tehran at all costs.