Tucker Carlson said he warned President Donald Trump against a looming war with Iran — and that Trump brushed him off with, “We all die anyway.”
Carlson’s account to NPR
According to Antiwar.com’s write-up of an NPR interview published Thursday, Carlson placed the conversation “in the days before the United States and Israel launched the war with Iran.” Carlson said he argued the conflict was not about Iran’s nuclear program but was being pushed by Israel to “take Iran off the map,” diminish Gulf Arab states, and ultimately push the US out of the region.
“And he looked at me and said, ‘Yes. You’re right, but in the end we all die anyway, so it doesn’t matter,’” Carlson recounted. He added that Trump waved away concerns about their children and grandchildren and called the response “nihilism,” per Antiwar.com’s summary of the NPR interview.
What NPR was told by the White House
When NPR asked the White House about Carlson’s claim, the White House did not respond directly and instead pointed to a Truth Social post Trump shared earlier this year, Antiwar.com reported. In that post, Trump labeled Carlson and other conservative commentators “stupid people” for opposing the war with Iran and claimed they thought it would be “wonderful” for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Prior NYT reporting
The New York Times reported earlier this year that, two weeks before the war, Trump spoke with Carlson and tried to reassure him: “I know you’re worried about it, but it’s going to be OK. Because it always is,” the Times reported.
Source: Antiwar.com (Dave DeCamp), summarizing an NPR interview with Tucker Carlson; additional context from The New York Times as cited by Antiwar.com.
