Lobbyist for man pardoned by Trump in plea talks on extortion charges

2026-04-07T16:29:19.124Z / Reuters

By Luc Cohen and Marisa Taylor

April 7, 2026 4:29 PM UTC Updated 3 hours ago

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A walker is seen on the floor of a nursing home facility in New York City, U.S. January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Yuki Iwamura/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

• Summary

• Nass allegedly hired ex-racketeering convict for intimidation
• Client Schwartz pleaded guilty to $38 million tax fraud in 2024
• Trump pardoned Schwartz three months into three-year sentence

NEW YORK, April 7 (Reuters) – A lobbyist who ​helped a nursing home owner convicted of tax fraud secure a pardon from President ‌Donald Trump is in talks with prosecutors over a potential plea agreement to resolve extortion charges, court records showed.

Attorney Joshua Nass, founder of lobbying firm Merkava Strategies, was arrested on March 13 on charges of hiring someone to intimidate ​a former client and his son into paying him $500,000. Court papers do not identify the former ​client, but two people familiar with the matter said it was Joseph Schwartz, the ⁠nursing home owner who received the pardon last year.

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In a court filing on Monday night, Nass’ lawyers asked ​Brooklyn-based U.S. Magistrate Judge James Cho to push the deadline for prosecutors to secure an indictment to ​April 27 from April 13 as talks continue.

“This additional time is necessary to afford the parties time to confer regarding a potential resolution of the case,” Nass’ defense lawyers wrote, adding that prosecutors consented to the request.

Nass has not entered a plea. ​His lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Brooklyn U.S. ​Attorney’s office declined to comment.

In December 2025, the son of Nass’ former client agreed to pay Nass $100,000 toward a $600,000 contract for ‌lobbying ⁠services, according to prosecutors. In January, Nass hired someone previously convicted of racketeering to threaten and assault the client and his son, according to an FBI complaint filed in court.

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The complaint did not describe the nature of the lobbying services.

Congressional lobbying records show that Nass agreed to represent Schwartz in connection with “petitioning for a ​pardon/clemency” starting on November ​13, 2025. Nass earned $100,000 in ⁠connection with his work for Schwartz in the fourth quarter of 2025, records show.

Schwartz, 66, pleaded guilty in New Jersey federal court in November 2024 ​to a $38 million tax fraud scheme. Trump pardoned him on November 14, less than ​three months ⁠after he began serving a three-year sentence in an Otisville, New York federal prison.

Schwartz’s lawyer Kevin Marino declined to comment.

U.S. presidents have unchecked power to grant clemency for federal crimes. Historically, presidents have granted pardons or ⁠sentence commutations ​toward the end of their terms after extensive review processes. ​Trump, during his second term in the White House, has made far earlier and more frequent use of the clemency power ​than his predecessors.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Marisa Taylor in Washington; editing by David Gaffen

Lawmakers call for CFTC crackdown on prediction markets after bet on downed U.S. airmen

April 7, 2026 / 3:42 PM EDT / CBS News

By Megan Cerullo

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting. Read Full Bio

Lawmakers are pressing securities regulators to crack down on prediction markets amid several recent incidents of people using the increasingly popular platforms to bet on events tied to the Iran war and other government actions.

In an April 6 letter to Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig, seven House Democrats demanded that the agency tighten its oversight of prediction markets after Polymarket allowed customers to wager on the fate of two U.S. airmen shot down over Iran last week.

Betting on life and death?

“It is morally corrupt and completely unacceptable for these platforms to allow people to bet on whether American service members live or die,” Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, a leader of the effort, said in a statement. “This is not a game. The CFTC has the authority to stop this, and we want to know why it hasn’t.”

The CFTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawmakers’ letter.

Companies like Polymarket and rival Kalshi let users wager money on the outcome of elections, sports contests and many other events. Yet while their popularity has exploded, the companies are attracting attention from lawmakers and other critics who say they violate anti-gambling regulations and who raise concerns about the integrity of trading activity on the platforms.

