When I caught Donald Trump by phone this morning, the president wanted to make one thing clear: “America First” means whatever he says it does. “Well, considering that I’m the one that developed ‘America First,’ and considering that the term wasn’t used until I came along, I think I’m the one that decides that,” Trump told me. “For those people who say they want peace—you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon—that’s not peace.”
His remarks were a response to my question about critics, such as Tucker Carlson, who have loudly argued against U.S. support of Israel during its attacks on Iran as an anathema to the “America First” way of doing things. Over the course of our conversation, the president defended his efforts to bring an end to multiple conflicts despite growing violence in the Middle East. He also struck an overall optimistic tone about world affairs. “I think we have done very well,” he said of his administration’s efforts.
We spoke on his 79th birthday, hours before his appearance at a military parade celebrating the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary. Toward the end of our conversation, he said he had to take another call—he planned to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who continues to ramp up attacks on Ukraine and has largely rebuffed U.S. efforts to end the fighting there. “The Ukraine deal is something that should never have happened, would have never happened. That was a Biden situation and not a Trump situation, and I am trying to end it,” he told me just after 10 a.m. “And in fact, I have a phone call with President Putin in about three minutes.”
He argued that the Iranian regime still wants “to make a deal,” though he was not sure if they would appear at planned negotiations tomorrow. He described the conflict in Gaza as coming to a close.
“Gaza is ready to fold—or just about ready to fold. We have gotten many of the hostages back,” Trump said.
Not everyone in the MAGA universe shares the president’s sunny outlook. Carlson suggested in an email to his followers yesterday that U.S. support of Israeli aggression against Iran ran contrary to the “America First” planks of Trump’s political movement. He followed that up with a social-media post that labeled others in conservative media and some major Republican donors “warmongers” for supporting the possibility of direct U.S. involvement in the attacks on Iran. “Washington knew these attacks would happen,” Carlson wrote in the email. “They aided Israel in carrying them out. Politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it. Our country is in deep.”
“What happens next will define Donald Trump’s presidency,” Carlson added.
Trump told me he had not heard Carlson’s comments, and then dismissed them. He argued that the U.S. has a vital national-security interest in preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. For months before Israel’s attacks this week, Trump had privately and publicly urged Israel to give time for negotiations with Iran and not launch any attacks.
“Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb, very simple. Regardless—Israel or not Israel—Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb,” Trump told me.
Carlson did not immediately respond today to a request for comment on what Trump said.
After several minutes on the phone, the president excused himself. “Mike, I have to go,” he told me. “I am taking a call from Putin.”