The conservative commentator criticized the US president for attacking the pope and waging war with Iran “on Israel’s behalf”
US President Donald Trump’s true religion is “Israelism” rather than Christianity, conservative journalist and podcaster Tucker Carlson has claimed, criticizing the president’s Middle East policies.
Carlson made the remarks in response to controversial statements Trump made over the past week, including his attacks on Pope Leo XIV and posts depicting himself as a Christ-like figure.
On Monday, Trump described the US-born pontiff as “weak” and “terrible for foreign policy” after the pope called Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization “truly unacceptable” and said that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
On his show, Carlson argued that the US had launched the war against Iran “on behalf of Israel” and “at the instigation of Israel.”
“What’s the religion, honestly, of Donald Trump? It’s not Christianity, clearly. It’s Israelism. It’s the defense of Israel,” Carlson said, adding that support for the Jewish state has become a “civic religion” of the American government.
He described Trump’s social media posts as “iconography” and “attempts to send a statement about faith,” which “doesn’t actually add up to a theology.”
Trump shared an AI-generated image of himself as a robed figure healing a bedridden man, flanked by eagles, fighter jets, and US service members, with the Statue of Liberty and the US flag in the background. He later deleted the post, saying it had been misinterpreted by the “fake news” media.
Carlson said Trump’s actions amounted to a “mockery of God by a temporal leader” and praised former US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who labeled the post “more than blasphemy” and “an Antichrist spirit.”
US Vice President J.D. Vance, who is Catholic, sided with Trump, arguing that it is “very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.”
Several senior US officials have invoked religious imagery to justify the war with Iran, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth urging Americans to pray for victory “in the name of Jesus Christ.”