Trumpy billionaire Bill Ackman thinks conservative commentator Tucker Carlson is going to get someone killed.
Carlson, 56, has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, which began on Saturday, previously telling ABC News it was “absolutely disgusting and evil.”
Pershing Square Capital Management CEO Ackman, meanwhile, has been a vocal supporter of intervention in Iran and attacked Carlson’s monologue on The Tucker Carlson Show on Thursday.
During his screed, Carlson claimed that the U.S. had been drawn into the conflict by a movement within Judaism called Chabad, a frequent target of anti-semitic conspiracy theories.
Ackman, 59, claimed in a post on X that Carlson’s accusations could lead to reprisals against Jewish people.
“@TuckerCarlson has reached a level of absurdity that is going to get someone killed. He needs to stop this now,” he said. “Someone who knows him well needs to intervene or he will have blood on his hands.”
Carlson has quickly become one of the highest-profile conservative dissidents against the war and is a leading proponent of the argument that Israel wields significant influence over U.S. foreign policy.
On Monday, he called it “Israel’s war” and claimed it had “happened because Israel wanted it to happen,” Al-Jazeera reports.
Ackman, however, sees it differently.
On Saturday, he clashed with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who said on the day that the first bombs dropped that Trump’s actions amounted to “a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression.”
“So let me get this straight,” Ackman said, quoting Mamdani’s post. “You support the [former Supreme Leader] Khamenei regime that killed 38,000+ protesters and maimed hundreds of thousands more. A regime that has repeatedly called for Death to America and has killed thousands of our servicemen and citizens. One that has taken away women’s rights and freedoms for the Iranian people.
“And then you call our efforts to destroy the evildoers a catastrophic escalation.”
The exact death toll of Iran’s crackdown on protestors in January hasn’t yet been confirmed, but is feared to stand in the tens of thousands. Demonstrations began over economic gripes, and the internet in Iran went dark on January 8 amid fears authorities had responded violently to the unrest.
Khamenei was killed in the strikes on Saturday.
The invasion has rankled elements of Trump’s MAGA base, with key figures including former stooge lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene, Carlson, and conservative commentator Megyn Kelly saying the foreign intervention thumbed its nose at the president’s “America First” election promises.
Kelly, 55, said on her show on SiriusXM on Monday: “I have serious doubts about what we’re doing.”
“I support the president... But that doesn’t mean... you have to accept another Middle East war without questions. And anybody who tells you that can suck it,” she said. “There’s nothing unpatriotic or unsupportive of one’s conservatism or general adherence to MAGA-type principles to say, ‘I would like to be better convinced that this is worth the sacrifice of American blood and treasure.’”
Trump has pushed back on criticism from Carlson and Kelly, telling newsletter The Inner Circle on Monday, “I have to do what’s right, number one—and you can’t have Iran getting a nuclear weapon. That’s predominant to me.
“I think that MAGA is Trump—MAGA’s not the other two. MAGA wants to see our country thrive and be safe. And MAGA loves what I’m doing—every aspect of it…
“This is a detour that we have to take in order to keep our country safe and keep other countries safe, frankly.”
