Tucker Carlson torched President Donald Trump on Wednesday, stating that not only has Trump not made the country great again, but he has “diminished American power.”

The ex-Trump ally has been increasingly critical of the president, but his most recent remarks are one of the most striking condemnations of what Carlson sees as something as a betrayal by the president.

On Wednesday’s edition of The Tucker Carlson Show, the former Fox News host wondered if Trump is a one-man “sleeper cell” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom the president launched the Iran war in February. Carlson has been among the harshest critics of the conflict, which he unsuccessfully lobbied Trump against. The war prompted Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, which has sent oil and gas prices skyrocketing, adding to the existing inflationary pressures caused by the president’s tariffs.

Carlson pointed to remarks Trump made on Tuesday, where the president said, “I’m at 99% [approval] in Israel. I could run for prime minister. So, maybe after I do this, I’ll go to Israel and run for prime minister. I had a poll this morning. I’m 99%, so that’s good.”

An indignant Carlson responded (8:50 to 11:00):

The president of the United States bragging about his popularity in a foreign country. “I’m 99% in Israel.” Unmentioned is the fact that he’s 35% in the United States. Thirty-five percent support from Americans, the people he pledged to represent, to fight for, whose side he promised to take in every conflict, foreign and domestic. And yet, there he is, bragging about how popular he is in a foreign country, the same country that got us into the war that is, to some extent, causing his unpopularity in this country, speaking of cold-hearted globalist betrayals.

Now, you could say, “That’s just Trump searching for affirmation where he can. Unpopular at home, he retreats into the fantasy of his popularity in another country.” Well yes, true. But it’s not a one-time exhibition of this. That president has spent the last year looking outward toward the approval of other nations. That president has spent the last year fighting for people who are not his voters and in many cases, not even American and allowing his own country to languish.

The last year has not made America great again. The last year has diminished American power at a rate some of us thought was unimaginable. We couldn’t have foreseen, less than a year and a half ago… the damage that this administration – led by that president, for whom we campaigned and liked personally – could do to this country.

This week, Carlson appeared on an Israeli news program, where he had a tense exchange with the host. He again accused Netanyahu of goading Trump into war with Iran. In response, the White House blasted him as “a low-IQ person who spreads fake news for cheap publicity.”

The New York Times reported in April that Netanyahu gave a presentation to Trump in the White House Situation Room in February, where he claimed an attack on Iran would likely topple its regime, which could be replaced by a government more friendly to the U.S. and Israel.

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