JTA — Jewish figures on the far right are increasingly expressing concerns about President Donald Trump’s handling of a rift over antisemitism in the Republican party, after Tucker Carlson reportedly visited the White House for the third time in weeks on Monday.

Of late, Carlson has increasingly used his show to criticize Israel and lean into friendly interviews with conspiracy theorists and white nationalists, including Nick Fuentes. This week’s White House visit, reported by Punchbowl News, came days after Carlson’s combative interview with Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, which ignited antisemitism allegations and a diplomatic row with Arab leaders.

After the Huckabee interview, Carlson also appeared on Saudi state-owned TV, in an appearance where he called the Gaza war a “land grab” for Israel, and repeated his past claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “evil and destructive.” Carlson has ties with both Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where he has said he intends to buy property and has hosted high-profile events.

Laura Loomer, a far-right Jewish activist, has staked out a warpath against Carlson’s continued access to the Trump administration.

“It seems like a suicide mission for any Christian or Jew who doesn’t idolize Hitler to keep donating to the GOP,” Loomer posted on X late Monday. In a follow-up, she wrote, “It’s like I woke up one day and 90% of the people I’ve come to know on the right over the last 10 years have morphed into different people.”

Loomer’s explosion of anger and angst is significant because she has boasted of close ties to Trump and has appeared to hold some sway over White House hiring. In the past, when she has targeted administration staffers or potential hires, many have been spiked quickly. Now, as she raises alarms about Carlson and antisemitism on the right, the White House has remained silent.

“It’s shocking that I have to say this, but the GOP has a major identity crisis right now, the GOP has a growing Jew hate and foreign influence problem, and the party seems to be in a struggle session with Neo Nazis who they aren’t explicitly rejecting,” Loomer posted on X. “My advice is for people to not donate at this time till we get clarity from the party on what the party’s position is on these issues.”

Other Jewish figures on the far right, including radio host Mark Levin and pro-Israel activist Sloan Rachmuth, sided with Loomer against Carlson.

“He should be condemned by the White House, not invited to it,” Levin posted on X.

Carlson’s reported White House visit was one of several he has made recently. Seen as a bellwether of conservative influence with close ties to US Vice President JD Vance, Carlson’s broadsides against Israel and increasing embrace of antisemitic talking points have paralleled a similar rise in such sentiments among younger GOP voters, and caused serious concern among many Jewish conservatives.

Huckabee himself has publicly urged the Trump administration to cut ties with his former Fox News colleague.

“I hope they quit letting him into the White House because, quite frankly, this is a person who is doing serious, significant damage to President Trump and to the administration,” the ambassador told the Christian Broadcasting Network, hours before Carlson was spotted at the White House.

At least one other Trump appointee has also spoken out to defend Huckabee and condemn Carlson.

“Am I the ONLY member of the Trump’s [sic] Administration defending AND supporting Ambassador Huckabee?” Leo Terrell, chair of the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force, posted on X Monday.

Following the Huckabee interview, the influential Israeli-American conservative activist Yoram Hazony said Carlson’s earlier visits to the White House had come at the invitation of Trump.

Hazony, whom Carlson mentioned in the video of his Huckabee interview, said Carlson had asked him for help mending fences, but that he had come away unconvinced that Carlson wanted to make any changes.

“I explained to him that I can’t do much to help him, because just about every Jew I know believes he’s been waging a savage campaign against Jews, Judaism, and Israel for the past 18 months — and that most think his aim is to drive Jews and Zionist Christians out of the Trump coalition and out of the Republican party,” Hazony wrote on X.

Carlson requested Hazony set up a meeting with Netanyahu, Hazony claimed; he declined to do so. While at first Hazony said he was open to conversing with Carlson in the name of “building coalitions,” he has changed his mind.

“In Tucker’s case, the private person turns out to be exactly who we’ve been seeing in public,” he wrote. “Whatever his motives for turning his podcast into what seems to be a circus of anti-Jewish messaging, right now that project is clearly more important to him than helping the administration keep its coalition together so it can govern effectively and win elections in 2026 and 2028.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, condemned Carlson and praised Huckabee on Monday. The ADL has long criticized Carlson, dating back to his time as a Fox News host.

“Tucker Carlson has a long history of peddling antisemitic conspiracy theories and lies about Jews and the Jewish state,” Greenblatt wrote on X. “His recent interviews continue to amplify hate and launder falsehoods. None of this is new. It’s just pathetic. I appreciate Ambassador @GovMikeHuckabee’s effort to engage in good faith and set the record straight. Unfortunately, I’m not surprised at the outcome.”

Some non-Jewish GOP lawmakers have started to join their Jewish allies on the right in condemning Carlson, or antisemitism, more forcefully.

“I used to respect Tucker Carlson but after watching his interview of @GovMikeHuckabee I am appalled,” Representative Marlin Stutzman of Indiana wrote on X. “Tucker gave ample platform and time to Nick Fuentes to share his anti-Semitic vitriol, but constantly interrupted, was impatient, disingenuous, argumentative and disrespectful to Huckabee.”

Stutzman added, “Carlson suggesting all ‘Jews’ do a DNA test in order to live in Israel is repulsive and smacks of ignorance regarding the oldest faith practice in the world combined with the worst kind of exclusionary prejudice and elitism.”

In a slightly more coded message, Alabama Sen. Katie Britt posted on X Monday, “We must continue to call out and condemn antisemitism at every turn. Proud to stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters at home and abroad.” Britt did not mention Carlson or Huckabee by name.

By contrast, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, an established foe of Carlson’s who was also on the receiving end of a tough interview on his podcast over Israel, has shared several pro-Huckabee and anti-Carlson social media posts following the interview.

The Trump administration has not commented publicly on the interview or the backlash to it. Trump staffers have reportedly been working behind the scenes to assure Arab leaders that Huckabee’s comments during the interview, in which he suggested Israel has a biblically based right to much of the Middle East, do not represent official administration policy.

The drama has raised a range of issues beyond the antisemitism rift, including the fact that Carlson’s son Buckley works for Vance and about Carlson’s relationships with Saudi Arabia and Russia, both of which are promoting interviews on state media regarding Carlson’s criticism of the Trump administration.

Carlson is keeping up his streak elevating fringe GOP figures amid the controversy, posting a new interview Monday with outsider Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn.

“We have a Christian form of government, but we have elected people that are not following that custom and religion in Christianity,” Lahn told Carlson in the interview. “And so you’re going to have a constitutional crisis. You’re going to have fraud all over the place.”

For Loomer, the moment is existential for right wing-Jews.

“The GOP has made it very clear over the last few years that Jewish voters on the right are not welcome, we are not appreciated, and we will not be given basic respect,” she wrote on X.

“There’s some elected officials in the GOP who would be ok with seeing Jews mass murdered,” Loomer continued, without naming names. “As a lifelong Republican, this is very alarming to me.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

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