Anti-Israel rhetoric is fueling an alarmingly powerful new wave of antisemitism on the right
And President Donald Trump’s changed attitude to Israel is only the first consequence
Tucker Carlson speaks at the Desert Diamond Arena on Oct. 31, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Elad Nehorai May 16, 2025
Something in President Donald Trump’s politics when it comes to Israel has clearly shifted.
He’s cut Israel out of hostage negotiations, and just toured the Middle East without visiting the Jewish state. Those who hope this is just another instance of Trump’s trademark rapid swerves, or a way to try and keep Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in check, are wrong. And while worry has begun to spread among Trump’s pro-Israel supporters over the alteration, they’re not worried enough.
Because Trump’s shifting attitude is representative of a change that has been brewing on the American political right for a decade — one that affects not only Israel, but American Jews as well.
The far-right grassroots movements that propelled Trump to power are becoming increasingly anti-Israel, and, in doing so, moving the needle for the mainstream right, as well. And as more prominent figures on the far-right edge from anti-Israel sentiment into outright antisemitism, the entire Republican and right-wing ecosystem is beginning to turn against Israel and Jews.
Three figures exemplify this change: Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens.
Rogan, a podcaster with almost 40 million followers across his platforms, has hosted guests including Holocaust denier Darryl Cooper, who has said Churchill was the “chief villain” of World War II; Andrew Tate, the alleged sex trafficker who complained about how “speaking out against the Jews” is forbidden; and Ian Carroll, an influencer who regularly spreads anti-Israel conspiracy theories combined with antisemitism. Among Carroll’s favorite (totally false) claims: that the Mossad controls the CIA, and that the “Zionist Mafia… controls the US and global politics.”
But Rogan’s flirtations with antisemitic rhetoric aren’t methodical. He often frames his podcasts as “just asking questions,” and can point to the fact that he at least gives equal airtime to people like pro-Israel white nationalist Douglas Murray.
Carlson is far more purposeful and calculated in his approach — and perhaps even more influential.
He has almost 14 million followers across various platforms. He has long held as much sway with Trump as almost any outside advisor. It is impossible to overstate the power of just this one voice alone: He is, effectively, the main reason JD Vance is vice president.
Unlike Rogan, Carlson spent years spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories before becoming more openly anti-Israel. He is credited by many with having used his former platform on Fox News to make once-fringe conspiracy theories, like the great replacement theory, mainstream. And even there, he regularly featured antisemitic guests.
This laid the groundwork for his current anti-Israel tone, which he began developing almost immediately after getting fired from Fox News in April 2023. a Now, on his own independent podcast, his antisemitic conspiracy theories have fused with anti-Israel and nativist sentiment.
One of his podcast guests has claimed that the Rothschilds created the theology behind Christian Zionism. Only days ago, he implied Israel is an enemy of the United States due to its push for a military conflict with Iran.
And, during an episode featuring Owens just a month after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Carlson himself claimed that Zionist Jews were responsible for causing a “white genocide.”
The link between Carlson and Owens helps show how a network of right-wing influencers has begun to build anti-Israel sentiment — both within the Trump administration and within some of the movements that helped vote Trump into office.
Since around the time that episode aired, Owens herself began to embrace anti-Israel rhetoric, building on a long history of antisemitism. With even more followers than Carlson — 15 million — Owenss latched onto the Gaza war to launder her conspiracy theories about Jews through outrage at Israel. She stood by — and still stands by — Kanye West, known as Ye, as he descended into extreme antisemitism and anti-Black racism. When her YouTube account was suspended after an August, 2024 interview with Ye in which he claimed “Jewish people control the media,” she blamed “Zionists” for her channel being shut down.
She, like Rogan, has hosted a number of antisemitic conspiracy theorists — including, yes, Ian Carroll, who is slated to take over her massively popular platform while she is off for maternity leave.
The impact of voices like Rogan’s, Carlson’s and Owens’ on perceptions of Israel on the right has been dramatic. Unfavorable views of Israel among Republicans have leaped from 27% to 37% since 2022. Even more astonishingly, half of young Republicans now have unfavorable views of Israel, an increase of more than 40% since 2022.
This is not a coincidence. Half of Americans get much if not all of their news from social media. More than a quarter get it from podcasts. Of the young people who consume news from influencers, 65% say those voices shaped their understanding of current events.
The shifts we’re seeing on the right are a direct result of the influence people like Carlson, Owens, and Rogan have in the new media landscape — an influence that is only growing.
The force of that shift is clear within the Trump administration: As The Washington Post reported, the president’s inner circle has deliberately sidelined pro-Israel lobbying groups and neoconservative hawks, perhaps the clearest evidence of a deeper, structural realignment at the highest levels of the right.
The change in Trump’s behavior toward Israel, then, is almost certainly not just about his moods, impulses, or transactional view of the world, although they of course always factor in. Instead, it’s about the new intersection of anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism on the right. Conspiracy theories that had already proliferated on the right before the Israel-Hamas war — the great replacement theory, QAnon, anti-vaccine beliefs, concerns about a so-called “deep state” — all are, at their heart, antisemitic, and they all can easily be manipulated to include Israel.
Worst of all, what we are seeing is really only the beginning.
As I have written in the past, social media platforms like X have been used by the far right to appeal to progressives by criticizing Israel, while actually spreading far-right antisemitic conspiracy theories. In other words, those on the far-right who wed anti-Israel sentiment with antisemitism are making savvy attempts to bring unlikely new members into the fold, and succeeding. And social media dialogue is, accordingly, becoming increasingly extreme, with calls for violence against Jews common.
All of this to say: Trump may end up reversing his views, but nothing will change the reality on the ground: anti-Israel sentiment on the right may be opening the door to the most dangerous antisemitism this country has ever faced.
