For President Donald Trump, some of the sharpest criticism he has faced in the early days of the Iran war has come from conservative media figures who were once closely aligned with him. The comments, reported by the Associated Press, have included prominent voices such as Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, whose remarks challenged how the war has been explained to the public and raised questions within Trump’s broader MAGA-supporting media ecosystem.
Carlson, a former Fox News star who has built an independent operation, drew attention by describing the attack as “absolutely disgusting and evil,” in remarks he made to ABC News. On his podcast, Carlson went further and said: “It’s hard to say this, but the United States didn’t make the decision here. Benjamin Netanyahu did,” referring to the Israeli prime minister.
Kelly, another former Fox anchor who has also moved to independent media, criticized the war’s cost in American lives. On her show, she said: “no one should have to die for a foreign country,” and she added, “I don’t think those service members died for the United States,” arguing instead that “I think they died for Iran or Israel.”
The criticism intensified after remarks from Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a Capitol Hill briefing. Rubio said the Trump administration provided the go-ahead knowing Israel was prepared to strike, and he said he feared retaliation from Iran against U.S. bases in the region. Rubio also said, “We knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them, before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” language that served as a flashpoint for conservatives who already were questioning Israel’s influence on Trump’s decision.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that if the Trump administration had not acted, lawmakers would have wondered why. Meanwhile, Matt Walsh, a Daily Wire host, said Rubio’s remarks were a problem, writing on X that Rubio was “flat out telling us that we’re in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand. This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said.”
In an interview reported by the Associated Press, Trump said he did not believe Carlson and Kelly’s views were shared by his supporters. “I think that MAGA is Trump,” the president said, adding, “MAGA’s not the other two.”
The public disagreement has also expanded into other corners of the conservative conversation. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has built a media presence since breaking with Trump, said on Kelly’s podcast she was furious over the U.S. military action and told Kelly’s audience that “Make America Great Again” was supposed to be “America first, not Israel first.” At the same time, Rubio’s framing and the responses to it appeared to contribute to a broader, more combative tone among conservatives, with figures disputing each other’s account of what the war is for.
Conservative media criticism also did not remain limited to commentary. The Associated Press reported that Jason Zengerle, author of “Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind,” said Trump’s concern about his supporters was likely accurate because “most of his supporters will return to the fold” if they are unhappy with the Iran attack. Zengerle said, given Carlson’s consistent views, Carlson “is probably the most important of Trump’s conservative critics,” and he warned that if the war goes badly, it could “strengthen the hand of someone like Tucker,” adding that “All of this is a debate about what happens after Trump is gone anyway.”
The report also connected the latest cracks to other controversies within conservative media. Carlson had drawn attention last fall for giving attention to Nick Fuentes, an influencer with Holocaust denial–adjacent remarks and past comments reported as including admiration for Adolf Hitler and claims about genocide against white people. The Associated Press said Carlson’s past decision resurfaced in the context of the current internal criticism among conservative outlets.
While some conservative voices criticized the Iran operation, the broader ecosystem still remained heavily supportive of Trump, the Associated Press reported. The Righting newsletter publisher Howard Polskin estimated Tuesday that about 95% of what he monitors on conservative websites is behind the president, with The American Spectator running a headline “Trump Stands Tall on Iran.” The report also described continued support from major Fox News personalities such as Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade and Mark Levin in the lead-up to the attack and after it.
Kilmeade said after the attack that “The president has shown more courage, and this Pentagon, Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon, has executed brilliantly once again,” according to the Associated Press account. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary during part of Trump’s first term, said on his podcast Tuesday that Trump “has built up a ton of credibility with the base,” arguing that “MAGA gives him the benefit of the doubt, no question about it.”
Some of Walsh’s criticism appeared to provoke direct White House response, the Associated Press said. Walsh had posted on Monday that, “So far we’ve heard that although we killed the whole Iranian regime, this was not a regime change war,” and he criticized how other messaging elements were described as well, calling the overall messaging “confused.” Leavitt responded on X with a lengthy reply, saying, “Simply put,” that “the terrorist Iranian regime would not say yes to peace.”
In the Associated Press report, Leavitt’s response and Trump’s own remarks reflected an effort to maintain cohesion in wartime messaging, even as internal conservative disagreements became more visible. The episode, as described by the wire, showed conservative media influence not just through criticism of government policy, but also through how that criticism can fracture a media ecosystem that many Trump supporters rely on for cues about what to think and how to respond.
Kinnard reported from Washington.