The uproar over Tucker Carlson's interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes has sparked another round of talk about the MAGA civil war.
Full disclosure: I previously worked for Carlson at the Daily Caller, so I've had a front-row seat to this ongoing battle for a long time.
In case you missed the latest: Carlson invited Fuentes to his podcast. What followed was not so much an interview as a warm bubble bath of mutual validation: the kind of “conversation” that helps whitewash extremist ideas.
Enter Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, once the intellectual vanguard of conservatism and now something closer to an emotional support group for people who think President Reagan was too soft. In response to rumors that Heritage might distance itself from Carlson, Roberts was quick to release a video to reassure the faithful: Heritage will have no enemies on its right.
Roberts disagreed with Fuentes (good for him) but He insisted that Heritage did not become the leading conservative think tank in “cancel our own people or police the consciences of Christians.” He also called out Carlson's critics “poisonous coalition” that “serve someone else’s agenda,” which echoes one of the oldest anti-Semitic tropes in the book.
And then something surprising happened: People inside Heritage actually pushed back (a brave move, given Heritage's Orwellian orientation).one voice policy). Some even resigned.
Broader right-wing commentators also weighed in. Ben Shapiro called Carlson a “intellectual coward.” Ted Cruz made some noise. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board He snorted. And radio host Mark Levin criticized Fuentes and Carlson during a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition. For a brief moment, it seemed like accountability was actually a trend.
But… why this moment? Why now?
Note: Then-former President Trump dined with Fuentes in 2022 and wrongly claimed that immigrants were eating pets in 2024. As president, he told the Proud Boys that “stand back and wait” in 2020. And, of course, he launched his political career by questioning President Obama's birth certificate. I could go on.
Despite all this, Trump's grip on the conservative movement only grew firmer.
Meanwhile, right-wing anti-Semitism has metastasized under Trump, despite his support for Israel.
Charlottesville, anyone?
The “alt-right” has shed its “alt-right.” Now they are “fine.”
This is especially observable when it comes to young conservatives who came of age during the Trump era. Indeed, A Heritage staff member told the New York Post that “A growing number” of Heritage interns “really agree” with Fuentes.
And here's the irony: the same conservative media figures now sounding the alarm helped build the machine.
Take Levin as an example. Fuentes recently admitted that he was Levin's radio show that first radicalized him. “He planted the seed, at least,” Fuentes told Carlson.
Likewise, in addition to endorsing Trump in 2024, Shapiro made conspiracy theorist Candace Owens famous when his Daily Wire hired her to host a podcast on its platform. after she became friends with Kanye West and after She suggested that the only problem with Adolf Hitler was that “He had dreams outside of Germany..”
So if these more conventional Trumpers are horrified now, it's probably because they helped create monsters, and those monsters are now coming to devour their creators, as monsters always do.
Rest assured, however, this rot is not limited to anti-Semitism alone. In recent months, MAGA figures like Vivek Ramaswamy, FBI Director Kash Patel, and even Vice President JD Vance (who is married to an Indian American woman) have been racist abuse targets online.
It is important to note that none of these people are considered “Never Trump” or Reagan conservatives. They are allies of Trump. The revolution devours itself. (First they came for the Never Trumpers…)
Once again, this is far from the first skirmish in the MAGA civil war. But all this infighting obscures the root cause of the problem: Trump. And yet, the Orange Emperor himself? Out of bounds.
The fever will not subside as long as Trump is still around, serving as a magnet for the worst people and cultivating the toxic ecosystem that made all this right-wing racism possible, if not inevitable.
So, of course, conservatives: condemn Carlson, denounce Fuentes, and scold Heritage for not policing the right and only bashing the left.
But as long as you look away from Trumpism, your righteous indignation is just theater: the political equivalent of aggressively mopping the floor while pipes continue to burst.
Matt K. Lewis is the author of “Filthy rich politicians” and “Too dumb to fail.”
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Ideas expressed in the piece.
The author details concerns about Tucker Carlson's podcast interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes as an example of how extremism is washed into mainstream conservatism, arguing that this represents a troubling normalization of radical ideology within the MAGA movement.[1]. According to the author, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts' response was inadequate because Roberts defended Carlson while using rhetoric that echoes anti-Semitic tropes by suggesting that critics are pursuing a hidden agenda, although the author notes that some Heritage staff courageously rejected this position.[1]. The author notes that prominent conservative figures including Ben Shapiro, Ted Cruz, Mark Levin, and the Wall Street Journal editorial board appropriately condemned both Carlson and Fuentes, demonstrating that significant responsibility briefly emerged.[1]. The author argues that these damning voices bear some responsibility for the extremist ecosystem they now criticize, noting that Mark Levin's radio show allegedly radicalized Fuentes himself and that figures like Shapiro previously amplified conspiracy theorist Candace Owens through their media platforms.[1]. Most significantly, the author argues that Trump himself represents the root cause of this problem, citing his 2022 dinner with Fuentes, his 2020 comments to the Proud Boys, and his role in major Birther conspiracy theories as evidence that he enables extremism.[1]. The author emphasizes that right-wing anti-Semitism has metastasized during Trump's political dominance, with the “alt-right” shedding its “alt” prefix and becoming normalized, particularly among young conservatives who came of age during the Trump era.[1]. The author concludes that Carlson and Fuentes' condemnation remains ineffective unless conservatives address Trump's enabling role in cultivating the toxic ecosystem that made this extremism possible.
Different points of view on the subject.
Conservative figures operating within the “America First” camp, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, argue that the debate over Israel policy represents legitimate political disagreement rather than anti-Semitism or extremism, and maintain that no other country's interests should supersede American interests.[1]. According to this view, questioning US funding to Israel reflects patriotic concern rather than intolerance, and Greene argues that her fellow Republicans mischaracterize political criticism as hate speech to silence dissenting voices.[1]. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon articulated this opposing view by criticizing Israel's territorial expansion and arguing that the United States was never committed to supporting such policies, positioning this as a matter of national interest rather than anti-Semitism.[1]. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts defended Carlson by emphasizing that conservatives should not “cancel our own people or police the consciences of Christians,” framing concerns about extremism as an attempt to purge dissenting voices from the movement rather than legitimate accountability.[1]. This opposing perspective sees the controversy as driven by what Roberts characterized as a “poisonous coalition” that attempts to enforce ideological conformity and silence alternative views on U.S. foreign policy, particularly with respect to Israel and America First priorities.[1].
