President Donald Trump posted an insult-packed screed on Truth Social on Thursday, aimed at a chorus of right-wing critics of his war on Iran. His targets included conspiracy podcasters Alex Jones and Candace Owens; former Fox News host Megyn Kelly; and, most prominently, another former Fox host, Tucker Carlson.
Right-wing attacks on Trump have not only caught the attention of the president, but also of liberals and progressives, who have applauded these blistering criticisms. During the first round of attacks on Iran last June, Jon Stewart marveled at Carlson’s criticisms, saying, “We’re in such a bizarro world, you’ve got me nodding my head to Tucker Carlson videos.” Just this week, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., heaped praise on the right-wing critics of the war, musing that they could be part of “a broad, populist social movement” to save democracy.
Right-wing media personalities can be divided into two groups: loyalists and opportunists.
Nor is Iran the only issue on which Carlson has won such praise from his left. His criticism of housing prices and stagnant wages won plaudits from affordability advocates, with some contemplating a left-right populist economic alliance. His embrace of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s, D-Mass., argument in her book, “The Two-Income Trap,” led the Brookings Institute to admit, “Tucker Carlson has a point.”
But progressives do not, under any circumstances, have to hand it to Carlson or other far-right critics of the Iran war. Such praise does not bolster the case for constraining Trump’s lawless presidency. Rather, it amplifies voices who will use their support to further degrade U.S. democracy.
Right-wing media personalities can be divided into two groups: loyalists and opportunists. The first category, which includes many long-time radio and television broadcasters, such as Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, need Trump and the Republican Party to stay relevant. They can tolerate very little daylight with the administration and will pretzel themselves into any shape to retain that closeness.
The opportunists on the right, such as Carlson and Jones, find Trump valuable but not indispensable. They have much bigger goals in mind — for Jones, enabling a conspiratorial white nationalism; for Carlson, creating an American version of Hungary. The president is a useful ally, until he is not. They draft on Trump’s power to consolidate their own.
The difference between these two groups, then, is less about underlying values and more about strategy. The result, as Trump has grown even more erratic and aggressive in his second term, has been a noticeable wedge between the two groups. When faced with issues such as the administration’s obstinance around the Jeffrey Epstein emails or its war on Iran, Trump loyalists have to play along, concocting ever more baroque excuses for the president’s actions. The opportunists can set their allegiances aside, saying plainly what was obvious to everyone watching: that Trump’s actions were corrupt, unlawful and immoral.
That ability to talk honestly about contentious events is a powerful tool for the opportunists.
Trump’s expletive-laden post threatening Iran on Easter morning offered a clear example of this divide. Glenn Beck spent a good deal of time on his show the next day breaking down Trump’s “crazy ass tweet,” assuring listeners the president was intentionally acting erratic as a diplomatic ploy. He admitted the president’s language was not Christ-like, but then, “Christ never fought a war with an actual military.” Carlson, who does not need Trump the way Beck does, denounced his “desecration of Easter,” calling the post “vile on every level” and “a mockery of Christianity.”
Then he took apart Trump’s foreign policy, arguing it was “not acceptable for Americans or any civilized people.”