Polymarket allowed speculators last week to bet on whether the U.S. airmen shot down in Iran would be rescued by April 3 or April 4. Both crew members from the downed F-15E fighter jet were rescued. The company said it took the contract down immediately, but acknowledged in a statement posted on social media last week that the wager had “slipped through” the company’s internal safeguards.

Both Polymarket and Kalshi have recently said they are strengthening their controls to prevent insider trading.

“Wild West” markets

In their letter, the lawmakers said prediction markets “resemble an unregulated ‘Wild West’,” pointing to recent instances of alleged insider trading.

Those included a Polymarket client who made $436,000 in January by appearing to anticipate the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces. Another user of the platform also appeared to make hundreds of thousands of dollars betting on the timing of U.S. strikes on Iran.

“[R]ecent high-profile instances of alleged insider trading on prediction market platforms relating to U.S. government actions — including the military’s intervention in Venezuela and our recent attack on Iran — have fueled concern that the CFTC does not have adequate control over these fast-growing markets,” the lawmakers wrote.

An existing CFTC rule bans contracts that “involve, relate, or reference terrorism, assassination, war, gaming, or an activity that is unlawful under any State or Federal law,” the lawmakers noted in their letter.

The agency “should apply its existing rule prohibiting bets relating to terrorism, assassinations and war. This should especially be clear for contracts that are as morally obscene as betting on military action in Venezuela and Iran,” they wrote.

The House group asked that the CFTC respond by April 15 to a series of questions about its oversight of prediction markets, including why it has failed to take action against war-related bets. They also asked if the agency is aware of any conflicts of interest between financial market players and high-ranking government officials.

From ‘Trump curious’ to ‘Trump furious’: How one expert explains Black swing voters

2026-04-07 1:38 PM EDT / CNN

By Dana Bash, CNN

Published 1:38 PM EDT, Tue April 7, 2026

From ‘Trump curious’ to ‘Trump furious’: How one expert explains Black swing voters

Pollster Terrance Woodbury says there are new swing voters: young voters of color and men of color. They were Trump curious in 2024, but Woodbury now says they are “Trump furious”. He tells CNN’s Dana Bash his warning to Democrats is “while many of those Trump curious voters returned to the Democratic coalition in 2025, they remain swing voters, and we have to give them something to vote for and not just to vote against him.”

6:26 • Source: CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/07/politics/video/inside-politics-black-swing-voters

Russia, China veto UN resolution aimed at reopening Strait of Hormuz, hours before Trump deadline

April 7, 2026 1:50pm EDT / Fox News

Karoline Leavitt says ‘only the president knows’ what he will do as Iran faces 8 pm ET deadline

By Greg Norman-Diamond, Fox News

Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution Tuesday aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, just hours before President Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to cease threatening the key waterway.

Trump has given Iran until 8 p.m. ET to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes against its power plants and bridges on Tuesday. The resolution received 11 votes in favor and two against, with abstentions from Pakistan and Colombia.

“No one should tolerate that they are holding the global economy at gunpoint, but today, Russia and China did tolerate,” U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz said Tuesday. “They sided with a regime that seeks to intimidate the Gulf into submission,even as it brutalizes its own people during a national internet blackout for daring to imagine dignity or freedom.”

“Failing to adopt this resolution sends the wrong signal to the world, to the people of the world — the signal that the threat to international waterways can pass without any decisive action by the international organization responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security,” Bahrain’s foreign minister, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, added following the vote.

US EMBASSIES IN BAHRAIN, EGYPT ISSUE WARNINGS AS IRAN THREATENS UNIVERSITIES ACROSS MIDDLE EAST

Members of the Security Council vote on a resolution to unblock the Strait of Hormuz at U.N. headquarters in New York on April 7, 2026. China and Russia vetoed the resolution.(Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

The vetoed resolution, which was introduced by Bahrain, “strongly encourages states interested in the use of commercial maritime routes in the Strait of Hormuz to coordinate efforts, defensive in nature, commensurate with the circumstances, to contribute to ensuring the safety and security of navigation across the Strait of Hormuz.”

