President Donald Trump has opened a new front in the Republican civil war, unleashing a blistering attack on former Fox News star Tucker Carlson and conservative firebrands Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, just as speculation mounts that Carlson may be eyeing a presidential run.
According to WND, the latest clash inside the populist right erupted after Greene publicized what looked like the soft launch of an alternative America First power center. On Aug. 1, she posted a photograph of herself with her new husband, Brian Glenn, Rep. Massie, and Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned this year in protest of the Iran war.
Greene framed the gathering as the seed of a new movement, pointedly accusing Trump of abandoning the anti-interventionist promises that helped propel him to the White House in 2016. We said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise. But hes betrayed us all. Our commitment is America First for all Americans, right, left, and center. The movement has begun.
That message, implicitly casting Trump as yesterdays man and a betrayer of his own base, appears to have triggered a furious response from the president. Late Friday night, Trump took to his Truth Social platform and fired off a series of posts targeting Carlson, Greene and Massie in language that underscored just how bitter the split has become.
Tucker Carlson just met with Lightweight Former Congressman, Thomas Massie, and Marjorie Traitor Greene, LOSERS ALL! Trump wrote, signaling that he now views the trio as political adversaries rather than allies. He then moved to belittle Carlsons influence and intellect, in stark contrast to the admiration the commentator still enjoys among many grassroots conservatives.
Tuckers Views have fallen through the floor, and will only get worse. Nobody cares about him any longer in that he has become totally irrelevant, and happens to be, surprisingly, a very Low I.Q. individual. He could barely get out of College, and maybe he didnt, but only really dumb people cant make it through that wonderful four year time in life! Trump declared. The president went on to suggest that Carlsons rumored political ambitions pose more of a nuisance than a genuine threat to his own dominance of the GOP.
Tucker wants to run for political office, but he should be required to take a cognitive test. Hes got no chance, but could probably take a couple of points away from whatever the Republican ticket happens to be! Tucker is a loser, and always has been! Trump wrote. Turning his fire on Greene, he mocked both her ideology and her emotional stability, while taking credit for her political fortunes in Georgia.
Marjorie Taylor Brown (Green turns to Brown under stress!), a highly neurotic young woman, went from Ultra Conservative to a Liberal Fool, all in a matter of weeks, because I refused to return her phone calls Not because I didnt like her, just because I had no time. She was way down in the Polls in Georgia (because I took away my Endorsement), and would have had no chance at winning, so she, just like everyone else, QUIT! Trump asserted. He then dismissed Massie as a contrarian obstructionist whose brand of constitutional conservatism he now portrays as unserious.
Thomas Massie has turned out to be a failed politician, and a real JERK. He thought it was really wonderful to vote, NO, on everything, no matter how good, strong, or proper the Legislation would be. What a team this would be, THREE LOSERS, and a pocketful of change! Trump wrote. In a final flourish, he suggested their only political home might be on the far left, adding a deliberately provocative sign-off.
The only chance they have is to join the Radical Left Dumocrats, and try breaking into the Primary System. To all of them I say, PRAISE BE TO ALLAH! he concluded. The rhetoric underscored how far Trump is willing to go to delegitimize former allies who now question his leadership or his fidelity to the America First agenda.
The feud comes just weeks after Carlson publicly severed his formal ties with the Republican Party, a move that rattled establishment figures and energized those on the right who believe the GOP has grown too deferential to foreign interests and the Washington status quo. As WorldNetDaily reported in June, Carlson officially walked away from the party after 35 years of support, explaining that he no longer believes its leadership serves the interests of ordinary Americans.
How could I, or any American voters, support a political party thats not loyal to the United States, that puts the interests of a foreign country above those of its own citizens? Carlson said. That charge, widely understood as a rebuke of the GOPs reflexive support for certain foreign governments and endless overseas entanglements, has resonated with a younger, more nationalist-leaning segment of the right.
On Saturday, Greene escalated the confrontation by responding directly to Trump and attacking not only his policies but his personal faith and character. She argued that Carlson is now a serious Presidential contender and insisted that the president is not a Christian at all, a line of criticism that cuts against the image Trump has cultivated among many evangelical voters.
Her full message was lengthy and unsparing, portraying Trump as a man lashing out because his grip on the conservative base is slipping. I wonder if it was being called a traitor at his own rally yesterday that caused him to dictate his lies and insult laden attack on Tucker, Thomas, and I, while he flew back on the plane. Its also the bad polling that Im sure hes seen by now, she wrote, suggesting that Trumps attacks are driven by insecurity rather than strength.
