Tucker Carlson, once a close ally of Donald Trump, brushed off the president’s threats to Iran as meaningless, going as far as to tell him “shut up, b****” during a podcast appearance Wednesday.
While complaining about the president’s decision to go to war with Iran – an issue that led Carlson to drop his support for Trump – the former Fox News host accused him of making empty threats to the adversary in an attempt to feign strength.
“Strong people don’t brag about how strong they are. They just punch you in the face and end the conversation,” Carlson said on the “Jack Neel Podcast.”
“Trump is very much ‘What’d you say,’” Carlson said, while imitating the president pushing his fingers into someone else’s chest. “Shut up, b****. I don’t take you seriously.”
The conservative commentator was referring to the president threatening to destroy Iran’s entire civilization or continuing a bombing campaign if Iran didn’t agree to a ceasefire, only to repeatedly walk back his threat.
He compared Trump’s threats to those of a person warning they will start a fight by making intimidating comments or gestures, versus a person who, without warning, will just attack.
“My father, who was a boxer at one point, would always say, ‘there’s two types of guys, and you gotta be careful of the second,’” Carlson said.
Mediaite was the first to report Carlson’s comments, the latest in his string of negative remarks about the president and the Iran war. The former Fox News host has been strongly against the conflict since June 2025, when Trump bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Carlson claimed he personally warned the president in February, shortly before Trump launched the war, that starting a conflict would hurt his reputation. Since then, Carlson has become more adamant that Trump is serving foreign interests over American ones and that the Iran war means there is “no future of the MAGA movement.”
Carlson’s frustrations with Trump over the war have extended beyond his personal relationship with the president and have impacted his support for the Republican Party. Not only has Carlson expressed regret for supporting Trump in the 2024 election, but he recently indicated he would not support the GOP going forward.
Yet the conservative commentator said Wednesday that he doesn’t hate the president.
“I don’t hate Trump. I’ve always liked Trump. I just am a shallow man. I like vulgar jokes. I’m easily entertained. I laugh easily like other people. I like almost everybody. He’s hardly the most evil person I like,” Carlson said.
“I just grieve for what his decisions in the Middle East have done to the country,” he added.
Trump has fired back with insults at Carlson, accusing him of being a “low IQ person” who “has absolutely no idea what’s going on.”