The resolution also demanded that Iran immediately halt attacks on merchant and commercial vessels and stop impeding their freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian infrastructure.

The language of the resolution was significantly weakened to try to get Russia and China to abstain rather than veto it, according to The Associated Press.

The initial Gulf proposal would have authorized countries to use “all necessary means” — U.N. wording that would include military action — to ensure transit through the Strait of Hormuz and deter attempts to close it.

WHY THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ MATTERS AS TRUMP ISSUES FRESH ULTIMATUM TO IRAN

Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026.(Reuters/Stringer/File Photo/File Photo)

After Russia,China and France, all veto-wielding countries on the 15-member Security Council, expressed opposition to approving the use of force, the resolution was revised to eliminate all references to offensive action. It would have authorized only “all defensive means necessary.” A vote had been expected on Saturday.

But instead,the resolution was further weakened to eliminate any reference to Security Council authorization — which is an order for action — and limit its provisions to the Strait of Hormuz.Previous drafts had included adjacent waters.

“Let me be clear — this text would only embolden the United States and the Israeli regime to continue in their unlawful actions and atrocious crime, while shielding from accountability,” Iran’s ambassador to the U.N., Amir Saeid Iravani, said following the vote.

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, of Russia, waits for the start of a Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York City on April 7, 2026.(Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

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“The Iranian regime has until 8 p.m. Eastern Time to meet the moment and make a deal with the United States,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Tuesday. “Only the president knows where things stand and what he will do.”

Fox News’ Patrick Ward, Anders Hagstrom and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

American journalist Shelly Kittleson is released after being kidnapped in Iraq, sources say

April 7, 2026 / 2:38 PM EDT / CBS News

By Tucker Reals
Tucker Reals is CBSNews.com’s foreign editor, based in the CBS News London bureau. He has worked for CBS News since 2006, prior to which he worked for The Associated Press in Washington, D.C., and London.

American journalist Shelly Kittleson has been freed after militants from the Iranian-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah kidnapped her in Iraq one week ago, according to two Iraqi government sources and a source familiar with the situation.

Kata’ib Hezbollah had Kittleson’s name on a list of American journalists to target for kidnapping, multiple sources said. She was abducted in Baghdad last Tuesday, March 31.

A spokesperson for the Kata’ib Hezbollah militia said earlier in a post on the group’s Telegram messaging app channel that Kittleson was being released on the condition that she leave Iraq immediately.

Her whereabouts were not immediately clear.

Two militia officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that in exchange for Kittleson’s release, Iraqi authorities would free several detained members of the group.

Earlier, the group released an undated video of Kittleson in which she speaks directly to the camera. It is unclear where the video was taken. It runs about two and a half minutes long and she is seen wearing a pink sweater and green blazer.

Alex Plitsas, Kittleson’s designated point of contact in the U.S. and a CNN national security analyst, previously told CBS News the U.S. government had warned Kittleson about a specific threat against her by Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed paramilitary group that was allegedly looking to kidnap or kill female journalists.

Kittleson was contacted multiple times with warnings of threats against her, including as recently as the night before she was abducted, a U.S. official had told CBS News.

Journalist Kiran Nazish, the founder and director of the Coalition for Women in Journalism, told CBS News last week that Kittleson was traveling to Iraq to stay with a family there who had reassured Kittleson that she shouldn’t worry and that they “would keep her safe.” Kittleson told Nazish in a text message that she had been advised not to travel, but “she was doing what she had always done,” Nazish told CBS News.

Nazish said Kittleson traveled to Iraq and Syria several times before and had “experience reporting on the ground in difficult circumstances.” Kittleson lives in Rome and has spent time in Istanbul.

