Tucker Carlson Told the New York Times Who’s Bidding Sean Hannity Was Doing Behind Closed Doors
Sean Hannity sold the Iran war to millions of viewers every night.
Tucker Carlson flew to Washington three times to talk Trump out of it.
Now Carlson just told the world what Hannity was doing while those cameras were off.
Tucker Carlson New York Times Interview Reveals White House Had No War Pushers
In a wide-ranging interview published Saturday, Carlson named the people he says pressured Donald Trump into the Iran war – and they weren't Democrats.
They were Hannity. Mark Levin. Rupert Murdoch. Miriam Adelson.
Carlson told the Times he flew to Washington three times in the weeks before the February 28 strikes and met with Trump in the Oval Office. He also spoke with the president by phone multiple times. His read from every one of those conversations was the same: Trump "never seemed enthusiastic about it, ever."
In the final week before the attack, Carlson said, Trump "felt he had no choice and that he was resigned to it."
No one inside the White House was the source of that pressure, according to Carlson. It was coming from outside – what he called "constant calls from donors and people with influence over the president."
The pitch, he said, wasn't about American interests. It was about legacy – that Trump would "be a figure out of history" and would "save and redeem Israel."
"I didn't hear of anybody making the case that this would be good for the United States," Carlson told the Times. "I don't think that was ever a conversation."
Both Hannity and Levin denied the allegations. Murdoch and Adelson did not respond to requests for comment.
Miriam Adelson Gave Trump $111 Million and Then the Calls Started
Miriam Adelson wrote $111 million in checks to pro-Trump super PACs during the 2024 campaign – making her the second-largest donor to his effort.
She and her late husband Sheldon built the Las Vegas Sands casino empire before his death in 2021. Together they directed hundreds of millions of dollars toward pro-Israel causes over the decades – the Birthright Israel program, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and the Maccabee Task Force among them.
Trump has never been shy about the relationship. At an address to Israel's parliament last October, he praised Adelson by name and credited the couple with shaping his thinking on the Golan Heights – the territory the U.S. recognized as Israeli sovereign land in 2019. He said the Adelsons made more visits to the White House than almost anyone else he could name.
Rupert Murdoch – whose family controls an estimated $23.4 billion fortune built through his global media empire – has been publicly described by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a close personal friend and political ally. Both Murdoch and Adelson attended Trump's inauguration in January 2025.
Sean Hannity and Mark Levin Fired Back and Called Tucker a Propagandist
This wasn't the first time Carlson had gone after these names.
Weeks before the Times interview, Carlson posted publicly that Hannity, Levin, Murdoch, Adelson, and former Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter were "warmongers" calling Trump to demand air strikes. He accused Fox News of running pro-war propaganda while viewers had no idea the hosts were lobbying the president in private.
Levin fired back, calling Carlson a "reckless and deceitful propagandist" and denied advising Trump to attack Iran. Hannity also denied Carlson's account to the Times.
What Carlson is describing – a media infrastructure privately lobbying a sitting president toward war, then validating that war publicly, while funded by donors with a direct financial stake in Israeli policy – is not something Trump's allies dispute on the merits. They dispute whether it happened.
Trump himself told the New York Post last month that Carlson is "a low IQ person" who "calls me all the time" but gets no response. "I don't deal with him," Trump said. "I like dealing with smart people, not fools."
That's the question voters who were sold "America First" are sitting with now. Not whether billionaire donors call the White House. Trump confirmed that himself from the floor of Israel's parliament. The question is whether those calls had anything to do with a war that's already cost this country far more than anyone promised.
Sources:
- Mary Whitfill Roeloffs, "Tucker Carlson Claims Billionaires Rupert Murdoch, Miriam Adelson Pushed Trump Into War With Iran," Forbes, May 2, 2026.
- "Tucker Carlson Interview With NYT: Trump, Iran, Israel, Future of MAGA," RealClearPolitics, May 3, 2026.
- "Tucker Carlson Breaks With Trump Over Iran War in New York Times Interview," NewsBusters, May 4, 2026.
- "Tucker Carlson on Trump Split Over Iran, Nick Fuentes Interview Regret," The Hollywood Reporter, May 2, 2026.
- Amy Curtis, "Tucker Carlson's New York Times Interview Did Not Go Well," Townhall, May 4, 2026.
