Donald Trump was always a thin-skinned bully-boy. His hypersensitivity informs his worldview. And now his bizarre worldview informs a globe-spanning US counter-terror policy. His administration is now so addled it has decided hyper-conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson is some sort of terrorist-sympathizer.
Why, you might ask? Well, it is a result of Carlson’s criticism of Trumpian policies. Welcome to Trumpland 2026.
US journalist Ken Klippenstein noticed that Trump’s British counter-terror czar, Sebastian Gorka, was doing the rounds on US talk shows. Gorka just authored the new US counter-terrorism policy which brands antifascists, the left and trans people as terrorists.
But Trump’s cronies also see their critics on the right as enemies:
Between grandiose monologues about his vision of a crusade to save Western civilization from “anti-American” and “anti-Christian” extremism, Gorka let slip that the administration’s war on “domestic terrorism” isn’t just aimed at the left.
Klippenstein continued:
It targets anyone who isn’t in line with the broader MAGA agenda. While Trump’s national security directive NSPM-7 explicitly singles out the left with its list of so-called terrorism indicators, many of them could describe people on the right as well.
Asked by Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow if there’s any “right-wing terror” or “right-wing extremism” threat, Gorka replied by pointing to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and streamer Nick Fuentes — both of whom have become vocal critics of the Trump administration — arguing they aren’t actually conservatives anyway.
Okay, mate…
Gorka told Marlow:
…I’m not sure that Nick Fuentes or Tucker Carlson are conservatives. If you are lauding Sharia law, if you are saying that there are Muslim states that seem to be better qualitatively than America in terms of freedom and prosperity, I’m not sure that means you’re part of the conservative movement. So if you remove those individuals and you understand that they’re not conservatives, what’s left?”
Carlson supports Sharia law?! Klippenstein posted Carlson’s exact words from the media interview Gorka was citing:
CARLSON: “But you go to a country like Japan or the Emirates or Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and you see that when people are self-confident, when they’re really pleased with what they’re doing, and they believe their system is the right system — that self-confidence results in a kind of welcoming attitude. So you’ll be sitting at dinner in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and you’ll say, you know, I just, I’m really kind of pro-Jesus, like I’m a Christian. They’ll be like, ‘That’s so great!’
HOST: And they don’t have the same beliefs?
CARLSON: No, they’re Muslims. It’s a country governed by Sharia law! — [laughs] — I mean, and they’re like, ‘That’s great!’
Klippenstein wrote:
Is Carlson naive for mistaking his Four Season’s experiences in whatever Gulf monarchy with an egalitarian society? Absolutely. But “lauding Sharia law?” Come on.
A quick caveat here. The US and UK right-wing have a massive complex about Sharia law. It’s one of their favourite bogeyman. Here’s a little primer on it from fact-checkers at Factually:
Common misconceptions about Sharia center on it being a single, draconian legal code that uniformly oppresses women and mandates extreme corporal punishments; authoritative analyses show Sharia is a plural, principle‑based system whose interpretation and application vary widely across time, schools, and states.
Not quite so simple, after all.
Klippenstein is right though. Gorka’s comments are a massive, bad-faith reach. But Trump’s henchman is also telling a story we need to hear. Trump’s authoritarian impulses, paired his child-like sensitivity to criticism, are a deadly combination. The primary enemies of the far-right are still the organised working class, the political left and marginalised groups. But right-wing critics are also intolerable to the US regime.
And nobody needs to hear that more than the political right. Nobody is safe from this radical right-wing agenda — not even conservatives. To quote the fash in their own conspiracist terminology: time to wake up, sheeple.
Featured image via LA Times
By Joe Glenton
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