Trump clings to friendly Fox News as Tucker Carlson and the podcast ‘manosphere' sour on his Iran saber rattling
Donald Trump leaned on new media and the conservative-ish podcasting sphere during his 2024 run for the presidency, to great success.
This week he may finally leave it behind.
As the president continues to flirt openly with the prospect of directly involving the U.S. in war with Iran, an ideological and largely generational divide is emerging within his voting coalition.
With traditional conservatives and full-throated supporters of the Israeli government on one side of the gap, many of Trump's other allies — especially younger ones — are siding with the likes of Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and others publicly pushing the president to back down from his saber-rattling.
Though Trump has yet to issue the final order, his statements over the past week make it clear which way the president is leaning. On Monday, the president took a telling swipe at Carlson.
'I don't know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen,' said the president.
Carlson is no mere Twitter troll. The right-wing podcaster maintains a massive audience on the social media platform where he now hosts his show directly, attracting millions of viewers per episode. But as Carlson and other podcasters increasingly warn that Trump is endangering his own agenda by plotting war, the president seems to be returning to the comparatively friendlier bubble of cable news, especially Fox, to soothe his feelings.
The right-leaning network quickly transformed into a cheer squad crowing for war this week, with commentators like Mark Levin, Clay Travis and Kayleigh McEnany all beating the drum in favor of U.S. involvement in Israel's war. Greg Gutfeld, on Monday, battled against the label of 'neoconservative' now being applied to the president by despondent anti-interventionists.
'I think to say he's a 'neocon' is unfair. He wouldn't do this unless he thought it had to be done,' Gutfeld claimed on The Five. 'You kind of have to give him the benefit of the doubt.'
Though much of Fox is likely to swing towards whatever decision Trump ends up making, Levin in particular has been vitriolic in his calls for U.S. strikes on Iran and has warred with Carlson on Twitter.
Carlson, meanwhile, proved the power of his own brand on Tuesday when he released an excerpt of an interview with Sen. Ted Cruz, one of the loudest congressional voices in the pro-war camp. With rapid-fire questions about Iran's population and ethnic makeup, Carlson made the Foreign Relations committee member look uninformed as the host laughed in the senator's face.
Commenters said that Carlson 'humiliated' the senator, who spent much of Wednesday afternoon tweeting angrily about the interview.
Though Trump denied as much to reporters Wednesday, there are clear signs of cracks in his base and greater indications that the larger 'manosphere' podcasting community is skeptical of foreign military involvement. In one eyebrow-raising tweet Joe Rogan, who has yet to address the topic on his show, shared a song called 'F*ck a war' Monday evening.
Theo Von is another podcaster whose interview with Trump in August of 2024 caused its own considerable amount of hand-wringing on the Harris campaign and broader left. Von regularly takes a skeptical tone towards the political influence of Israel's government in the U.S. and the brutality of its assault on Gaza on his show, including during an interview with Vice President J.D. Vance this month.
This week, he was part of the chorus of online content creators calling out war with Iran who normally make up a significant segment of the Trump-friendly media sphere.
'I don't trust the Israeli leader [Benjamin Netanyahu] at all. I don't believe anything that guy says,' said a tense-sounding Von. 'I don't think that our soldiers should have to go and defend stuff that they start.'
Congressional Republicans are not rallying (yet) behind a measure introduced by Thomas Massie and several Democrats this week aimed at restricting the president's ability to unilaterally declare war with Iran. But even on the Hill, where many fear a soured relationship with MAGA's overlord, Republicans continue to come out against their party's neoconservatives.
'I call them war pimps,' Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett told CNN on Wednesday. 'You know, Lindsey Graham's a friend of mine. Ted Cruz is a friend of mine. I just— look, I got a daughter who just turned 18 last week, on the same day as the president did and the United States Army. I don't want to see her go to war.'
