Latest news with #TuckerCarlson
Malay Mail
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Even MAGA's having doubts: How Israel is losing the American right — Che Ran
JULY 30 — For decades, Israel could rely on bipartisan, no-questions-asked support from Washington — especially from the Republican right. Evangelicals, conservative pundits, and red-state politicians rallied behind Tel Aviv with Bible verses in one hand and defence budgets in the other. But cracks are forming. Loud ones. And not just on the liberal side of the aisle. In what may be one of the more dramatic shifts in US foreign policy sentiment, parts of Donald Trump's MAGA base — the loudest flag-wavers for Israel since the Bush era — are starting to whisper, hesitate, even pull back. Take this in: in 2017, Democrats sympathised with Israel over the Palestinians by 13 points. By 2025? That number flipped—43 per cent now side with Palestinians. But here's the kicker: even Republicans are wobbling. Last year, 78 per cent of GOP voters said they stood firmly with Israel. This year? Just 64 per cent. Sympathy for Palestinians didn't rise. It's Israel's own standing that dropped. And the signs aren't just in polling data — they're in the people. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, not exactly a bastion of logic, recently proposed slashing half a billion US dollars from Israel's Iron Dome funding. Only six voted with her. But the shock wasn't in the failure — it was in the fact that the proposal even came from within Trump's camp. Tucker Carlson, once the high priest of Fox News nationalism, openly mocked pro-Israel hawks like Ted Cruz over Iran. He didn't just criticise policy — he questioned their knowledge, their motives, their blind allegiance. When even Tucker stops toeing the line, something's shifting. A supporter displays a bejeweled 'Make America Great Again' necklace at a campaign event by former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Macon, Georgia, on November 3, 2024. — AFP pic And then there's the bombshell that turned even the die-hard evangelicals uneasy: an Israeli strike on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza. Not the first attack on a church, but the one that finally rang alarm bells across conservative America. Even Mike Huckabee — Mr. 'Israel can do no wrong' — was forced to condemn it. All this, against the backdrop of the Epstein scandal clawing its way back into the headlines. Trump's close personal ties with the convicted sex trafficker are once again under scrutiny. And now, right-wing conspiracy circles are connecting Epstein's enablers to Israel's Mossad. Wild theories aside, the optics are ugly. And MAGA voters — already restless — are paying attention. It's leaking like a burst pipe under Jalan Sultan Ismail during rush hour — just spraying nonsense everywhere and no one knows who's in charge. A recent Pew survey shows 50 per cent of Republicans under 50 now view Israel negatively. That's not just a generational divide — it's a warning shot. Netanyahu's long game was simple: double down on the right, shrug off the left. But now the right's got questions. The money will keep flowing — donors like Miriam Adelson won't shut the tap off anytime soon — but votes are harder to buy. Sympathy even more so. Michael Knowles, a leading conservative voice, put it bluntly: 'You're losing me.' And that sums up the moment. Israel's global image, once bulletproof, is now slipping — on both sides of the American aisle. The Iron Dome may still function, but the narrative shield? Let's just say… it's got a few gaping holes. * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Tucker Carlson's boldest speech yet on Epstein: 'He worked on behalf of Mossad, no doubt…'
At the TPUSA event, Tucker Carlson made his most explosive claim yet, alleging that Jeffrey Epstein may have worked for Israeli intelligence. Carlson hinted there's even more damning evidence yet to come. Watch the full clip and reactions from the crowd as this shocking theory unfolds. Show more Show less
USA Today
a day ago
- Politics
- USA Today
AI can give us architecture even Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson will love
Artificial intelligence could be used as a tool to restore medieval European cathedrals while robotic arms could assist traditional Bhutanese craftsmen in carving intricate designs into wood. Political commentator Tucker Carlson isn't shy about expressing his opinions, whether the topic is building political coalitions or building buildings. He once bemoaned 'the oppression of post-modern architecture, which is designed to ... destroy your spirit.' Carlson considered Moscow an exception − prompting one commenter to retort that Moscow is filled with 'spirit-destroying architecture. … The vast majority of the city is Soviet-built grey cement rectangles as far as the eye can see.' Carlson and his political foes seem to find rare common ground in viewing modern architecture as soul-crushing. Data shows more traditional designs are widely preferred on a bipartisan basis. Recent polling by the National Civic Art Society found that 72% of Americans across political, racial, gender and class lines prefer traditional architecture for U.S. courthouses and federal office buildings. During his first administration, President Donald Trump even issued an executive order intended to "Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again." (It was later overturned.) Traditional architecture is really a broadly held preference. The aforementioned 2020 poll shows that support for traditional design crosses political lines, with large majorities of Democrats (70%), Republicans (73%) and independents (73%) all favoring it. Modern technology makes preservation work easier I count myself among those who favor traditional architecture. There's no shortage of fascinating contemporary work, from Zaha Hadid's bold experimentation to curiosities like Switzerland's recent 3D-printed tower. Yet for me, and for many others, the enduring beauty and detail of older architecture simply hold greater appeal. There's encouraging news for those of us who appreciate traditional architectural styles and rich ornamentation. There has arguably never been a better time to indulge personal aesthetic tastes. Whether your preference leans toward minimalism or ornate detail, brutalism or baroque grandeur, modern technology has dramatically