The “Tucker test” of the conservative movement

The conservative movement faces a defining moment as Carlson mainstreams antisemitism and conspiracy.

By ADAM MILSTEIN | NOVEMBER 19, 2025

Tucker Carlson has never hidden his hostility and twisted obsession toward Israel, Jews, or anyone who stands with them. Recently, though, his anti-Jewish rhetoric reached a new level.

He is now elevating voices that not long ago were considered too extreme and shameful to be heard anywhere outside the shadows. Carlson has hosted several individuals with established antisemitic records, but the clearest example came when he hosted Nick Fuentes on his podcast—a Holocaust-denying, Hitler-praising, white nationalist, who calls for the defeat of “global Jewry.” For more than two hours, Carlson gave him a platform to rant about “organized Jewry” controlling America, to praise Stalin, and to smear Republicans who support Israel as victims of a “brain virus.”

Carlson didn’t challenge, counter, or elucidate his own views for the audience. He simply amplified Fuentes’ vile Jew-hatred.

He also gave a platform to Darryl Cooper, an extremist historical revisionist, who argues the genocide of Jews in World War II was not a deliberate extermination plan but a logistical failure. Cooper claims Winston Churchill might be the “real villain” of WWII, rather than Hitler.

Carlson interviewed Jackson Hinkle, who describes himself as an “American Conservative Marxist-Leninist” and proponent of “MAGA Communism,” who is pro-Russia, strongly anti-Ukraine, pro-Iran, anti-Israel, and spreads conspiracies.

He normalizes and legitimizes these extremist voices because they reflect his own beliefs. His goal is to popularize them within the conservative movement.

By doing so, Carlson has forced conservatives into a moment of truth.

Just as I introduced the Israel Test to expose the moral collapse of the left, the conservative movement now faces the “Tucker Test”: It must choose between standing with Carlson or standing with moral clarity.

The test has already illuminated who’s up for the task. Several conservative voices openly condemned Carlson. Senator Ted Cruz issued a clarion call to the right when he said, “If you sit with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool and their mission is to defeat ‘global Jewry,’ and you say nothing, you are complicit in that evil.”

On the other hand, the Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin Roberts, rushed to defend Carlson as “a close friend” and labeled his critics a “venomous coalition.” The irony was hard to miss, since the Heritage Foundation was behind Project Esther, a national initiative that claimed to combat antisemitism.

Sadly, like Roberts, a growing number of influential figures in the conservative movement are failing the Tucker Test.

This is not solely about Israel or the Jews. It is about Carlson’s effort to pull the conservative movement into dangerous waters of conspiracy and paranoia. It mirrors what has happened on the left, where the center’s collapse opened the door for figures like Mamdani and other extremists to push their agenda away from mainstream values.

Like the Jew-hatred of the Islamo-Leftist alliance, Tucker’s first targets are Israel and the Jewish people. He promotes isolationism, consistently arguing that American support for Israel harms the United States. Tucker portrays “Christian Zionists” as diseased and offers platforms to isolationists who want America to abandon its allies and retreat from its role as a global leader.

For decades, Republicans supported Israel because they believed it was morally right and strategically vital. They recognized Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East that shares America’s values. Over the years, many American leaders acknowledged the fact that “Israel is the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk, does not carry even one American soldier, and is located in a critical region for American national security.”

Conservative governors have repeatedly passed anti-BDS laws, and conservative leaders consistently condemned antisemitism on the left. They understood that standing with Israel and the Jewish people aligned with American interests and moral clarity. This has always been less about Jews and Israel and more about the interests of America.

We now see a growing isolationist faction within the conservative movement. Figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens promote conspiracy theories that, just like the far left, aim to divide Americans and erase moral boundaries. Their agenda is not principled conservatism. It is a rejection of the values that once defined the conservative movement: strength, principle, democracy, and an unwavering support for allies who share America’s ideals.

Although the left and the right are ideologically opposed, at the extremes, they meet at the same point, with conspiracy, paranoia, and Jew-hatred. At both extremes, moral conviction gives way to moral decay, and facts are replaced by theories. The press, universities, and civic organizations – pillars that once upheld shared truth – have abdicated their roles as stewards of integrity. In this vacuum, people blame Jews for their problems while ignoring the forces that undermine the country’s connective tissue.

Throughout history, every society has blamed the Jews for its failures, yet it was never truly about the Jews. It was driven by deeper and more destructive interests held by those who weaponized blame. This pattern is now repeating itself within American politics – on both sides of the aisle. The far right’s new populism, like the left’s ideological radicalism, feeds on grievance and conspiracy. It rejects complexity in favor of scapegoats. It tears down institutions rather than reforming them. That corrosion of trust is dangerous not only to Jews but to a properly functioning democracy.

The genius of American conservatism was once its defense of liberty. It fought for the importance of freedom anchored in faith, family, and strong institutions. If conservatives abandon those guardrails for demagoguery and digital mobs, they will not only fail the Tucker Test, but they will destroy the very civilization they claim to defend.

The Tucker Test is about more than Tucker Carlson. It’s about whether conservatives will defend American exceptionalism or surrender to the isolationist fringe and whether the right will stand for civilization and against bigotry.

Republicans have spent years calling out Democrats for failing the Israel Test. Now they must prove they hold themselves to the same standard.

Because if the conservative movement fails the Tucker Test, it will lose its moral authority and its claim to defend Western values.

The choice is clear: Stand with those who defend freedom, democracy, and the US–Israel alliance or stand aside while antisemites poison your movement from within.

Adam Milstein is an Israeli-American “Strategic Venture Philanthropist.” He can be reached at adam@milsteinff.org, on Twitter @AdamMilstein, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AdamMilsteinCP.

This op-ed is published in partnership with a coalition of organizations that fight antisemitism across the world. Read the previous article by Coby Schoffman.