The skeptics of military intervention on the right know that they are playing a dangerous game. Insulting the president or otherwise angering him could provoke a major and unwanted response, while pushing Trump to one side. At the same time, many are clear that they believe war poses a near-certain risk of throwing the president's agenda — explicitly including his mass deportation strategy — down the drain.
Democrats are largely aligned on the issue, even if leadership has once again stayed largely silent on both the Massie resolution and the prospect of assisting Israel with strikes on Iran. John Fetterman found himself once again on an island and explaining himself to critics after telling an interviewer that the president and Israel should finally 'destroy the Iranians'.
If Trump does decide to take that path and commit to military involvement, the worried predictions of his 'America First' allies on the far right could very well end up coming true. And the president could spend his final presidential term falling back into the warm, convenient embrace of the same Republicans he ridiculed in 2016, now standing beside him as his last remaining defenders.
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E&E News
11 minutes ago
- E&E News
Did Trump's assault on regs just knock out CCS?
The Trump administration is telling the world that carbon capture and storage at power plants is not ready for prime time, delivering a major setback to a technology that's struggling to find a foothold. EPA proposed a repeal last week of the Biden administration's climate rule on electricity producers, which called CCS the 'best system of emission reduction' for long-running coal plants and new gas turbines. In a new proposed rule, EPA said capturing 90 percent of carbon emissions at power plants hasn't been 'adequately demonstrated and its costs are not reasonable.' It's 'extremely unlikely that the infrastructure necessary for CCS can be deployed' by a 2032 compliance date set under the Biden rule, EPA said. Advertisement The Trump administration's proposed rollback — which EPA touted in a news release Friday with more than 50 supportive quotes from lawmakers and trade groups — comes amid scant deployment to date of carbon capture projects on U.S. power generation. Fewer projects in the electricity sector could impede broader CCS efforts nationwide, whether they involve storing carbon dioxide underground or using it to pump out more oil and gas. 'Power plants are large emitters, and sequestering CO2 from these facilities would have required significant investment in transport and storage infrastructure, most likely in the form of [carbon capture] hubs or clusters,' Brenna Casey, an associate at BloombergNEF, said in a recent note to clients. 'Other industrial emitters, like cement plants and petrochemicals producers, could have piggybacked on the infrastructure built to serve these power plants.' In a report last fall, the Global CCS Institute — a think tank that supports the industry — said 19 commercial-scale CCS facilities were operational in the United States. Only one, the Petra Nova facility in Texas, is on power generation, the assessment showed. Analysts offered mixed views on how much of a setback the proposed repeal of the Biden rule could deliver to power sector CCS — with some saying it could push plant operators to rethink investing in the technology or hold off on plans, while others said they didn't expect the Biden rule to speed up CCS deployment on fossil power plants. Under the Biden rule, new combined-cycle natural gas plants that run more than 40 percent of the time would also have needed to curb their emissions by 90 percent by 2032. EPA's repeal 'could be a large blow' to the U.S. CCS sector, Brendan Cooke, vice president for new energies at research firm Rystad Energy, said in a statement. 'A little over half of the announced capture capacity for the power sector is for plants that would be regulated under the rules put in place last year' by former President Joe Biden's EPA, Cooke said. 'For these plants, the absence of regulation, plus challenging economics, may be enough for operators to reconsider investments.' Others, however, see a more muted effect from retracting the Biden rule, in part because of the current interest in developing natural-gas-fueled power plants known as peakers that typically only run during periods of high demand. 'Our original view was that the EPA regulations would not accelerate CCS deployment on power plants as we expect the majority of future gas plants to be peakers and expected the rule to cause coal retirements to accelerate rather than install CCS,' said Jeffery Jen, a senior analyst with Enverus Intelligence Research, in an email. 