Donald Trump and cable news host-turned-MAGA-sphere player Tucker Carlson have entered an escalating war of words, with the president calling his onetime Fox News star a “fool” after the staunchly conservative commentator implied Trump is pushing the conflict with Iran toward nuclear war — and even suggested he might be the Antichrist.
In a recent call with the New York Post, Trump pushed back on Carlson after the pundit criticized the president’s profanity-laced and threatening Easter morning social media post, in which he warned he could level bridges and power plants in Iran and raged over the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
“Tucker’s a low-IQ person who has absolutely no idea what’s going on,” the president told the tabloid. “He calls me all the time; I don’t respond to his calls. I don’t deal with him. I like dealing with smart people, not fools.”
On Monday’s episode of his video podcast, Carlson — now a commanding voice in the online conservative media landscape, with 21 million followers across X and YouTube combined as of late 2025 — laid into Trump over the Easter post, chastising the president for using foul language and threatening mass violence on a day when Christians celebrate and reflect on the life of Jesus Christ.
In his Truth Social post on Sunday morning, Trump repeated his threat to strike Iran’s energy infrastructure if the country does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key passage through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passes.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” the president wrote. “However, now that we have complete and total regime change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionary can happen. Who knows?”
“We will find out tonight — one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world. Forty-seven years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end. God bless the great people of Iran!” Trump added, before warning the country to “open the f—ing strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in hell — just watch! Praise be to Allah.”
Carlson’s response on his popular web show was pointed and extensive. Calling the post “vile on every level,” he criticized both the substance and timing of Trump’s message, questioned the scope of presidential authority implied in the threat, and segued into a dark theory that the president could be the Antichrist.
“How dare you speak that way on Easter morning to the country?” Carlson said. “Who do you think you are? You’re tweeting out that word on Easter morning.”
From there, Carlson’s critique of Trump’s language gave way to a more speculative argument invoking Christian eschatology, in which the Antichrist is described as a deceptive political figure who ushers in global upheaval.
Carlson also urged White House staff and other government officials to resign rather than carry out orders they view as unlawful or dangerous.
“Those people who are in direct contact with the president need to say, ‘No, I’ll resign. I’ll do whatever I can legally to stop this, because this is insane. If you give the order, I’m not carrying it out. Figure out the codes on the football yourself,’” he said.
The religious framing echoes revelations from the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox News, in which filings showed Carlson privately texted in 2021 that he “passionately” hated Trump and described him as a “demonic force” — a glimpse of tensions that predated their current public rift.
The two appeared to reconcile in 2023, when Trump defended Carlson following his ouster from Fox News and chose to sit for an interview on Carlson’s web show rather than participate in a primary debate.
More recently, Carlson has emerged as a contrarian voice within the MAGA sphere, at times breaking with Trump while aligning himself with figures such as Candace Owens and Megyn Kelly.
Speaking of Kelly, it looks as though Trump can at least still count on her support, despite their own on-off feuding. This week, she told her audience that there is little the president could do to make her vote for a Democrat.
“I mean, honestly, Trump could drop a nuke and I’d still vote Republican over those people,” Kelly quipped on her show.
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