Tucker does Iran | Power Line

This past November, Erica Orden reported that “Iran ordered an operative to assassinate Trump before the election, federal prosecutors say.” Politico posted the criminal complaint online here. Unfortunately, the alleged would-be assassin is believed to be in Iran and remains at large.

The same criminal complaint also charges two other men — Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt — with a separate attempted murder-for-hire scheme targeting an American citizen of Iranian origin who has publicly opposed the Iranian government. When reports of Iran’s attempt to assassinate candidate Trump first surfaced in July, I took note of other such Iranian plots to kill Americans on American soil here.

Various Iranian plots were of course uncovered during the Obama administration. Take, for example, the planned assassination of the Saudi ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C. The case was charged in 2011. A Texas used car salesman with dual Iranian/American citizenship pleaded guilty the following year. For deep background on Iran’s operations in the United States, see this Jewish Review of Books review of Jay Solomon’s The Iran Wars.

Last week Tucker Carlson released an interview with the prime minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. He seems to think the prime minister is a friend of the United States and that he is offering us valuable advice that has caused him to be taken down by “American media.” If only.

There’s enormous pressure on the United States to participate in a brand new war against Iran. The government of Qatar thinks that’s unwise, so of course they’re being slandered relentlessly in American media. Qatar’s prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, explains.… pic.twitter.com/wwIffmhnVT

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 7, 2025

Tucker pretends not to have kept up with the news regarding Iranian operations in the United States. He puts the fact that Iran is a “sponsor of terror” in scare quotes. He assures us that Iran is not our problem. It is only the problem of, well, you know who. I believe he calls them “neocons.”

Tucker’s effusions are calculated in the manner to which we have become accustomed. In my opinion, they are idiotic, but Tucker is no idiot. In 2019 Michael Anton recognized Tucker as “the de facto leader of the conservative movement– assuming any such thing can still be said to exist.”

Well, that was 2019. As of 2025, Carlson is an influential member of the circle surrounding President Trump (and Anton is State Department director of policy planning). It is understandable that no one is inclined to say out loud what is going on here, though Adam Lehrer and Park MacDougald have overcome.

Fox News is wall to wall with dead-eyed politicians telling you that Iran is a dangerous “sponsor of terror.” Softening up the base for a war. But what exactly does that phrase mean, and how does it apply to the United States? Here’s one measure: over the past twenty years, how…

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 8, 2025