'Based off this, the repealing of the regulation should not materially impact CCS deployment on power.' The 'most prominent business case' for CCS deployment on power plants is helping to give data centers 'clean' and 'dispatchable' baseload power, according to Jen. In an analysis last June, the Rhodium Group research firm came to a similar conclusion, finding that fossil generation 'with carbon capture generally plays a small role on the grid in 2035.' While there's been 'limited' announcements of CCS for new gas-fired power generation so far, 'the impact to potential growth in this area would be the most significant as all new baseload gas generation would have been mandated to install CCS,' said Cooke at Rystad. 'Without regulation we should not expect near term growth in this area.' While the federal 45Q tax credit — the main incentive for CCS projects in the United States — has stayed relatively unharmed thus far in Congress' reconciliation package, high costs and difficulty building new pipelines to carry captured CO2 are also headwinds that have blunted deployment. The U.S. power sector is responsible for nearly a quarter of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions — behind only the transportation sector. Last week, the Carbon Capture Coalition, a group that works to build federal policy support for carbon management projects, highlighted announced CCS plans in the U.S. power sector. 'Regardless of the administration's decision on how or if to regulate CO2 emissions from the power sector, carbon capture and storage technologies are here to stay,' said Jessie Stolark, the coalition's executive director, in a statement. Still, Stanford University professor Rob Jackson said companies won't pay for CCS when they can pollute for free. Jackson is a senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment, as well as its Precourt Institute for Energy. Last week, Alex Bond, executive director of legal and clean energy policy at the Edison Electric Institute, said the group supports CCS technology but 'appreciates EPA's acknowledgment that carbon capture and storage technologies are not yet viable for widespread deployment.' 'Electric companies need standards for natural gas facilities that are attainable to plan and permit new facilities, along with flexible regulatory approaches that help maintain dispatchable generation,' Bond said in a statement. In a statement Monday, an unnamed EPA spokesperson said the agency's regulatory agenda under Biden 'was to kill off the coal, oil and gas sectors with costly regulations and mandates.' The U.S. hit record oil and gas production levels during the Biden administration, however. DOE didn't provide comments to POLITICO's E&E News on the outlook for the CCS industry. The Global CCS Institute, however, said some customers will continue to look for low-carbon power, regardless of EPA's position, and will be interested in natural gas plants with CCS. 'Some states may also continue to promote policies that require or incentivize CCS, and the administration is prioritizing Class VI primacy, which will help states move forward where CCS is a priority,' the institute said in a statement. 'Strong market signal' On Earth Day this year, the White House used the term 'cutting-edge' to describe CCS. The emissions-trapping technology was on a list of sectors — including nuclear and geothermal energy — that the Trump administration said it supports in pursuit of greater energy production and 'environmental innovation.' The inclusion of CCS didn't go unnoticed among industry members or its proponents, including the developer of a major carbon dioxide pipeline project in the Midwest. Since that April proclamation, however, the administration's mashup of policies around carbon capture has elicited both praise and disappointment. One development cheered by CCS supporters has been EPA's push to grant top oversight of wells used for geologic storage of carbon dioxide to state agencies. This year, EPA has bestowed that authority to West Virginia and proposed doing the same for Arizona and Texas, clearing the path for those states to issue permits for CO2 storage wells instead of the federal government. The Department of Energy, meanwhile, has announced its intention to remove carbon management from its Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management; proposed cutting the office's budget by about $270 million; and said its work would include 'promoting carbon capture, transport and storage with a focus on enhanced oil and gas recovery,' where CO2 is used to produce more oil. In May, DOE terminated nearly $3.7 billion in awards — including several on carbon capture projects. Carbon management backers called the cancellations a 'major step backward' for national deployment. Then came EPA's proposed rule last week, which said greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fuel-fired power plants don't contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution. Although it's 'disappointing to see the [Trump] administration send mixed signals on its support for carbon management, the industry has proven that it's still 'all in', including through an unprecedented number of announced projects and pending Class VI wells,' said Stolark at the