Tucker Carlson, former Fox News reporter turned conservative podcast host, said he believes "constant calls" from "donors and people with influence," including billionaires and longstanding supporters of Israel Rupert Murdoch and Miriam Adelson, pushed President Donald Trump into the ongoing war with Iran despite a relative lack of support for the conflict within his own administration.
U.S. President Donald Trump presents Miriam Adelson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Friday, Nov. 16, 2018.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Carlson, in an interview published Saturday by the New York Times, said his "strong impression" is that no one within the White House was pushing for the U.S. to go to war.
Carlson, who publicly broke with the president over the Iran conflict, said he had several private meetings and phone conversations with Trump in which he says the president "never seemed enthusiastic about” war with Iran and, in the week before the U.S. started to attack the country, “felt he had no choice and that he was resigned to it.”
The podcaster, who heavily campaigned for Trump, said he thinks outside influences including the billionaires, as well as radio personalities Mark Levin and Fox News host Sean Hannity, were "pushing the president to do this and telling him that you will be a figure out of history, you will save and redeem Israel or something."
Carlson said he “didn’t hear of anybody making the case that this would be good for the United States,” but that those pushing for the conflict were doing so in Israel’s best interest.
Both Murdoch and Adelson, longstanding advocates for Israel, attended Trump’s inauguration and Adelson donated $111 million to pro-Trump super PACs during the 2024 Presidential campaign, making her the campaign’s second-largest supporter.
Hannity and Levin denied Carlson’s allegations to the New York Times, while Murdoch and Adelson did not respond to the Times’ request for comment (Forbes has also reached out).
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Trump has been supportive of Israel in his second term, defending the country against allegations of genocide and backing Israel while helping to broker a ceasefire deal between the country and Hamas. Trump co-chaired the 2025 Gaza peace summit—which said it aimed to "end the war in the Gaza strip" and "enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East"—and Trump was given Israel’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Honor. In late February, the U.S. joined Israel in launching airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites. Since then, Trump has been intermittently using military force, including strikes and a naval blockade, to weaken Iran and pressure it into abandoning its nuclear program. Trump has faced a wave of criticism, including from former MAGA supporters, for the war from those who claim it’s a violation of international law; that the president doesn't have the authority to go to war without Congressional approval; that it's damaging the American economy; and that it’s a direct violation of the “America First” message Trump pushed during his campaign.
In October, during an address to Israel's parliament, Trump praised Adelson as a "great woman" and said she and her late husband influenced his policy decisions surrounding Israel, adding the couple “had more trips to the White House than anyone else I can think of.” In his speech, Trump said Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021, got him “thinking about Golan Heights,” a reference to the United States’ 2019 recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights territory near Syria. Trump spoke about Adelson, who was in attendance during his address, for nearly two minutes about an hour into his lengthy speech, following his claim he “kept his promise” to work on peace in the Middle East: “Isn’t that right, Miriam?” he asked.
Trump last month rejected reports that Israel influenced him to go to war with Iran after the New York Times reported the Israelis made a video presentation to convince him Iran was well-positioned for regime change and would be so weakened by a joint attack it would be left with no missile program. Other reports also suggested Israel played a prominent role in convincing Trump to attack Iran, to which Trump responded via Truth Social: “Israel never talked me into the war with Iran, the results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, did."
Miriam Adelson and her family had a net worth of $36.4 billion Saturday, ranking them at No. 57 on Forbes' billionaires list. Miriam Adelson’s late husband Sheldon was the former CEO and chairman of casino company Las Vegas Sands, which is listed on the New York Sock Exchange and has casinos in Singapore and Macao. The Adelsons have also given hundred of millions of dollars to pro-Israel organizations and initiatives over the last several decades, including to the Birthright Israel program, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces and the Maccabee Task Force. Murdoch and his family, who made their money through his media empire, are worth an estimated $23.4 billion. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described Murdoch as a close personal friend and political ally, and in 2009 he was honored by the American Jewish Committee.
ForbesTrump Says Israel ‘Never Talked Me Into The War With Iran’
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