Recommendations of the Editorial team
US President Donald Trump has attacked several prominent right-wing conservative commentators for their criticism of his war against Iran. In a lengthy – and bizarre – Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump called Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens and Alex Jones “NUT JOBS” and “third-rate” podcasters who are “just trying to cling to MAGA.” to grab attention.
Trump’s unpopular, seemingly uncontrollable war against Iran has become the catalyst for a wave of criticism that has been simmering within the government for months. Some of Trump’s most prominent defenders and advocates throughout his political career – including Carlson, Kelly, Owens and Jones – have criticized his decision to launch a free-will war with Iran that has grown into a complex regional crisis and an acute threat to the global economy.
After Trump threatened to wipe Iran and all of Persian civilization from the face of the earth with a genocidal threat earlier this week, some conservatives went so far as to openly call for his resignation — joining the chorus of Democrats also calling for his departure.
Jones and Owens demand removal
Jones, a long-time Trump supporter and notorious conspiracy theorist, asked a guest in conversation: “How do we use the 25th Amendment [Trump’s] ass?” Owens, who had sharply criticized the war, also called for Trump’s removal. “The 25th Amendment must be applied. He is a genocidal lunatic,” Owens wrote on X. “We are beyond reason.”
The 25th Amendment to the US Constitution provides that if the President is incapacitated, the Vice President can assume office with the support of the Cabinet majority and Congress. Of course, it is highly unlikely that this will ever happen – impeachment proceedings against Trump would be the easier route.
Former Trump confidant and MAGA congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene also called for the use of the 25th Amendment, which has never been used to remove a president. “Not a single bomb has fallen on America. We cannot wipe out an entire civilization,” she wrote. “This is evil and insane.” Trump had already attacked Greene over her criticism of the government’s handling of the Epstein files, referring to her as “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown” in his Thursday post.
Kelly, Carlson and the Iran War
Kelly has also criticized the war and most recently panned Trump’s ceasefire agreement. “You have to say the deal sounds a lot like capitulation on our part – which I’m in favor of,” she told Piers Morgan this week. “I mean: fine. It had to come to an end, ugly or some other way, it had to end. It was folly from the beginning. It was folly from beginning to end. And it remains folly.”
Carlson, the former Fox News host who campaigned heavily for Trump in the 2024 election campaign, has sharply criticized the president’s self-imposed war – particularly the government’s statements that Israel pressured the US to start the conflict.
“It’s disgusting on every level,” Carlson said Tuesday of Trump’s civilization-destroying threats against Iran. It was the announcement of a “moral crime against the people of this country,” he continued. “Those who are in direct contact with the president have to say, ‘No. I’m resigning. I’m going to do everything legally possible to prevent this, because this is madness. And when the order comes, I won’t carry it out.'”
Carlson’s reckoning with Israel policy
Later in the week, Carlson stated: “It is time to build a healthy relationship in which Israel pays its own bills, funds its own military and operates within the limits set by its own economy and population.”
“There is no country in the world that acts with total impunity because it knows that a much larger country will unconditionally protect it no matter what it does,” he added.
In his Thursday post, Trump attacked Carlson for not having completed a degree and, after his firing from Fox News, called him a “broken man” who needed “a good psychiatrist.” He attacked Kelly because of her questions to him before the 2016 election. He attacked Owens because of her appearance. He accused Jones of saying “some of the stupidest things” – including conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook massacre. “These so-called ‘experts’ are LOSERS,” Trump wrote.
Trump also emphasized: “I don’t care about this stuff anymore, I just care about doing the right thing for our country.”
