(José Niño, Headline USA) President Donald Trump’s decision to launch strikes against Iran was influenced as much by Fox News coverage as by intelligence briefings, according to administration sources.
According to The New York Times, Trump was closely monitoring Fox News, which was providing “wall-to-wall praise of Israel’s military operation and featuring guests urging Trump to get more involved.” The report specifically notes that “several Trump advisers lamented the fact that Carlson was no longer on Fox, which meant that Trump was not hearing much of the other side of the debate.”
Rolling Stone reported similar findings, stating that “Trump’s heavy consumption of Fox News content is increasing his appetite for military confrontation with Iran.” An administration official and a close confidant indicated that Trump’s frequent viewing of Fox News was “heightening his desire for direct military engagement with Iran.”
The New York Times confirmed that Trump specifically asked an ally how Israeli strikes were “playing,” indicating his concern with media perception. The report states: “Later that day, Trump asked an ally how the Israeli strikes were ‘playing.’ He said that ‘everyone’ was telling him he needed to get more involved.'”
Trump’s advisers were actively “monitoring how their most prominent supporters were reacting on social media and on television to the prospect of the United States joining the war in a more visible way”, per the New York Times report. This aligns with historical patterns of Trump’s presidency, where former aides described how Fox News hosts would influence policy decisions.
Tucker Carlson, who left Fox News in 2023, had been one of the few prominent conservative voices opposing military intervention in Iran, as Headline USA has recently reported. The Hill reported that Carlson criticized Trump as being “complicit” in Israel’s strikes on Iran, warning that escalating conflict might draw the United States into war.
CNN reported that within MAGA media, there was a clear division between “Republican hawks and MAGA isolationists,” with Fox News appearing to favor the hawkish perspective while dissenting voices like Carlson’s were “rare and less pronounced.” The absence of Carlson’s anti-war voice from Trump’s preferred news source appears to have created an echo chamber effect.
According to Axios, Trump’s decision-making process was more calculated than initially appeared. While he publicly stated he would decide “within the next two weeks,” this was characterized as “a headfake” by Trump advisers, with the strike plan already in motion.
The strikes ultimately occurred on Saturday night, targeting three Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Trump announced the operation’s success on Truth Social claiming that Iran’s “key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”
