Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson has issued another attack on Donald Trump, declaring the president has not only failed to make America great again but instead “diminished American power.”
Carlson campaigned for Trump during the 2024 election but has since suffered an extreme case of buyer’s remorse, regularly bemoaning the administration, apologizing for his past support and denouncing the Iran war.
One of his regular themes, beginning long before Operation Epic Fury was launched on February 28, is criticism of Israel and those in the U.S. who lobby for its interests.
He has consistently blamed the country for leading Trump into a new conflict in the Middle East, despite the president’s previous pledge to end U.S. involvement in “forever wars”.
On Wednesday’s instalment of The Tucker Carlson Show, the host went further and accused the president of behaving like a one-man “sleeper cell” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Carlson was particularly incensed by Trump claiming Wednesday that he had a “99 percent” approval rating in Israel, whatever his domestic woes, and boasting: “I could run for prime minister.”
“The president of the United States bragging about his popularity in a foreign country,” the commentator fumed.
“‘I’m 99 percent in Israel.’ Unmentioned is the fact that he’s 35 percent in the United States.
“Thirty-five percent support from Americans, the people he pledged to represent, to fight for, whose side he promised to take in every conflict, foreign and domestic.
“And yet, there he is, bragging about how popular he is in a foreign country, the same country that got us into the war that is, to some extent, causing his unpopularity in this country, speaking of cold-hearted globalist betrayals.”
Carlson continued: “Now, you could say, ‘That’s just Trump searching for affirmation where he can. Unpopular at home, he retreats into the fantasy of his popularity in another country.’
“Well yes, true. But it’s not a one-time exhibition of this. That president has spent the last year looking outward toward the approval of other nations.
“That president has spent the last year fighting for people who are not his voters and in many cases, not even American and allowing his own country to languish.
“The last year has not made America great again. The last year has diminished American power at a rate some of us thought was unimaginable.
“We couldn’t have foreseen, less than a year and a half ago… the damage that this administration – led by that president, for whom we campaigned and liked personally – could do to this country.”
Carlson also reacted angrily during the show to the defeat of GOP Rep. Thomas Massie in Tuesday’s Kentucky primary election.
He said the president’s success in driving another right-wing critic of his administration from Capitol Hill represented nothing less than “the death of MAGA” and “the the end of the Republican Party.”
“The good news is, we’ve now confirmed how the system works,” he added.
Carlson’s latest broadsides against Trump came as his former employer, Fox News, published a damning new opinion poll putting the president’s approval ratings at a record low.
The latest survey showed voters increasingly unhappy with his stewardship of the economy and perceived failure to bring the cost of living under control.
