TEHRAN — Recent schisms within the American right have produced a familiar tale of dishonesty. Donald Trump’s current and former defenders now want the world to believe that he is not truly responsible for what he says, orders, and destroys.
They claim that the American president is a “slave” to Israeli pressure and a victim of blackmail, kompromat, and intimidation from forces beyond his control.
While that story may flatter Tucker Carlson and comfort those responsible for Trump’s rise, it is deeply deceptive.
It suggests that the United States is a “good boy” who has been misled by foreign parasites. In fact, Trump is actively and passionately planning this genocide, and the empire he leads is the driving force behind its own destruction.
Excuse that explains too much
Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones have all fallen out with President Trump over the war against Iran, earning him the full wrath of the president in return.
Carlson has openly suggested that Israeli threats may explain Trump’s actions and even describe the president as a “slave” to forces he cannot resist.
It may sound radical, but it serves as a political escape. It turns American aggression into something committed against America rather than by America.
Mr. Trump does not act like a man reluctantly dragged into a disaster.
He boasts, threatens, humiliates, and takes credit. After he commits a war crime, he reaches for the microphone and tells everyone how strong he was.
President Trump’s record
President Trump’s actions against Iran alone should put an end to the “he was coerced” theory.
He withdrew from the JCPOA, imposed maximum pressure sanctions, authorized the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, and then talked about the assassination as if it were a personal victory.
He derided those who criticized the recent war against Iran as “losers”, “crazy businessmen” and “low IQ” people who didn’t have the courage to go along with him.
During a post on Easter Sunday 2026, he issued crude threats against the Iranian people, attacked Iran’s national energy infrastructure, and said the Iranian people would “live in hell.” He then threatened to escalate further and destroy the entire Iranian civilization.
The same pattern appears elsewhere. President Trump speaks freely about killing people, punishing families, and using force as a test of strength.
He enjoys performances of predatory power. This is important because blackmail does not suddenly create character. This only works if the person being pressured is already willing to live in brutal conditions.
None of this excuses Israel’s role. From the Nakba to Gaza and from Dahiyeh to Tehran, Israel’s record is abominable. And the actions in this region are appalling.
But Trump doesn’t have to pretend to be innocent to admit that. He knew exactly what kind of power he was looking for and what kind of machine he was getting into. He wanted it all.
A consistent character from Mirai to Minab
Two massacres tell the story better than any speech.
My Lai, which occurred in Vietnam in 1968, was not a battlefield accident. American soldiers intentionally killed hundreds of unarmed civilians, including children, and raped women and girls, but then the military machine moved quickly to cover it up.
The instinct of government officials was to deny, trivialize, and look for a scapegoat low enough in the chain of command to absorb public anger.
Minab also belongs to the same family. An attack on a primary school in southern Iran during the early stages of the current war, which killed children and teachers, was later summed up in the usual phrases of “mistake” and “outdated intelligence.”
Minab’s children will never be forgotten, and their blood stains the hands of the American president who boasted of the lethality of the missile that took their lives.
That’s the American way.
carlson’s turn
Carlson’s current remarks on Israel are welcome and include some real observations, but they are too short.
He made many Americans aware that Israel was guilty of the Gaza genocide, helped plunge the region into chaos, and maintained a brutal political order supported by American money, weapons, and diplomatic cover.
You’re also right that the Epstein story and its intelligence connections remain extremely important. But from there he slips into the comforting myth that the United States itself is fundamentally sane, merely being misled by foreign powers.
This myth has had great success over the decades. This allows Washington to act as a passive superpower, a power that wants peace absent lobbying, blackmail, foreign influence, and bad allies.
However, America’s wars in the Middle East did not begin with Israeli influence, nor will they end there. The overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953, Iraq’s support of Saddam Hussein during its eight-year invasion of Iran, sanctions, sabotage, assassinations, and military siege all predate the current frenzy. The Empire had that ambition long before the latest excuse was made.
On the contrary, the long-standing perception among many scholars and experts has been that Israel is a proxy for the United States, dependent on American weapons, parts, intelligence, funding, and diplomatic shields. This relationship works because Washington sees it as beneficial. Israel can absorb some of the political costs, but the larger strategy remains American.
That strategy is not about one lobby group or one president. It’s bipartisan, it’s structural, and it’s old. It has to do with supremacy, oil routes, military superiority, and conflicts with countries such as Iran, Russia, and China.
Once that is understood, the “Israel made Trump do it” story will look more like fragmentation than analysis. Spread responsibilities far enough to hide the architecture.
Operatives and limited hangouts
?We must also view so-called dissident media figures like Tucker Carlson with skepticism.?
Mr. Carlson, whose father works for the CIA, is a central figure in the US information warfare organization Voice of America, and is a person with deep ties to intelligence agencies.
His sudden attack on the Israel lobby may be a limited hangout, a tactical disclosure of the truth to protect a deeper agenda.
Carlson is deeply involved with the Rockbridge Network and billionaires like Peter Thiel, and his influence is visible throughout today’s news cycle, from leaks about Joe Kent’s resignation and Vance’s opposition to attacking Iran to Palantir technology being used in war zones.
Mr. Thiel’s connections also extend to discussions of the connection between “angels and demons” and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), a theme that Mr. Carlson has repeated several times and that Mr. Vance recently said he believes as well.
Their goal is not to end the American Empire, but to refine it into a more efficient “Little Tech” version under figures like J.D. Vance and Joe Kent.