Carbon Capture Coalition in an email Friday. There's a 'strong market signal' for CCS deployment through the 45Q credit, as well as bipartisan support from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Stolark also said. Peter Findlay, director of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) economics at research firm Wood Mackenzie, said the Trump administration's exact strategy on carbon capture isn't crystal clear. But he said it's one of three decarbonization target areas the administration backs, along with nuclear and geothermal. As far as CCS can help to foster energy independence, the Trump administration 'sees it as favorable, but not invest vast sums in the technology development,' Findlay said. While the United States remains a leader in operational CCS projects globally, Findlay said the potential is there for China to move past the U.S. if there's not sufficient federal support for early stage technologies. The Trump administration hasn't prioritized carbon capture in terms of its budget, said Ryan Fitzpatrick, senior director of domestic policy for the climate and energy program at Third Way, a national think tank and advocacy organization. 'I think a lot of the support that it's had and the protection that it's had in things like the reconciliation bill has come from Congress,' Fitzpatrick said. 'But I do think the administration is missing the bigger picture here, that whether it's the U.S. or other countries, CCS is going to be deployed and equipment is going to be purchased, technology is going to be licensed. 'There is money to be made, and the U.S. is currently well situated to compete for that, but that's not guaranteed,' he added. 'We have to have public support for this as well.' This week, the Senate Finance Committee's portion of the Republican reconciliation bill included some changes to the 45Q credit, including increasing the credit value for CO2 used in products or enhanced oil recovery. Promoting CCS tied to enhanced oil recovery fits into President Donald Trump's focus on expanding oil production, Fitzpatrick said. Still, he said, if CO2 storage via enhanced oil recovery is how Trump can support carbon capture, that's not the worst thing, as that will still prove beneficial for the sector overall. Project ups and downs Despite the fanfare, the only operational CCS facility at a U.S. power plant has less than six years combined under its belt. The Petra Nova project, which captures CO2 from a coal-fired unit at a power plant southwest of Houston, started operating around the beginning of 2017. While DOE put out a happy third birthday to the facility in January 2020, the CCS facility would soon shut down. Beginning that May, Petra Nova took a hiatus of more than three years after low oil prices, induced by the Covid-19 pandemic, hurt the project's economics. The Petra Nova facility, which has cumulatively captured 5 million metric tons of CO2 since it started up, is owned by ENEOS Xplora, formerly JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration. Meanwhile, at least one CCS project in the power sector is no longer moving ahead. Project Diamond Vault — a CCS retrofit of a Louisiana plant mainly fueled by petroleum coke announced in 2022 — is no more. 'In 2022, Cleco Power announced it would be initiating a two-year study to explore retrofitting the company's existing Madison 3 plant to reduce carbon emissions' through CCS, the power company said in a statement this week. In 2024, Cleco Power 'discontinued the study because it was found that the project wasn't economic and in the best interest of our customers.' But other projects are still working to join Petra Nova's ranks. Those include a CCS project at a California Resources (CRC) gas plant in California's Kern County, which announced plans to start construction in the second quarter of this year and begin CO2 injection before the end of 2025. The project was hit with a lawsuit in November over allegations that Kern County officials didn't properly weigh its environmental risks. On Monday, CRC spokesperson Richard Venn said construction of the CCS project is expected to begin in the next several weeks and will last roughly six months. That work includes well drilling, grading, trenching, foundations and installation of CO2 capture equipment, he said. 'CRC remains focused on advancing CCS as a critical tool for reducing emissions in California and supporting the state's ambitious climate goals,' Venn said in an email. Other proposals to tack on CCS technology are further out on the horizon. Developers of Project Tundra, which would add carbon capture to the coal-fired Milton R. Young Station in North Dakota, have declined to say when they could reach a final investment decision on the project. They failed to reach that milestone in 2024 and the project lost energy company TC Energy as one of its developers last year. 