The Associated Press, Cara Tabachnick, Pat Milton, Omar Abdulkader and Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/american-journalist-shelly-kittleson-was-concerned-about-her-safety-before-kidnapping-editor-says/

Acting AG says ‘Nobody has any idea why’ Pam Bondi was fired except for Trump

2026-04-07 2:57 PM ET / CNN

By Holmes Lybrand

32 min ago

PUBLISHED Apr 7, 2026, 2:57 PM ET

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a press conference at the Justice Department in Washington, DC, on April 7, 2026.

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Washington, DC—

During his first news conference Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche showcased his loyalty to President Donald Trump while declining to answer specific questions about the war with Iran, why Attorney General Pam Bondi was fired or other investigations into the president’s enemies.

“I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime,” Blanche said when asked whether he wanted to be nominated as the full-time attorney general. “If he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say: ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir.’”

When asked why Bondi was fired and how the DOJ will change, Blanche was dismissive.

“I’m going to lead the way that I’ve been leading as the deputy attorney general,” said Blanche, a former Trump defense attorney.

“Nobody has any idea why the attorney general is no longer the attorney general and I’m the acting attorney general except for President Trump,” Blanche added.

Portraits of President Donald Trump and former US Attorney General Pam Bondi are seen during a news conference with acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche, at the Department of Justice building on April 07, 2026.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Epstein investigation subponea

Beyond her failure to successfully bring cases against Trump’s personal and political enemies, Bondi’s standing was harmed her drastic and self-inflicted stumbles in handling the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

When asked about Bondi’s outstanding House Oversight Committee subpoena over the botched handling of the Epstein investigation, Blanche said he would said he would leave the matter “to Chairman (James) Comer and others to figure out.”

Blanche said he didn’t know whether the Justice Department would assert privilege in the matter in an effort to stop the subpoena.

“I’m not committing to anything,” he said. “I’m just saying I don’t know.”

Backs the White House and Pentagon on Iran

Blanche, in a news conference meant to focus on efforts to investigate and prosecute fraud in the US, decline to answer a question on the Justice Department’s position on preemptivearguments that Trump might be committing war crimes if he follows through with, as he said Tuesday, killing “a whole civilization” Tuesday night in Iran, barring a deal.

The interim DOJ head said the Justice Department supports the White House and Department of Defense and provides “counsel to them, and we have been doing that, as you would expect.”

CNN also pressed Blanche on what, if any, investigative steps have been taken after Trump threatened to jail an unspecified reporter as part of a hunt for the “leaker” behind initial reports Friday of the missing Air Force officers in Iran.

Two officers went missing after their US fighter jet was downed in Iran. Both have since been rescued.

While first saying he wouldn’t comment on ongoing investigations, Blanche noted that “we will always investigate” leaks involving classified information, especially those that put US soldiers at risk.

“And we will investigate if it means sending a subpoena to the reporter,” Blanche said. “That’s exactly what we should do, and that’s exactly what we will be doing.”

CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.

Why Iran deadline is trending

2026-04-07T18:15:50.610Z / CNN Politics

By Betsy Klein and Alejandro Cruz, CNN

Published 2:15 PM EDT, Tue April 7, 2026

Why Iran deadline is trending

President Donald Trump’s 8 p.m. ET Tuesday deadline for Iran to make a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz is rapidly approaching. CNN’s Betsy Klein explains why the waterway is so critical and how Trump has doubled down on this threats to destroy “a whole civilization” if there’s no deal. Discover more videos, including live streams and exclusive storytelling, on our Watch page.

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Acting DOJ chief Blanche says Trump has ‘right’ to influence investigations

2026-04-07T18:58:40.653Z / Reuters

By Andrew Goudsward

April 7, 2026 6:58 PM UTC Updated 59 mins ago

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Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a press conference at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 7, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

• Blanche defends Trump’s authority to influence DOJ probes, calls it a presidential duty
• Trump fired former attorney general last week
• Acting attorney general praises Trump: ‘I love you, sir’

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) – Acting ​U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump ‌has a right and duty to shape federal probes of individuals who investigated him as he faces pressure from the president to deliver prosecutions of perceived enemies.

