In politics, it is often the people who you think have your back who end up stabbing you there. Nobody knows that better than Donald Trump, who has been stabbed in the back more times than Julius Caesar — yet has still survived. This week, part of the noisy right-wing online podcast-sphere again turned on the president. Leading the virtual charge, again, was Trump’s one-time cheerleader, Tucker Carlson. There was a time when Carlson was fully Team Trump.
Carlson often appeared at Trump rallies as part of the warmup act. But in the past year, he has tried to lead the MAGA base away from Trump and down a very dark path. Fortunately, the Trump base hasn’t followed him there. The president’s strong Middle East policy seems to have particularly deranged his one-time supporter. While the president has advocated a strong defense of America’s regional allies, Carlson has spent 100% of his time trying to turn the MAGA base against Israel and in favor of Islamist regimes. His podcast has become a remorseless roll call of Holocaust deniers, antisemites, Islamic extremists and World War II revisionists. While attacking Trump, Carlson eagerly softball-interviews people who love both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Quite an achievement.
