Carlson attacks – On his show Wednesday, Tucker Carlson challenged Donald Trump’s claim of “99%” approval in Israel and contrasted it with Trump’s “35%” support in the United States, framing the remarks as evidence that Trump has spent the last year seeking praise abroad while
Tucker Carlson didn’t wait long into his Wednesday monologue before turning Donald Trump’s instincts toward foreign approval into a rebuke.
“The last year has not made America great again. ” the former Fox News host said on “The Tucker Carlson Show.” He argued that American power has been “diminished” at a pace “some of us thought was unimaginable. ” adding that the damage he believes has been done by the administration “could do to this country” was not even foreseeable “less than a year and a half ago.”.
By 8:55 into the segment, Carlson pivoted to a different kind of measure: popularity. He launched from Trump’s boast that he had “99%” approval in Israel, using that claim to criticize the war Carlson linked to Trump’s decisions in Iran.
“The president of the United States bragging about his popularity in a foreign country,” Carlson said, repeating the “99%” boast. “Unmentioned is the fact that he’s 35% in the United States.”
From there. Carlson said the contrast mattered because he framed Trump’s political mission as representing Americans who. Carlson said. were supposed to be on the other end of every conflict—“the people he pledged to represent. to fight for. whose side he promised to take in every conflict. foreign and domestic.” Instead. Carlson argued the president was focusing attention outward. while the same war—one Carlson tied to Trump’s pledge not to get entangled in overseas conflicts—was contributing. “to some extent. ” to Trump’s “unpopularity in this country.”.
Carlson acknowledged an easy counterargument: that Trump was simply hunting affirmation wherever he could, retreating into what Carlson described as a fantasy of support abroad when he is unpopular at home. “Well, yes, true,” he said, before refusing to treat it as a one-off.
“That president has spent the last year looking outward toward the approval of other nations,” Carlson continued. “That president has spent the last year fighting for people who are not his voters, and in many cases not even Americans, and allowing his own country to languish.”
The sequence of Carlson’s remarks is hard to miss: he begins with a sweeping judgment that “the last year” has weakened the country. then ties Trump’s public posture to a specific boast about foreign approval. and finally folds the two into a single picture in which outward-looking praise is paired with inward decline.
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