In his first extended comments since being named acting attorney ​general last week, Blanche bristled at the notion that the Justice Department has ​been improperly targeting Trump’s opponents, but defended the president’s authority to influence investigations.

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“We have ⁠thousands of ongoing investigations and prosecutions going on in this country right now. It ​is true that some of them involve men, women and entities that the president in the ​past has had issues with and believes should be investigated. That is his right and indeed it is his duty to do that, meaning to lead this country,” Blanche said during a press conference.

Trump fired former Attorney ​General Pam Bondi on Thursday in part over dissatisfaction with the pace and outcome of ​cases Trump has demanded.

‘I LOVE YOU, SIR’

The Justice Department under Trump has opened a slew of investigations ‌into Trump ⁠adversaries, including U.S. officials who concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to boost Trump’s first campaign, Democratic lawmakers who urged U.S. military personnel to refuse unlawful orders and liberal donors and fundraising groups.

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The DOJ has encountered obstacles from judges and grand juries ​in many of those ​investigations. A federal judge ⁠last year dismissed cases against two officials who investigated Trump, James Comey and Letitia James.

Blanche, who represented Trump in three of the four ​criminal cases he faced during his years out of office, pointed ​to those cases ⁠in arguing that Trump “wants justice” for those whom he believes improperly turned the legal system against him.

Blanche declined to say on Tuesday whether he wants to be nominated to the vacant attorney ⁠general ​post. He said the decision was up to Trump, and ​if the president nominated someone else and asked Blanche to leave his role in the Justice Department, “I will say, ‘thank ​you very much, I love you, sir.’”

Reporting by Andrew Goudsward. Editing by Michael Learmonth, Rod Nickel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Graham eyes ‘down payment’ on Trump-backed SAVE Act without Democratic support

April 7, 2026 2:00pm EDT / Fox News

Graham plans to create grant programs requiring states to purge rolls of illegal immigrants to receive funding

By Alex Miller Fox News

Published April 7, 2026 2:00pm EDT

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

A top Senate Republican is eyeing a way to put a “down payment” on Trump-backed voter ID legislation through a party-line bill later in the year.

The Senate has been debating the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act for almost a month. But without Democratic votes to break the filibuster, the legislation has no chance of passing.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.S.C., wants to put portions of the voter ID and citizenship verification legislation into a budget reconciliation package, which requires only Republican votes to pass.

GOP SENATOR’S GAMBIT EXPOSES FALSE DEM CLAIMS ABOUT SUPPORTING VOTER ID

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was one of the last remaining Republican holdouts against a Trump-backed funding deal as the deadline to fund the government looms.(Al Drago/Bloomberg)

“Reconciliation has limits, but we’re going to make a down payment on the SAVE Act in reconciliation in the fall,” Graham said Monday on a South Carolina radio show, “Straight Talk with Bill Frady.”

Graham, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, is in charge of designing the framework for the reconciliation process in the upper chamber. He plans to meet with the White House Friday to “get this thing moving.”

Reconciliation does not allow for straight policy, meaning any provisions included in the package must have a budgetary or spending impact to survive Senate rules. If they don’t, they are stripped out.

Graham says he has a solution.

THUNE ACCUSES CRITICS OF ‘CREATING FALSE EXPECTATIONS’ AMID BACKLASH OVER STALLED SAVE AMERICA ACT

President Donald Trump and conservatives have demanded that the Senate launch a talking filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“Voter integrity laws — I’m going to create grant programs, but they’ll have conditions on them,” Graham said. “To get a grant, you’ve got to make sure you purge your rolls of illegal immigrants. There are a lot of blue states out there that don’t do that, and we’ll try to get as much of a voter ID system as I can.”

