Staunch supporters of the Iran war are baselessly suggesting Tucker Carlson is working on behalf of the Iranian government.
Efforts to tie Carlson to the Iranian government picked up steam over the weekend after an anonymous X account claimed President Donald Trump used the podcaster’s Tehran connections to lure Iran’s leadership into a false sense of security in the lead-up to decapitating U.S. strikes. However, there’s zero evidence to suggest Carlson is working for Tehran.
It marks the latest attack against Carlson from the pro-Iran war right, which has sought to paint the former Fox News host as an antisemitic mouthpiece for foreign Islamist regimes and subversive element within the MAGA movement.
The Iran war began on Feb. 28 and quickly eliminated 48 senior Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Although the president has ordered strikes against critical targets throughout the country and repeatedly claimed “total victory,” Iran’s government stands. The regime has continued strikes against its regional neighbors and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, and the conflict itself has upended the global energy market.
Carlson has criticized the war as “disgusting and evil” since its start, arguing that the conflict will not benefit the United States and calling for its end. He also said on his show that the war started “because Israel wanted it to happen.”
Newsweek’s senior editor-at-large Josh Hammer and Article 3 Project senior counsel Will Chamberlain — both of whom have prominent followings on X — have peddled the theory.
Hammer did not reply to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Chamberlain did not provide evidence for the theory beyond Carlson’s own claims.
There are two main possibilities about what’s going on in the Tucker/CIA video, and they both involve 2028:
(1) Tucker really is stupid enough to communicate with the Iranians and to think he could still lobby Trump on Iran policy. In this scenario, Trump really did play 4-D…
— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) March 16, 2026
Monitored By The CIA
Seeds for the theory began taking root when Carlson said Saturday that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was monitoring his text messages, stating that he had been in contact with people in Iran in the days leading up to Operation Epic Fury. The former Fox News host added that some agency officials were angered by his views on Israel, claiming the CIA was preparing a criminal referral to the Department of Justice (DOJ) against him. Carlson said he would be charged with “acting as an agent of a foreign power.”
“There’s much less tolerance for any kind of dissent in the homeland,” Carlson said. “The irony, of course, is the United States fights wars on behalf of freedom, but there’s always less of it here in our country during war.”
Axios White House Correspondent Marc Caputo denied the claim on X that same day, writing that there is “no CIA investigation of Carlson.” Meanwhile, right-wing activist Laura Loomer claimed Saturday that she reported Carlson to both the DOJ and the FBI, alleging that he is an unregistered foreign agent.
Loomer, who has also voiced her support for the Iran war since its beginning, claimed that several congressmen “have made referrals” to the agencies regarding Carlson. “I hope he goes to jail,” she wrote on X.
The White House, the Department of Justice and the CIA did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
Hours after Carlson’s podcast went up, Chamberlain cited his claim to be monitored by the CIA in order to suggest Trump “may have used Tucker” to trick Iran’s leadership about a potential strike.
“If the CIA knew that he was talking to the Iranians,” he wrote, “then President Trump would have known that also, when he invited Tucker into the Oval a few days before the strike.”
If the CIA knew that he was talking to the Iranians, then President Trump would have known that also, when he invited Tucker into the Oval a few days before the strike.
Which means Trump may have used Tucker to deceive the Iranians about the likelihood of an impending attack https://t.co/TkbjY34js4
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) March 15, 2026
Chamberlain, an ardent supporter of the Trump administration’s war in Iran, justified the theory to the DCNF by pointing to Carlson’s own words.
“Tucker himself presented the evidence for that theory when he admitted he had been talking to Iranians in the run-up to the war, and then asserted that the CIA was going to make a criminal referral about his conduct,” Chamberlain told the DCNF.
“It turns out he was incorrect about the criminal referral, as per Mark Caputo’s reporting in Axios,” Chamberlain said.
Hammer echoed the theory as well, questioning whether Carlson helped to “get his Iranian friends killed” in a Sunday X post. Like Chamberlain, Hammer has consistently defended and promoted the war.
The Newsweek editor has said the strikes on Iran were “legal, just, and decades overdue,” arguing that the Islamic Republic has been at war with America “for 47 years.”
Carlson dismissed the foreign agent allegations Saturday, saying “I’m not an agent of a foreign power.”
“Unlike a lot of people commenting on U.S. politics and global affairs,” he continued, “I have only one loyalty and that’s the United States and I’ve never acted against it.”
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