Performance Versus Ideology in Carlson's Rhetoric

Last week, the Holocaust-denying, white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes sat down with former Fox News host turned podcaster Tucker Carlson on The Tucker Carlson Show, where the two discussed Fuentes’s trajectory, the evolution of his “America First” ideology, and the ways his rejection of the neoconservative common sense on Israel put him at odds with parts of the right-wing establishment. For many, Carlson’s seeming embrace of Fuentes on his popular show signaled a shift, a recognition that what was once taboo on the right has arrived in the mainstream. Cementing the sense of a sea change, Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank that has crafted many of Donald Trump’s most destructive policies, refused to disavow or scold Carlson, saying in a video that criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. He asserted that Americans should support Israel as long as Israel’s action are in American interests—and that there is no obligation to support Israel if they are not. (Since this taping, he has had to walk back this statement, particularly the use of the phrase “venomous coalition” to describe those trying to “cancel” Carlson over the interview with Fuentes.) 

That same week, far-right talk show host Candace Owens, dismissed from her Daily Wire post over antisemitism, sat down with left-wing former academic and Palestine advocate Norman Finkelstein. In a conversation laced with Owens’s many antisemitic conspiracy theories, they attempted to find common ground. 

In this episode of On the Nose, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel and publisher Daniel May are joined by Ben Lorber, researcher of antisemitism and white nationalism, and Andrew Marantz, a New Yorker writer who profiled Carlson last year. They discussed the uncomfortable resonances between right and left anti-Zionism in this moment, and the even more disturbing antisemitic, white and Christian nationalist divergences. 

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”

Articles and Media Mentioned and Further Reading

JD Vance is asked about American support for Israel at a Turning Point USA event

“The Tucker Carlson Road Show,” Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker

“Nick Fuentes Has Officially Breached the MAGA Gates,” Ben Lorber, The Nation

Transcript forthcoming.