He attacks us with such vitriol because we actually are everything he claimed to be, conservative and America First, and he has proven as President that he is nothing more than a neocon puppet for Israel, corporations, big donors with special interests, and his dear friends in the Epstein class. We never changed, Trump did, Greene continued. In her telling, she and Massie represent the authentic, non-interventionist, anti-corporate strain of conservatism that Trump once championed but has since abandoned.
Thomas and I have some of the most conservative America focused voting records and legislative work in the House of Representatives. We both consistently voted against funding foreign countries and foreign wars. There is nothing liberal or Democrat about us, however we gladly worked with Democrats to release the Epstein files and to our shock had to fight President Trump, who instead ordered everyone to stop us. This is why Trump now calls me a traitor because instead of bowing down to him like some false little god, I stood up and fought for women who were raped as teenagers and abused by the richest most powerful men in the world, friends of Donald Trump. Im proud to have done it and never ever regret it, she wrote.
Greene then turned to Carlsons standing among younger conservatives, arguing that his willingness to challenge both parties has made him a genuine threat to Trumps dominance. Tucker is beloved by many Americans, so many that he is indeed a serious Presidential contender because he consistently leans in to the truth and bravely tells the stories that mainstream news refuses to cover yet most Americans are interested in. Because of Tuckers strength and leadership, young men adore Tucker and look up to him, and they now think Trump is an old fraud, she said.
Young people are our future and we believe in fighting for them and the important issues that help them build successful prosperous lives, Greene added, casting her camp as more in tune with the next generations priorities. She contrasted that vision with what she described as Trumps support for policies that favor foreign workers and foreign students at the expense of American citizens.
We are strongly against replacing Americans jobs with the foreign visas Trump and his admin support, their place in college that Trump ensures goes to 600,000 foreign students from China and other countries, and we are adamantly against sending off our best and brightest to be killed in war in foreign lands for foreign causes and foreign interests that does nothing for America, she wrote. In doing so, she sought to reclaim the America First label by tying it to immigration restriction, economic nationalism and a hard line against foreign wars.
Greenes most personal criticism centered on faith, where she drew a sharp contrast between her own religious life and what she portrayed as Trumps superficial religiosity. But the most important thing I can tell you about us is that we are devoted Christians and Trump is not a Christian at all. My dear friends, Tucker and Thomas both have led me in prayer to the Lord our God, in the name of His one and only son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They are my brothers in Christ, she wrote.
Donald Trump never once prayed with me and only recognizes God when its in his staff written speeches. Most Americans dont know what religion he is, if any, but many speculate that he is Jewish or Kabbalah if he is anything at all, Greene added, a claim likely to stir controversy among believers who have long viewed Trump as an imperfect but useful ally in the culture wars. She went on to argue that his public behavior is degrading the dignity of the presidency and damaging Americas standing abroad.
President Trumps demeanor, name calling, absurd and reckless rhetoric is unbecoming of the office of the president, is a bad example of leadership, and is hurting Americas reputation and place in the world. At this point, hes no different than an internet troll or one of the many millions of bots that say awful horrible things, she wrote. Greene said she once backed Trump because she believed in the policies he campaigned on, but now sees him as an instrument of the very forces he promised to fight.
In the past, I supported him because of the policies he professed to support and passionately campaigned on, but now as president hes been revealed to be the Trojan horse who enforces many of the policies he claimed to be against, she argued. Im sorry I didnt see it earlier and wish I had never supported him. My biggest concern remains that as Donald Trump loses power and influence he will turn more and more towards war and take actions to make himself feel more powerful and in control, as he grasp and clings to the Oval Office. Hopefully Im wrong, she added, warning that a weakened Trump might seek to reassert himself through military adventurism.
Despite the ferocity of her critique, Greene ended by saying she will continue to pray for Trumps spiritual transformation and for the countrys future. Because of this, I will continue to pray for President Trump to humble himself in the eyes of the Lord and turn to God with sincere faith and repentance for his sins in order to be the president and leader that America needs, she wrote.
For conservatives who still believe in limited government, non-intervention abroad, and a politics grounded in faith rather than personality cults, the clash lays bare a deeper struggle over what America First truly means. Whether Trump can retain his hold on the movement he helped ignite, or whether figures like Carlson, Greene and Massie can successfully claim the mantle by arguing he has strayed from his own promises, will shape not only the next Republican primary but the direction of the right for years to come.
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