US commentator accuses Trump of choosing Israel over US

US conservative commentator Tucker Carlson on Thursday accused President Donald Trump of choosing Israel over the United States in the wake of Republicans' defeats in the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

"It's wrong for a leader to choose another country over you," Carlson said in a podcast published on US social media company X, comparing Trump's actions to taking a neighbor's children to Disney World while one's own children go hungry.

"That's just, that's immoral. That's exactly what Trump did," he said. "He chose Israel over the United States. People lie about it, but everyone can see it," describing the US president's actions as "just wrong."

Carlson also criticized US involvement in Middle East conflicts, arguing that Washington had repeatedly engaged in wars on Israel's behalf at the expense of American interests.

"If your country keeps starting pointless wars in the Middle East on behalf of Israel, and every single time you lose, you diminish your power, you get your own citizens killed, and you incrementally go bankrupt. Maybe at some point they'll be like, 'This is a bad idea. We can't follow Israel to any more wars.' Well, that hasn't happened because no one has been brave enough to say what's really going on," he said.

Referring to the 2003 Iraq War, Carlson claimed that the US had entered the conflict in response to Israeli demands, arguing that the same pattern had continued for more than two decades.

"We did this in the Iraq War over 20 years ago, 23 years ago. We followed Israel's demands into a war, but that's been like basically a race from history. Ask anyone who's involved in it; they'll tell you, 'Oh, that's absolutely what happened.' It was Netanyahu, by the way, same guy," he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The good news is, as noted, everybody can see it. And that is, in the end, the lasting contribution of Donald Trump," Carlson added.