President Donald Trump has reached record-low approval ratings amid his wildly unpopular war against Iran, and according to a prominent insider and former ally of his, the president “knew” launching the conflict would be “the end of his presidency” – but was compelled to move forward “against his will.”
On Saturday, The New York Times published a lengthy interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, long a fierce ally to Trump who has since broken with the president over his decision to attack Iran, going as far as to issue an apology for stumping for Trump in the lead up to the 2024 election.
Citing his numerous one-on-one conversations with Trump, Carlson revealed during the interview his read on the president’s mindset at the time.
“My strong read was that he was doing this against his will. This was not a normal decision-making process, and my strong impression was that Trump was more a hostage than a sovereign decision maker in this,” Carlson told the Times’ Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
“He knew – and I know he knew because I talked to him about it directly – that the potential consequences were profoundly bad; the end of his presidency to start, which I think has proven to be. He knew that! I don't want to overstate my knowledge, but this is my strong perception on the basis of many conversations on this topic: he felt he had no choice, and he said to me 'everything's gonna be okay.'”
As to who or what had compelled the president to launch the war against Iran, Carlson strongly suggested it to be the Israeli government and its American supporters, citing Joe Kent, formerly the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned from his position in protest and alleged that Trump was manipulated by Israel into launching the conflict.
Reporting from Bloomberg supports the idea that “outside allies” exerted significant “pressure” on Trump to launch the war against Iran, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Carlson has previously floated the idea that Israel – which has pressed for the United States to attack Iran since at least the 1990s – was exerting significant pressure on Trump to launch the war, going as far as to suggest Trump may be the victim of a “blackmail” operation, citing claims from political writer Daniel Halper regarding Israel and former President Bill Clinton.