Florida Republicans fall for Trump official's April Fools' swipe at MAGA icon

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee lobbed an attack on conservative media figure Tucker Carlson Wednesday in the form of an April Fools’ Day joke, and a prominent group of Florida Republicans appear to have taken the bait.

Huckabee’s swipe at Carlson comes in the wake of his explosive interview with the MAGA icon in February, during which Huckabee ignited an international firestorm by making “deranged” remarks that appeared to endorse the idea of Israel seizing control of “basically the entire Middle East.”

Before admitting it to be an April Fools’ Day joke, Huckabee claimed in a post on social media that Carlson had called him by phone to apologize.

“Wow. Tucker Carlson just called – wants to come to Jerusalem to share Easter Sunday with me,” Huckabee wrote in a social media post on X. “Said he's been wrong about Israel, Jews, Iran, criticizing Trump & wants to publicly renounce stuff he's been saying and do it right in [the] heart of Israel!”

Less than a minute later, Huckabee wrote in a follow-up post: “April Fool’s! (C’mon, you KNEW it was!)”

Despite Huckabee making clear within seconds that his remarks were an April Fools’ Day gag, the Volusia County Republican Party – the official GOP organization representing Republicans in Volusia County, Florida, which sits just outside Orlando and includes Daytona Beach – appeared to have taken his comments at face value.

“We’ll wait to see what happens,” the Volusia County Republican Party official account on X wrote in response to Huckabee’s social media post.

Huckabee has frequently caused headaches for the Trump administration with his remarks and actions as they relate to Israel, including by appearing to endorse the idea of “Greater Israel,” a concept referring to the Biblically-defined territorial aspirations of some Israelis to significantly expand the nation’s borders. The concept is far from fringe in Israel, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – indicted for war crimes in 2024 – saying last August that he “absolutely” subscribed to a “vision” for “Greater Israel.”