Donald Trump has dismissed the influence of Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly on his decisions, particularly after the two criticized his military strategy concerning Iran.
In a conversation with The Inner Circle on Monday, the former president expressed indifference to the disapproval voiced by the erstwhile Fox News hosts regarding his actions against Iran.
“MAGA is synonymous with Trump, not with the likes of Kelly and Carlson,” Trump remarked, referring to the duo’s recent skepticism about the rationale behind the Iranian engagement.
“MAGA supporters are focused on our nation’s prosperity and security. They appreciate every move I’m making,” Trump elaborated.
“This is a necessary step to ensure the safety of our country and, indeed, the safety of others,” he added.
Megyn Kelly has been a vocal critic among conservatives, arguing that the U.S. was unwillingly entangled in the conflict, leading to American soldiers risking their lives for causes related to Iran or Israel.
Trump fired back that Kelly should ‘study her history book a little bit.’
‘Megyn was opposed to me for years when I ran the first time and nothing stopped me,’ Trump said. ‘And so, you know, some people are against — and they always come back. She came all the way back.’
Donald Trump brushed off criticism among conservatives over his war with Iran, describing it as a ‘a detour that we have to take in order to keep our country safe and keep other countries safe’
Trump fired back at conservative figures Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly (seen together in November 2025) for their opposition to his military strikes, saying they have ‘no impact’ on his decisions
Kelly said on her SiriusXM show that she fears the US will become embroiled in yet another foreign war for years to come and questioned whether war with Iran is in America’s interests.
‘Our government’s job is not to look out for Iran or for Israel. It’s to look out for us. And this feels very much to me like it is clearly Israel’s war,’ she said.
Trump brushed off Kelly’s opposition in his phone interview on Monday, saying: ‘I guess she maybe doesn’t like the idea of this war, but I do because I have to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of the Iranians.’
‘I have to do what’s right, number one — and you can’t have Iran getting a nuclear weapon. That’s predominant to me,’ Trump explained.
Carlson has been even stronger in his rhetoric against the war, telling ABC’s Jon Karl that he believes Trump’s strikes on Iran were ‘absolutely disgusting and evil.’
He has reportedly visited the White House three times in the last month to lobby Trump against attacking Iran.
But Trump said the commentator failed to sway him, and said in his interview this week: ‘(Carlson) can say whatever he wants, it has no impact on me.’
Carlson’s attack on Trump came just a week after the conservative commentator met with the president in the White House – but Trump said on Monday: ‘(Carlson) can say whatever he wants, it has no impact on me’
JD Vance insisted the conflict is ‘so different’ to disastrous conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan
It comes as the White House has struggled to contain criticism among Trump supporters and conservatives over the war, with many noting that Trump campaigned on bringing the US out of foreign conflicts.
Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a MAGA darling, claimed that Trump had betrayed voters who supported him for his foreign policy platform during the election.
‘Thousands and thousands of Americans from my generation have been killed and injured in never ending pointless foreign wars and we said no more. But we are freeing the Iranian people. Please,’ the former GOP lawmaker wrote on Saturday.
‘There are 93 million people in Iran, let them liberate themselves. But Iran is on the verge of having nuclear weapons. Yeah sure.’
Vice President JD Vance, previously a staunch anti-interventionalist, attempted to characterize the conflict as ‘so different’ to disastrous conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan over the weekend.
‘The president has clearly defined what he wants to accomplish. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and has to commit long-term to never trying to rebuild the nuclear capability,’ Vance told Fox News’s Jesse Watters Primetime.
‘There’s just no way that Donald Trump is going to allow this country to get into a multi-year conflict with no clear end in sight and no clear objective. I think that means that we’re not going to get into the problems that we’ve had with Iraq and Afghanistan.’
