US President Donald Trump’s true religion is “Israelism” rather than Christianity, conservative journalist and podcaster Tucker Carlson has claimed, criticizing the president’s Middle East policies.
Carlson made the remarks in response to controversial statements Trump made over the past week, including his attacks on Pope Leo XIV and posts depicting himself as a Christ-like figure.
On Monday, Trump described the US-born pontiff as “weak” and “terrible for foreign policy” after the pope called Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization “truly unacceptable” and said that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
On his show, Carlson argued that the US had launched the war against Iran “on behalf of Israel” and “at the instigation of Israel.”
“What’s the religion, honestly, of Donald Trump? It’s not Christianity, clearly. It’s Israelism. It’s the defense of Israel,” Carlson said, adding that support for the Jewish state has become a “civic religion” of the American government.
He described Trump’s social media posts as “iconography” and “attempts to send a statement about faith,” which “doesn’t actually add up to a theology.”
Hellbound and Down 