Tucker Carlson grilled Sen. Ted Cruz in an explosive on-screen confrontation that exposes the massive fault line ripping through MAGAworld.
In a preview of Wednesday’s Tucker Carlson Show, the pair engaged in a heated argument over U.S. involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict and started shouting over each other.
Carlson asked Cruz, “How many people live in Iran by the way?” Cruz responded, “I don’t know the population.”
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“You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?” Carlson asked.
Cruz shot back, “How many people live in Iran?”
“Ninety-two million,” Carlson immediately retorted. “OK,” Cruz said.
“How could you not know that?” Carlson asked, with an air of victory in his voice.
“I don’t sit around memorizing population tables,” came Cruz’s excuse.
Carlson said, “Well, it’s kinda relevant because you’re calling for the overthrow of the government.”
The CIA World Factbook states that, by a 2024 estimate, the population of Iran is almost 88.4 million. The World Health Organization uses a 2023 estimate, putting the figure closer to 90.6 million people.
Worldometer, a mysterious U.S.-based data website that shares live stats, puts the population closest to Carlson’s figure, at around 92.4 million.
The two men then argued about the “ethnic mix” of Iran, which led to Cruz shouting, “I am not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran!”
Carlson retorted, “No, you’re a senator who is calling to overthrow the country, and you don’t know anything about the country!”
Carlson released a second tease from the interview hours later in which the pair argued over the prospect of spying on close allies of the U.S.
“I assume all our allies spy on us,” Cruz said.
Carlson pressed the Texas senator, asking, “Is it in America’s interest for Israel to spy on us, including on the president?”
Cruz replied that it “is in America’s interest to be closely allied with Israel because we get huge benefits from it,” as Carlson cut him off.
Cruz clapped back at the reaction to Carlson’s video on Tuesday, criticizing Carlson for choosing to post a “gotcha” moment as a preview online.
“He released a snippet playing a ‘gotcha’ on the population of Iran,” Cruz wrote. “I declined to play that silly game.”
In a later post, the Texas senator claimed, “I call him out,” and urged followers to watch the full interview once released.
Cruz and Carlson are not the only conservative figures fighting each other over Trump’s approach to Iran, in what is being seen as a MAGA civil war.
Trump fans have publicly split over the president involving himself in the Israel-Iran conflict. Podcaster Laura Loomer and Fox News host Mark Levin support Trump demanding Iran’s “immediate surrender.”
Other Trump acolytes including Charlie Kirk are recalling Trump’s anti-war campaign promise.
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has used his War Room podcast to demand an end to American involvement in the conflict.
Bannon has also turned on Fox News for not fully supporting the president, claiming it is not “pure MAGA.”
Bannon said that because the network previously supported potential replacements for Trump including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, “I don’t think anybody at Fox can possibly be true MAGA and hardcore MAGA.”
