President Donald Trump attacked several prominent right-wing commentators over their criticism of his war in Iran, and growing opposition to his administration. In a lengthy – and bizarre – Truth Social post published on Thursday, Trump referred to Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones as “NUT JOBS” and “Third Rate” podcasters who are “just trying to latch on to MAGA” for publicity.
The president’s unpopular, seemingly unmanageable war with Iran has become a tipping point for criticism of the administration that has been brewing for months. Some of Trump’s most prominent defenders and advocates over the course of his political career — including Carlson, Kelly, Owens, and Jones — have criticized the president’s decision to enter a war of choice with Iran, one which has spiraled into a complicated regional crisis and an acute threat to the world economy.
Following Trump’s genocidal threat earlier this week to wipe Iran and the entire Persian civilization off of the face of the earth, some conservatives went so far as to outright call for his removal from office, joining a chorus of Democrats calling for him to be removed from power.
Jones, a longtime Trump supporter and notorious conspiracy theorist, wondered, “How do we 25th Amendment [Trump’s] ass?” while interviewing a guest. Owens, who has been sharply critical of the war, also called for Trump’s removal. “The 25th amendment needs to be invoked. He is a genocidal lunatic,” Owens wrote on X. “We are beyond madness.”
The 25th Amendment states that in the event that the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” the vice president, with the support of the majority of the Cabinet, and of Congress, can transfer the duties of the office to the vice president. It’s of course highly unlikely that this could ever come to pass (impeaching Trump would be easier).
Former Trump surrogate and MAGA congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene also called for the 25th Amendment, which has never been used to remove a president from power, to be invoked. “Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization,” she wrote. “This is evil and madness.” Trump has attacked Greene amid her criticism of the administration’s handling of the Epstein files, and referred to her in his post on Thursday as “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown.”
Kelly has also been critical of the war, and recently slammed Trump’s ceasefire agreement. “You got to say, the deal sounds very much like surrender on our part, which I’m in favor of,” she told Piers Morgan this week. “I mean, great. This needed to end, ugly, or any other way, it needed to end. It was folly to begin with. It was folly throughout. It remains folly.”
Carlson, the former Fox News host who campaigned heavily for Trump during the 2024 cycle, has heavily criticized the president’s war of choice, particularly the administration’s statements affirming that Israel pushed the United States to initiate the conflict.
“It is vile on every level,” Carlson said on Tuesday of Trump’s civilization-destorying threats against Iran. It is a threat to commit “a moral crime against the people of the country,” he continued. “Those people who are in direct contact with the president need to say ‘No. I’ll resign. I’ll do whatever I can do legally to stop this, because this is insane. And if given the order, I’m not carrying it out.’”
Later in the week, Carlson said that “It’s time to establish a healthy relationship where Israel can pay its own bills, fund its own military, and act within the constraints imposed by its own economy and population.”
“There’s no country in the world that acts with total impunity because it knows a much larger country will backstop it no matter what it does,” he added.
Trump slammed Carlson in his post on Thursday for not graduating from college, calling him a “broken man” following his ouster from Fox News, who needs a “a good psychiatrist.” He bashed Kelly for how she questioned him before the 2016 election. He attacked Owens’ looks. He said Jones “says some of the dumbest things,” including pushing conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook massacre. “These so-called ‘pundits’ are LOSERS,” Trump wrote.
Trump also insisted, “I no longer care about that stuff, I only care about doing right for our Country.”
