A former Trump ally, once a loud champion of his return to power, now sits across the table from history and describes a private moment in the Oval Office that no one else heard. He recalls the president conceding that Israel was driving the Iran war, then shrugging off the stakes with the old human refrain that we all die anyway. Such accounts arrive at a familiar crossroads, where a single witness's memory of a closed room meets a public that cannot yet check it. What follows will depend less on the words themselves than on whether those with real authority choose to answer them.
Tucker Carlson says Trump brushed off Iran war fears with 'we all die anyway'
A former Trump ally, once a loud champion of his return to power, now sits across the table from history and describes a private moment in the Oval Office that no one else heard. He recalls the president conceding that Israel was driving the Iran war, then shrugging off the stakes with the old human refrain that we all die anyway. Such accounts arrive at a familiar crossroads, where a single witness's memory of a closed room meets a public that cannot yet check it. What follows will depend less on the words themselves than on whether those with real authority choose to answer them.
In an NPR Newsmakers interview published Thursday, Tucker Carlson recounted what he described as his most recent private meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office. He said he had just flown back from Tel Aviv, and that when he told the president the Iran war was not really about Iran's nuclear program, Trump agreed that Israel was pushing it. When the conversation turned to the stakes, Carlson says, the president answered that in the end we all die anyway, so it doesn't matter. "That's exactly what he said," Carlson told the interviewer.
The account rests entirely on Carlson's memory of a conversation with no one else present. No statement from Trump, the White House, or any other source confirms or contradicts it, so the words remain his alone to vouch for.
Carlson, who endorsed Trump for president before the 2024 election, has become one of his sharpest critics. He says he feels "tormented" for having helped bring him to power, and he calls the president "not good at this" when it comes to the Iran War. In the interview he went further, arguing that Trump should be removed under the 25th Amendment, and that his Cabinet should have acted the moment he threatened a nuclear attack. Asked whether he meant the 25th Amendment, he said it did.
The amendment allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare a president unable to discharge his duties. Nothing in the reporting suggests any Cabinet member or lawmaker has taken up the call, and a commentator's demand, however prominent, does not set that machinery in motion. What comes next is whether anyone with real authority responds, and whether Trump addresses the remark attributed to him.
In an interview with NPR's Newsmakers podcast, published on Thursday, Tucker Carlson described what he says was his most recent visit to the Oval Office, a private meeting with Donald Trump that he claims ended with the president telling him, "we all die anyway."
Carlson set the scene this way: he had flown back from Tel Aviv, landing from Ben Gurion Airport after a meeting with the ambassador, and two days later he was in the Oval Office with Trump alone. He says he told the president the war was not about Iran's nuclear program, which Trump had told Carlson and the world he eliminated last summer in June.
Carlson then said he told Trump that Israel was pushing the war on Iran. By his account, Trump agreed. "He looked at me and said, yes, you're right," Carlson said, adding that Trump continued that in the end we all die anyway, so it doesn't matter. "That's exactly what he said," Carlson told the interviewer.
The account is Carlson's recollection of a conversation with no one else in the room. The source gives no confirmation from Trump, the White House, or anyone else, and nothing in it independently verifies what was said.
Carlson is a former Fox News host who was once a Trump ally and endorsed him for president ahead of the 2024 election. This year he has turned sharply critical. He has said he feels "tormented" about having helped Trump become president. He has also criticized Trump's handling of the Iran War, saying the president is "not good at this" and "not a dealmaker."
In the NPR interview he went further, arguing that Trump should be removed from office under the 25th Amendment. He said Trump should have been removed by his own Cabinet secretaries the moment he threatened a nuclear attack. NPR's Steve Inskeep asked whether he meant the 25th Amendment, and Carlson said that was correct. "He should have been bundled up and taken out," he said. "That's a crime. There's no greater crime than that."
The 25th Amendment lets the vice president and a majority of Cabinet officials move to declare a president unable to discharge his duties. Nothing in the source suggests any Cabinet member or lawmaker has taken up Carlson's call, and a demand from a commentator, however prominent, does not by itself set that process in motion.
What to watch next is whether anyone with actual power over the question responds, whether from the Cabinet, Congress, or the White House, and whether Trump himself addresses the remark Carlson attributes to him.
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