President Donald Trump and conservatives have demanded that the Senate launch a talking filibuster — or eliminate the filibuster entirely — to pass the SAVE America Act. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and other Republicans have made clear the option does not have enough support.

The current floor debate, which is paused while lawmakers are away from Washington, D.C., for the Easter break, is designed to force Senate Democrats to argue against voter ID — a policy that polls show is popular with voters across party lines.

SENATE PASSES BILL TO FUND MOST OF DHS AFTER HOUSE GOP CAVES

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., spoke with reporters as he headed to the Senate chamber at the U.S. Capitol on March 12, 2026, in Washington, D.C.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., argued late last month that Democrats’ objection to the SAVE America Act is “not to a photo ID when you show up to vote,” despite blocking a standalone voter ID provision pushed by Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio.

“Our objection is it’s a voter suppression bill, 20 million, maybe more people, when they show up to vote will be told you’re off the rolls,” Schumer said. “That’s the problem with the bill.”

While Graham’s provision could pass muster under Senate rules, it would likely come in a second reconciliation package in the fall, as midterm elections take center stage. Whether it would take effect by November is unclear. He’s eying provisions that would tackle fraud in the package, too.

Before that, Graham and Republicans are eyeing front-loading funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a reconciliation bill that Trump wants on his desk no later than June 1.

Senate Republicans are largely aligned behind the idea, arguing that Democrats have refused to fund immigration enforcement without stringent reforms — reforms Republicans say they have offered and Democrats have rejected.

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Still, House Republicans are not entirely on board, and their resistance could further prolong the longest government shutdown in history.

They are frustrated with the current Senate Department of Homeland Security Senate Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, which carves out ICE and portions of CBP funding. They are demanding the upper chamber make real progress on a reconciliation bill before voting for the compromise plan.

“What I’m going to do is draft a reconciliation bill and load up ICE and Border Patrol funding without a single Democratic vote — give them all they need for three to 10 years, whatever I can fit in,” Graham said. “We’re going to fund the Border Patrol, and we’re going to fund ICE with Republican votes only.”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

What Tucker Carlson’s big break with Trump means

2026-04-07T16:43:20.276Z / CNN

Analysis by Aaron Blake

3 hr ago

PUBLISHED Apr 7, 2026, 12:43 PM ET

President Donald Trump, left, and Tucker Carlson.

Getty Images/Reuters

Twenty-one months ago, Tucker Carlson told the 2024 Republican National Convention that Donald Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt amounted to “divine intervention” — that God had chosen to save Trump because he had a plan for him to lead the country.

“Something bigger is going on here,” Carlson said.

Today, Carlson is offering an almost polar-opposite argument about Trump. He seemed to intimate during his show Monday that Trump might be the antichrist.

That rhetorical flourish capped Carlson’s harshest public criticism of Trump to date. While the former Fox News host has been highly critical of the Iran war before — and somewhat more gently critical of Trump the man, at least publicly — the gloves were off on Monday like never before.

The result was perhaps the biggest break thus far between Trump and a leading conservative influencer.

And for a party that has done its best to forestall these kinds of splits as Trump’s poll numbers have plumbed new depths, that’s an inauspicious sign.

That doesn’t mean Carlson will suddenly equally divide Trump’s base. But it’s not helpful for a GOP that is increasingly riven over the Iran war and other issues.

Carlson’s comments were a lot to take in. And they were, characteristically for him, often highly suggestive and conspiratorial.

