President Donald Trump spent part of his Thursday afternoon on Truth Social doing something that would have been difficult to imagine just a year ago. He was attacking some of the most prominent voices in conservative media, figures who spent years championing his political rise and helping deliver his return to the White House in 2024.
The targets of his lengthy post included Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones, each of whom had spoken out against Trump’s handling of tensions with Iran. Trump dismissed all four as low-intelligence opportunists with nothing meaningful to contribute, accused them of rooting for Iranian nuclear capability, and suggested they seek mental health treatment. He also called them losers who were never truly part of the MAGA movement to begin with.
The post ran close to 500 words. Trump closed it by saying he no longer cares about any of it.
What triggered the break
The rupture traces directly to Trump’s escalating rhetoric around Iran. In the days leading up to a two-week ceasefire announced Tuesday, Trump made a series of aggressive public statements threatening the country with devastating military strikes if it did not open the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil passageway in the Middle East. The language was vivid and at times alarming, and it drew sharp reactions from figures across the political spectrum, including from some of his most historically loyal supporters.
Carlson, a former Fox News host who praised Trump effusively during the 2024 Republican National Convention, described Trump’s Easter message during that period as deeply wrong in its tone and intent. Kelly, another former Fox News personality who urged her followers to vote for Trump at a Pittsburgh rally before the election, publicly told him to stop making the kinds of threats he was making toward the Iranian people. Both reactions were direct, forceful, and widely circulated.
Trump
Owens drew a particularly personal response from the president. She has been at odds with Trump for several months, saying publicly that she feels embarrassed for having encouraged people to support him. Trump responded to her criticisms Thursday by bringing up the ongoing defamation lawsuit filed against her by French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron, whom Owens has falsely accused of being transgender. Trump used the moment to offer a pointed personal comparison between Owens and the French first lady, a detour that underscored just how personal the post had become.
Jones, whose relationship with Trump goes back to a 2015 appearance on his InfoWars outlet, responded to the attack with a tone that was more sorrowful than combative. He expressed concern about the president’s current direction and suggested the man he once supported had fundamentally changed.
The fracture grows wider
Former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, referenced in Trump’s post by a nickname that suggested betrayal, added her own voice to the backlash. Once among Trump’s most loyal congressional allies, Greene resigned from the House last fall after a public falling out that touched on foreign policy and other issues. She responded to Thursday’s post by aligning herself with Carlson, Kelly, Owens, and Jones, arguing that the group had not changed and that Trump had.
The episode marks one of the more striking public fractures within a coalition that spent years operating with unusual cohesion. Whether it represents a lasting realignment or a momentary flare-up remains to be seen, but the intensity on all sides suggests this is not a dispute that will resolve quietly.