reduced the cost and complexity of building, restoration and renovation. Artificial intelligence could be used as a tool to restore medieval European cathedrals while robotic arms could assist traditional Bhutanese craftsmen in carving intricate designs into wood. At no point in history has it been easier or more accessible to customize one's environment. Recently, a Danish man renovated his plain-looking home into a miniature medieval castle, complete with a functional drawbridge and a moat. However, this trend extends well beyond eccentric personal projects. Opinion: Nvidia CEO says Trump gives America an advantage on AI. Hear that, progressives? Architectural traditions are worth preserving Many large-scale structures also pay tribute to the past. A museum built in 1966 in California was designed in the style of an ancient Egyptian temple. Another Californian museum that opened in 1974 emulates a palatial ancient Roman villa. The Wat Rong Khun, a Buddhist temple built in 1997, features intricate carving in the style of classic Thai architecture. An enormous church in Belgrade, Serbia, displays stunning and meticulously crafted Byzantine details. Entire neighborhoods are embracing historic styles, too. Poundbury in the United Kingdom, a new take on traditional British architectural heritage championed by King Charles III, exemplifies this trend. The riverside town of Occoquan, Virginia, features a district filled with newly constructed homes in a charming Victorian style. The homes' paint colors were painstakingly sourced from historical period references. The result is indistinguishable (at least to my eyes) from a well-preserved genuine Victorian neighborhood. Not only can modern people recreate traditional aesthetics, humanity is getting better at preserving the authentic architecture that has managed to survive from past eras. The restoration of the medieval Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after it was partially destroyed in a fire in 2019 demonstrates how modern people can bring back ancient architectural majesty. When Notre Dame reopened in December 2024, the cathedral had the same ornate Gothic beauty as before, in addition to newly installed cutting-edge fire prevention systems. News reports noted in awe how 'concerns in the wake of the fire that the craftsmanship required to build the cathedral in the Middle Ages no longer existed in modern times' proved false. Opinion: As a Paris tour guide who ignored Notre Dame, I forgot ancient cities don't last forever Humanity has the means to revive the ornate aesthetics of the past, but of course some people prefer modern minimalism. Notre Dame now features a bronze altar in a style labeled 'noble simplicity,' in sharp contrast to the surrounding building with its Corinthian columns, stained glass windows, carved gargoyles, pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses. This juxtaposition is telling. Ultimately, whether traditional architecture moves you or modern aesthetics inspire you, you are living in a remarkable era, a true golden age of architecture where every style thrives. Chelsea Follett is the managing editor of and a policy analyst in the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.
Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Disgraced former US representative George Santos to begin serving his 7-year fraud sentence
Santos and his lawyers declined to comment to The Associated Press ahead of him reporting to prison. The federal Bureau of Prisons, meanwhile, said it doesn't discuss the status of inmates until they're officially in custody. As Friday approached, though, the loquacious former lawmaker, who turned 37 on Tuesday, wasn't shy about sharing his morbid fears about life behind bars. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'I'm not trying to be overdramatic here. I'm just being honest with you. I look at this as practically a death sentence,' Santos told Tucker Carlson during an interview. 'I'm not built for this.' Advertisement In a Thursday interview with Al Arabiya, a Saudi state-owned news organization, he said he'll serve his sentence in a minimum-security prison 'camp' that he described as a 'big upgrade' from the medium-security lockup he was initially assigned to. On X this week, Santos posted a video clip of Frank Sinatra's 'My Way.' 'And now, the end is near. And so I face the final curtain,' the singer aptly croons. Other posts took a darker tone. Advertisement 'I'm heading to prison, folks and I need you to hear this loud and clear: I'm not suicidal. I'm not depressed. I have no intentions of harming myself, and I will not willingly engage in any sexual activity while I'm in there,' he said on X. 'If anything comes out suggesting otherwise, consider it a lie … full stop.' In April, a federal judge declined to give Santos a lighter two-year sentence that he sought, saying she was unconvinced he was truly remorseful. In the weeks before his sentencing, Santos said he was 'profoundly sorry' for his crimes, but he also complained frequently that he was a victim of a political witch hunt and prosecutorial overreach. Santos was elected in 2022, flipping a wealthy district representing parts of Queens and Long Island for the GOP. But he served for less than a year and became just the sixth member of the House to be ousted by colleagues after it was revealed he had fabricated much of his life story. During his winning campaign, Santos painted himself as a successful business owner who worked at prestigious Wall Street firms when, in reality, he was struggling financially. He also falsely claimed to have been a volleyball star at a college he never attended and referred to himself as 'a proud American Jew' before insisting he meant that he was 'Jew-ish' because his Brazilian mother's family had a Jewish background. The cascade of lies eventually led to congressional and criminal inquiries into how Santos funded his campaign and, ultimately, his political downfall. Since his ouster from Congress, Santos has been making a living hosting a podcast called 'Pants on Fire with George Santos' and hawking personalized video messages on Cameo. Advertisement He has also been holding out hope that his unwavering support for President Donald Trump might help him win a last-minute reprieve, though the White House said this week that it 'will not comment on the existence or nonexistence' of any clemency request.
