Why did Tucker Carlson's clash with Ted Cruz over Iran go viral?

A viral interview between United States Senator Ted Cruz and conservative broadcaster Tucker Carlson has taken centre stage as it revealed growing internal divisions in Donald Trump’s Republican coalition over potential US military involvement in Israel’s escalating confrontation with Iran.

The widely circulated conversation, now published in full, has since dominated headlines and now social media.

The Cruz-Carlson exchange, recorded on Carlson’s podcast earlier in the week, is being described by both participants as unusually combative.

Carlson, a prominent figure in the “America First” wing of the conservative movement, directly challenged Cruz, one of the Republican Party’s leading national security hawks, over his advocacy for US support in Israel’s bombing campaign on Iranian targets.

Carlson grills Cruz over Iran knowledge

The confrontation began with Carlson questioning Cruz about his knowledge of Iran — starting with a seemingly simple query: the country’s population. When Cruz admitted, “I don’t know the population at all,” Carlson responded sharply: “You don’t know the population you seek to topple?”

Carlson then asked about the country’s ethnic composition. Cruz replied, “They are Persians, and predominantly Shia.” Carlson followed up with: “You don’t know anything about Iran!”

At one point, Cruz attempted to deflect the line of questioning by saying, “OK, this is cute… OK, I am not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran.”

Carlson continued pressing the senator, arguing that knowing such basic facts was essential if Cruz was advocating for regime change or US intervention. Cruz dismissed the line of questioning later as a “silly game,” accusing Carlson of attempting a “gotcha” moment.

In a follow-up podcast episode, Cruz said, “I agree with Tucker on 80 percent of the issues,” but added that “on foreign policy, Tucker has gone bat-crap crazy. He’s gone off the rails.”

The tension rose further when Cruz stated during the interview, “We are carrying out military strikes today.” Carlson interrupted, pointing out that Cruz and other officials had previously stated that Israel was leading the strikes.

“You said Israel was,” Carlson noted. Cruz responded: “Right, with our help. I said ‘we’ — Israel is leading them, but we’re supporting them.”

Carlson then remarked, “This is high stakes; you’re a senator. If you’re saying the United States government is at war with Iran right now, people are listening.”

Division over Trump’s foreign policy vision

The Cruz-Carlson exchange is only the most visible episode in a broader internal Republican debate that has intensified as Israel’s offensive in Iran accelerates.

Israeli forces, in recent days, have struck key nuclear infrastructure sites at Natanz and Isfahan, though the underground Fordo facility remains out of reach without US bunker-busting capabilities.

The question now is whether the US will directly join in the campaign.

The Trump administration has been sending mixed signals.

Trump has posted increasingly provocative statements on his social platform, calling for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and suggesting the US might assassinate Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, writing, “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”

He also asserted that the US had assumed control over Iranian airspace, writing: “We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran.”

Cruz echoed this sentiment in the Carlson interview, but Carlson seized on the wording of “we,” pressing whether this implied direct US military action.

The disagreement reflects the two ideological wings of the pro-Trump right.

One faction, represented by Cruz, US Senator Tom Cotton, and media voices like Mark Levin, supports assertive action against Iran, arguing that the Islamic Republic’s alleged assassination plots against Trump and nuclear ambitions pose a direct threat to American security.

The other faction, which includes Carlson, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, warns that interventionist policies betray the “America First” mandate Trump ran on in 2016 and again in 2024.

Bannon has repeatedly warned that military escalation in the region could derail domestic objectives such as large-scale deportation programs, while Greene said that Carlson “unapologetically believes the same things I do.”

She added, “Foreign wars/intervention/regime change put America last, kill innocent people, are making us broke, and will ultimately lead to our destruction.”

Carlson-Trump tensions flare, then cool

Carlson’s opposition to American involvement has also placed him in direct conflict with Trump himself.

On June 13, Carlson posted that the divide was now between “warmongers and peacemakers,” and named Republicans and donors such as Sean Hannity, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter, and Miriam Adelson as individuals “calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes.”

Trump initially responded dismissively at the recent G7 Summit in Canada, telling reporters, “Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen.”

Later, on Truth Social, Trump escalated his rhetoric, saying: “Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that IRAN CANNOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”

However, by Wednesday, Trump revealed to reporters in the Oval Office that Carlson had called him and apologised for his tone.

“He called and apologised the other day because he thought he said things that were a little bit too strong, and I appreciated that,” Trump said.

He pointed out that Carlson, like himself, did not want Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, adding, “You may have to fight… maybe it will end very quickly.”

Despite the personal thaw, the strategic divide remains.

Carlson reiterated his concerns on Steve Bannon’s podcast The War Room, stating that further military involvement could lead to “the end of the American empire.”

Trump, by contrast, has deployed refuelling tankers, a second carrier group, and has continued to hint at deeper engagement.

Civilian toll of the Israel-Iran conflict till now

As political figures clash in Washington, the human cost of the conflict continues to rise.

According to a Washington-based human rights group, Israeli airstrikes have resulted in at least 585 deaths in Iran, including 239 civilians. In retaliation, Iranian strikes have killed at least 24 Israelis and left hundreds injured.

Cruz has maintained that the regime in Tehran presents a danger to the US, citing previous threats to assassinate Trump, which Carlson disputed during their interview.

Cruz later said on social media that Carlson had “attacked” the US president and the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC during their sit-down.

While Trump’s leadership remains unchallenged within the GOP, the disagreement over whether to enter another conflict in West Asia is going to be a flashpoint in the future.

With inputs from agencies