Trump hits back at Tucker Carlson for accusing him of abandoning America First by supporting Israel: I decide

President Trump rejected rightwing pundit Tucker Carlson’s criticism that he is abandoning America First principles with his support for Israel amid its military campaign against Iran.Carlson, an ardent Trump ally, fumed at Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran last week, dubbing the US “complicit in the act of war” and arguing that, “politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it.”Trump said he wasn’t familiar with Carlson’s critique but contended that, as a pioneer of the modern America First movement, he’s the final arbiter of what it means to put the US first.“Well, considering that I’m the one that developed ‘America First,’ and considering that the term wasn’t used until I came along, I think I’m the one that decides that,” Trump told The Atlantic in response.“For those people who say they want peace—you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon.

So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon—that’s not peace.”Initially, the Trump administration had drawn distance from Israel’s aggressive posture towards Iran.Ahead of the strikes, Trump told reporters that “I don’t want them going in because I think it [an attack] would blow” the US nuclear negotiations with Iran.Right after Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites, took out top scientists and killed top military brass, Secretary of State Marco Rubio put out a statement underscoring that, “We are not involved in strikes against Iran.”Trump later took to Truth Social, reminding Iran that it had blown past the 60-day deadline he gave to make a deal and urged the theocratic regime to cut a new pact on its nuclear program.Carlson had long been a skeptic of foreign policy hawks drumming up hostility towards Iran and was adamant that the US should avoid war with Tehran at all costs.“While the American military may not have physically perp...