The Guardian
23-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Tucker Carlson channels Maga rage over Epstein files – and opens rift with Trump
As Donald Trump tries to contain an ugly rift with his own supporters about the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking scandal, influential media personalities in the Maga movement face a tricky dilemma. Should they close ranks with the US president – who has denounced demands for more information on Epstein as a 'waste [of] Time and Energy' about 'somebody that nobody cares about' – or pick at a political wound that the Trump administration desperately wants to scab over? While some conservative pundits, such as Steve Bannon and Ben Shapiro, seem to be trying to move on, Tucker Carlson has become a persistent gadfly of the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein controversy, among other points of contention. At a political conference in Florida earlier this month, Carlson devoted much of a 45-minute speech to criticizing the Trump administration and the conservative establishment from the right – for being too close to Israel; for the strike on Iran, which Carlson called a less deadly threat to Americans than the drug epidemic; and for failing to give the Maga movement satisfying answers to their questions about Epstein's influence and connections. Carlson's speech, at a Turning Point USA event in Tampa, did not criticize Trump directly. Carlson did not generally even mention him by name, except to note that in the last election he publicly supported Trump, whom he 'love[s] personally' and campaigned 'with and for the president'. But he compared the White House's dismissive attitude to the Epstein story to what he described as the sneering liberal establishment that Trump campaigned against. The left 'would dismiss [critics] out of hand – 'You are not worth listening to,' 'Be quiet,'' Carlson told a receptive audience of young rightwing activists. Now the Trump administration was doing the same, he argued. 'And I think that's really at the heart of why the Epstein thing is so distressing,' he said – 'the fact that the US government, the one that I voted for, refused to take my question seriously, and instead said: 'Case closed; shut up, conspiracy theorist,' was too much for me. And I don't think the rest of us should be satisfied with that.' Carlson returned to the Epstein controversy again on Friday. In a nearly three-hour interview with Darryl Cooper, a popular podcaster who has been criticized for making misleading historical claims, he and Cooper speculated about the sources of Epstein's wealth and power and suggested he might have been protected by powerful people. Many in Trump's political base believe that Epstein, who died of apparent suicide in 2019 after being charged with sexually trafficking minors, was killed so that he couldn't reveal a 'client list' implicating other powerful men. Trump has fanned the theory in the past by insinuating that the Clintons were linked to Epstein's death. The current furor began when the US Department of Justice and FBI seemed to say, earlier this month, that they consider the Epstein saga closed – enraging Maga fans and sparking an unusually strong challenge to Trump's control of the movement he founded. The controversy took another turn when, this Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump contributed a winking letter, including a doodle of a nude woman, to a Festschrift of sorts that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's girlfriend, compiled in 2003 for Epstein's 50th birthday. Trump denied the story and, on Friday, said that he was suing the Wall Street Journal's publisher for libel. In the short term, the Wall Street Journal development actually seems to have rebounded slightly to Trump's advantage: he has been able to frame the story, to conservatives, as evidence of a media smear campaign against him. Yet that may not be enough for Carlson. In a way, his ire over the handling of Epstein has opened the door to harsher critiques writ large. In his Turning Point speech, Carlson argued that the rightwing establishment was more invested in battles over cultural questions, such as the inclusion of transgender athletes in women's sports, than in the bread-and-butter material realities that concern average Americans. Disparaging the idea that GDP is a good indicator of a country's wellbeing, he said that visiting Tokyo was 'the single most radicalizing experience you'll ever have', because the city is 'so nice' even though Japan has a weaker economy, on paper, than the US does. Like Bannon and others in the populist wing of the Maga movement, Carlson has often been at odds with the traditional Republican coalition's lingering preference for free markets, free trade and hawkish foreign policies. His personal measure of national prosperity, he said, was if his adult children can afford to buy houses – with their incomes from full-time jobs, and without parental assistance. Yet even '35-year-olds with really good jobs can't afford a house unless they stretch and go deep into debt,' he said. 'And I just think that's a total disaster.' He argued that part of the reason that young Americans are attracted to socialism is because they no longer have any stake in the capitalist system. The difficulty of buying a house is also contributing to falling birth rates, he argued. Political observers have often speculated that Carlson might eventually run for president as a successor to Trump. Conservative analysts have said that he would have an extremely strong shot of securing the Republican nomination. Yet Carlson himself has not shown any strong indications that he wishes to do so, and has often described himself as lazy and as viscerally repulsed by the idea of holding office. 'I have zero ambition, not just politically but in life,' he told Semafor in 2022. 'My ambition is to write my script by 8pm – and I'm not just saying that, ask anyone who works with me or knows me … I don't want power, I've never wanted power. I'm annoyed by things and I want them to change. But I've never been motivated by a desire to control people.' This March, he said on a podcast that he viewed JD Vance as the best hope for post-Trump conservatism. The US vice-president, he said, was the 'only person in the entire Republican party, from my position, who's capable of carrying on the Trump legacy and expanding it, making it what it should fully be'.