'We remain focused on Project Tundra and look forward to a final investment decision when the necessary conditions align, ensuring that the project fits our long-term goals,' said Ben Fladhammer, a spokesperson for Minnkota Power Cooperative, which operates the Young plant and is a developer of Project Tundra. Fladhammer said the estimated cost of Project Tundra is now $2 billion, up from an earlier estimate of $1.4 billion. Minnkota had opposed the power plant rule finalized by EPA last year. Fladhammer criticized the Biden rule as 'unworkable,' pointing to 'aggressive timelines and requirements' that would 'push dependable power plants toward retirement at a time when electricity demand is rising and the grid is already under strain.' 'Project Tundra was initiated well before the current power plant regulations were finalized,' Fladhammer said, adding that the project 'remains an option under active evaluation as we assess technologies that can support reliable, lower-carbon energy production.' Meanwhile, a natural gas power plant in West Virginia with CCS — the CPV Shay Energy Center — 'remains in active development,' said Matthew Litchfield, vice president of external and regulatory affairs at Competitive Power Ventures, in a statement Friday. Announced in 2022 shortly after Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the plant would have a capacity of about 2,000 megawatts. It's in the process of working through the interconnection process with regional grid operator PJM Interconnection, according to Litchfield. Construction on the plant is slated to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026. 'We look forward to continuing to advance the project and help the region address the critical need for more large dispatchable power projects like CPV Shay,' he said. Meanwhile, utility Duke Energy is working on a front-end engineering and design study for a CCS project at the Edwardsport coal-to-gas plant in Indiana, and that's expected to wrap in the third quarter of 2026. Duke welcomed EPA's announcement last week. 'Last year's power plant rule unnecessarily puts pressure on customer affordability and grid reliability with little to no environmental benefits,' Duke spokesperson Angeline Protogere said in an email Friday. 'We appreciate EPA's ongoing efforts to address these concerns.' Separately, Entergy said an engineering study for a potential CCS project at the Lake Charles Power Station in Louisiana is still ongoing and is expected to be completed this summer. 'While we are currently reviewing EPA's proposal for fossil fuel-powered generating plants, Entergy has long supported the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and we remain committed to transitioning to modern low- and zero carbon-emitting generating resources,' said Neal Kirby, an Entergy spokesperson, in a statement about EPA's proposed repeal. In Florida, Tampa Electric spokesperson Cherie Jacobs said the utility currently has 'no plans to move forward with CCS,' but is planning to drill two test wells near the Polk Power Station in central Florida to better understand the area's geology. Tampa Electric could decide to pursue CCS in the future 'if it's in the best interest of our customers,' Jacobs said. This story also appears in Climatewire. Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the timing of Project Tundra's cost increase.
Yahoo
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Govts scramble to evacuate citizens from Israel, Iran
Governments around the world are attempting to evacuate thousands of their nationals caught up in the rapidly spiralling Israel-Iran conflict, organising buses and planes and in some cases assisting people crossing borders on foot. Foreigners have rushed to leave both countries after Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign last Friday targeting Iran's nuclear and military facilities, sparking retaliation from Tehran. But with Israel's air space closed and the two countries exchanging heavy missile fire, many people are being evacuated from third countries. - Europe - European countries have already repatriated hundreds of their citizens from Israel. The Czech Republic and Slovakia said Tuesday they had taken 181 people home on government planes. "It was not possible to send the army plane straight to Israel," the Czech defence ministry said in a statement, citing the air space closure. "The evacuees were taken to an airport in a neighbouring country by buses. They crossed the border on foot." The German government said flights were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday via Jordan, while Poland said the first of its citizens were due to arrive back on Wednesday. Greece said it had repatriated 105 of its citizens plus a number of foreign nationals via Egypt, while a private plane with 148 people landed in the Bulgarian capital Sophia on Tuesday. - United States - The US ambassador to Israel on Wednesday announced plans for evacuating Americans by air and sea. The embassy is "working on evacuation flights & cruise ship departures" for "American citizens wanting to leave