Here are some of the highlights:

• He said Christians should have reconsidered their support for Trump when the president said he had invaded Venezuela for oil. (“… That’s unacceptable for Americans or any civilized people because taking other people’s stuff by force cannot be allowed.”)
• He called Trump threatening Iran’s civilian infrastructure “a war crime, a moral crime,” and said it would lead to “mass suffering and death.”
• He suggested the Trump administration might have bombed an elementary school in Iran on purpose. (A preliminary military investigation and other evidence suggested the US accidentally struck the school.)
• He called Trump’s vulgar Easter morning social media post that threatened Iran “vile on every level.” He criticized Trump’s post for mocking Islam, saying that amounted to mocking all religion. (“A lot of his positions are the right positions, but you cannot support that. That is evil.”)
• He suggested Trump might soon hit Iran with a nuclear bomb and even warned people around the president to block him from using the nuclear codes. (“Figure out the codes on the football yourself because everything hangs in the balance right now.”)
• He criticized Trump for not placing his hand on the Bible during his inauguration and concluded that it was intentional. (“… Because he affirmatively rejects what’s inside that book. And what’s in that book are limits on human behavior.”)
• He then suggested Trump could be engaging in a more complex spiritual assault. (“Is it possible that what you’re watching is a very stealthy yet incredibly effective attack on what, from a Christian perspective, is the true-faith belief in Jesus? … Is it possible the president sees this in bigger terms? Sees this as the fulfillment of something, or the elevation to some higher office beyond president of the United States?”)

It’s all incredibly harsh stuff from Carlson, even as he never says he no longer supports Trump.

The president hit back Tuesday morning. In comments to the New York Post, he called Carlson “a low-IQ person that has absolutely no idea what’s going on.” He also said he didn’t “deal with” Carlson anymore.

Of course, it’s not a huge surprise that Carlson might feel this way about Trump. Not only are they increasingly at cross purposes over the Iran war and foreign policy generally, but this has long been an apparent marriage of convenience.

And nowhere was that made clearer than when we got a peek at Carlson’s private messages about Trump after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. The messages were released as part of the Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News, where Carlson then worked.

He said in those messages said Trump was “only good at destroying things” and that “I hate him passionately.” He also said Trump’s first term was a bust.

“We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest,” Carlson said. “But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump.”

Carlson also criticized Trump early in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, as many conservative commentators did back then.

But it’s also no small thing for a prominent figure on the right to come directly after Trump like this. As recently as two weeks ago, Carlson in an interview with the Economist was still doing what lots of conservatives do when they want to differ with Trump: casting him as a victim of nefarious people around him (in this case, Israel).

So what does it all mean?

It’s difficult to get a beat on Carlson’s influence these days. He used to be the most-watched host on the most prominent conservative cable news channel. Today, after he was ousted from that job and has gone independent, his sway is harder to measure.

A 2025 Pew Research Center study, for instance, showed just 9% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they often got their news from the Tucker Carlson Network.

And if you were to select an issue on which Republicans might break with Trump, respect for Islam probably wouldn’t be very high on that list, if it were on there at all.

But Carlson is often mentioned as a potential presidential candidate in his own right. He was instrumental in getting JD Vance selected as Trump’s running mate in 2024, and he’s long had one of the most popular right-wing podcasts. About 7 in 10 Trump voters liked him in a 2024 national poll. And the media ecosystem is more segmented these days.

The Iran war has also emerged as a growing weakness for Trump. While self-described MAGA supporters are overwhelmingly on board, the rest of the president’s base is increasingly on a different page. A CNN poll last week showed 25% of Trump 2024 voters disapproved of him on “foreign affairs,” 28% disapproved on Iran and 45% disapproved on gas prices (which have risen due to the war).

The danger for the president in Carlson’s comments is that it gives Trump supporters skeptical of the war license to tilt into outright opposition to him— or to stay home in November’s midterm elections.

And there is a significant chorus of conservative influencers who have come out against the war, including not just fellow former Fox host Megyn Kelly, but also more apolitical podcast hosts like Joe Rogan and Tim Dillon. It also includes more conspiratorial and extreme hosts like Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes and Alex Jones.

In fact, Jones on Monday floated invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

And when Jones is floating Trump’s removal and Carlson is floating Trump as the antichrist on the same day, that feels like a significant moment in the evolution of the political right.