Tucker Carlson’s break with President Donald Trump has reached a startling new point: The former Fox News host says Trump’s own Cabinet should have moved to strip him of presidential power over his threats against Iran.
In a Thursday interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, Carlson argued that Trump’s rhetoric about the war warranted action under the 25th Amendment. It was an extraordinary demand from a commentator who once championed Trump and spoke on his behalf at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
“He should have been removed from office by his own Cabinet secretaries the moment he threatened a nuclear attack,” Carlson said, according to Mediaite’s account of the interview.
When Inskeep asked whether he meant the 25th Amendment, Carlson confirmed it. He also described Trump’s remarks as a threat of a first-use nuclear strike. That is Carlson’s characterization: Trump’s quoted warning about Iran did not explicitly say he would use nuclear weapons.
The Iran warning behind the rupture
In his address to the United Nations on Tuesday, Trump presented Iran with a choice between a deal and possible destruction, asking whether he should “annihilate the Islamic Republic.” Mediaite quoted the fuller passage. The White House’s summary of the address emphasized his pledge to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and cast his approach as a show of American strength.
Carlson sees the war in sharply different terms. NPR reported that he questioned whether Trump had made the decision to begin it independently and alleged that Israel had effectively forced his hand. Those are Carlson’s assertions, not established facts. NPR said the White House, asked to comment, instead pointed to a Trump social media post attacking Carlson and others who oppose his Iran policy.
The public split carries political weight because Carlson was once among Trump’s most prominent defenders on the right. His call now goes beyond criticizing a military decision: He wants senior officials inside the administration to act against the president.
What the 25th Amendment would require
Section 4 of the 25th Amendment allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet’s principal officers to declare in writing that a president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office. The vice president would then become acting president. If the president contested the declaration and the officials persisted, two-thirds of both houses of Congress would have to agree for the vice president to continue acting in that role.
The provision is a process for presidential inability, not a finding of criminal guilt or a substitute for impeachment. Carlson’s accusation that Trump’s words constituted a crime does not, on its own, trigger it.
For now, Carlson’s remarks underscore how far one of Trump’s best-known former allies has moved over Iran. The unanswered question is whether his appeal resonates with anyone in an administration whose participation the constitutional process would require.
