Tucker Carlson, the provocateur

By Victor Mezhinsky | Am Thinker | Oct 28, 2025

Tucker Carlson. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Tucker Carlson, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikipedia

Tucker Carlson’s shift from provocative media personality to a figure openly giving platforms to Holocaust revisionism and coded antisemitic tropes shows a disturbing trajectory. His kind of criticisms of Israel, invocation of classic antisemitic cliches (such as Jewish conspiracies and collective guilt), and lack of theological credibility undermine any claim to being a genuine Christian defender of Judeo-Christian values. Real Christians support Israel, and many conservative thinkers have long resisted Carlson’s frameworks of victim-blaming, replacement theory, and false equivalencies. His recent actions show how hidden antisemitism can suddenly reveal itself — and with influential amplifiers.

During his June 18, 2025 podcast, Carlson asked Senator Ted Cruz if the modern state of Israel was the same as Israel in the Bible, and why does Ted Cruz, a devout Christian, support Israel? Sen. Cruz responded by saying: “Growing up in Sunday school, I was taught from the Bible, those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who cursed Israel will be cursed. I want to be on the blessing side.”

Pastor John Hagee said the same on March 10, 2024: “Growing up in Sunday school, I was taught from the Bible, those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed.” Pastor Hagee has consistently emphasized the importance of standing with Israel as a nation. His message is rooted in biblical, historical, and prophetic reasons, highlighting God’s eternal covenant with the Jewish people and the significance of Israel in America’s future.

On October 13, 2025, the popular Australian political commentator Erin Molan interviewed Dinesh D’Souza (creator of the film The Dragon’s Prophecy). D’Souza told Molan: “Tucker Carlson and Candace Owen are advancing outlandish theories to gain respectability that are outside the bounds of Christianity for 2000 years. I think deep down Carlson knows that he is somewhat of a shallow and superficial person. He has a very clever sort of technique… to inject a lot of stupidity and poisoning into the debate. That is provocational tactics to me.”

Yet on Carlson’s October 4, 2025 podcast, he said that: “Israel is a tiny country and is not critical to the US national security.” This statement reveals Carlson’s bias and ignorance. Our own government confirms Israel’s importance: “Israel has been designated as a U.S. Major non-NATO Ally under U.S. law.” Moreover, the prestigious Heritage Foundation stated: “The U.S.-Israel relationship is one of America’s most strategically vital partnerships, anchored in shared democratic values and common threats.”

Carlson’s interview with a Holocaust revisionist shows how he got away with mainstreaming bigotry for so many years. On September 2, 2024, Carlson’s podcast on X featured self-described “historian” Darryl Cooper, who claimed that the Nazis “didn’t intend for” the Holocaust to happen — arguing instead it was the result of logistical failure rather than a planned genocide. Carlson did not push back on Cooper’s claims and even called him “the most important popular historian working in the United States today.” Because Carlson gave a platform to someone who claimed the deaths of millions of Jews were unintended, he engaged in what many regard as clear promotion of antisemitic revisionism. That conduct — especially from someone who purports to hold Christian and conservative values — reveals a far deeper level of antisemitism, previously hidden or at least less overt.

During Carlson’s eulogy at Charlie Kirk’s September 21, 2025 memorial, he made a comparison between the assassination of Charlie Kirk and killing of Jesus Christ. “And there’s always one guy with the bright idea, and I can just hear him say, ‘I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we just kill him? That’ll shut him up, that’ll fix the problem” Carlson said, before bursting into laughter.

Carlson should have known that the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) formally addressed this issue in their Nostra Aetate. The document clarified the Church’s stance on Jewish culpability, stating that Jews as a whole cannot be blamed for Jesus’ death. Subsequent popes, including Pope Francis, have reaffirmed this position.

On the subject of relationship between Christians and Jews, which Carlson tries to damage, it is worth remembering the words of Pope Jone Paul II. He emphasized the shared heritage of Christianity and Judaism in his teachings and said about Jews “You are our dearly beloved brothers, and in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers.”