Israel," Ambassador Mike Huckabee posted on social media. - Australia - Australia has started evacuating around 1,500 citizens from Iran and more than 1,200 from Israel -- but missile barrages have made it too risky for civilian aircraft to land in either country, its foreign minister said. "There's no capacity for people to get civilian aircraft in, it is too risky, and the airspace is closed," Foreign Minister Penny Wong told national broadcaster ABC. "We have taken the opportunity to get a small group of Australians out of Israel through a land border crossing. "We are seeking to try and do more of that over the next 24 hours." - Pakistan - Pakistan has shut its border crossings with neighbouring Iran, except to Pakistanis wanting to return home. Around 1,000 Pakistanis have fled so far, including at least 200 students. The foreign ministry said the families of diplomats and some non-essential staff from Iran had been evacuated. - India - Around 110 students who fled Iran over the land border with Armenia have landed in New Delhi, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday. There are around 10,000 Indian citizens in Iran. In Israel there are around 30,000 Indians, according to the country's embassy in New Delhi. - New Zealand - New Zealand closed its embassy in Iran, evacuating two staff members and their family to Azerbaijan by land. "If and when opportunities arise to assist the departure of other New Zealanders in Iran and Israel, we will pursue them with urgency," Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement Thursday. - Japan - Japan has ordered military planes to be on standby for around 1,000 Japanese nationals believed to live in Israel, and around 280 in Iran, according to government ministers. The Japanese embassies in Iran and Israel are preparing to use buses to evacuate citizens to neighbouring countries, a government spokesman said, as the war entered its seventh day. - Indonesia - Indonesia is preparing to evacuate around 380 of its citizens currently in Iran by land, Jakarta's foreign minister said Thursday. "Flights are no longer possible, so the only way is land route. It will start tonight," Foreign Minister Sugiono, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said in a video. - Philippines - The Philippines is preparing to repatriate 28 Israel-based Filipino workers out of 178 who asked for help, the Department of Migrant Workers secretary Hans Cacdac said Thursday. At least 21 Philippine government officials have also crossed into Jordan by land from Israel since the conflict began, the foreign ministry said. bur-ecl-jfx/dhw
Yahoo
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Bike tour to border ordeal: Minnesota man flees Iran as tensions rise
The Brief A Minnesota man biking across Europe and Asia barely gets out of Iran. He details he was in a sketchy room during an exit interview with Iranian officials where he felt there was a 50% chance of never walking out. He had to leave Tehran and head to Azerbaijan. MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A Minnesota man barely gets out of Iran, as he puts it, he had a 50% chance of never walking out. This is stemming from the Israel-Iran conflict. His tour guide even said he could no longer protect him. What we know Ian Andersen started biking across Europe and Asia in February. He got to Iran on June 2, but his journey took a dangerous turn when Israel launched its airstrikes on Iran. "We're not going to Tehran after all. The situation is too dangerous," said Andersen in an Instagram video. That's the moment Andersen realized he had to change his biking plans from Tehran and head to Azerbaijan. "There's likely police blockages into the city and out of the city. I would truly be arrested," said Anderson. He posted the video on social media from a Saturday vlog, and it has been viewed more than a million times. What they're saying FOX 9 spoke to Andersen Wednesday after he was safe and sound. In his words, things got dicey when he had to do exit interviews. The first interview went fine. But then the second one. "They hold me into like a, like an army barracks with a couple of Europeans, Portuguese nationals," said Andersen. Andersen couldn't document that part of his travels, but he describes his feeling when he was in that room being interviewed. "This really sketchy room where, like, Okay, I've got like, a 50% chance of never walking out of here," said Anderson. Big picture view After this experience, Andersen expresses his empathy for everyone he met in Iran who are caught up in this conflict. "It makes, really, makes me think about all the people that can't leave, though it's like, I'm lucky to be here, out of here. But yeah, normal, everyday Iranians and Israelis who don't have the same good fortune, just stuck in the in the fallout of this, this whole thing," said Anderson. What's next: Andersen already biked from Alaska to Argentina nine years ago. His final destination is Japan, and he hopes to get there by Christmas.
