Tucker Carlson Tries to Puff Up His MAGA Bona Fides After Ted Cruz Calls Him Out: I Talked to Trump ‘Last Night!’

Tucker Carlson claimed he spoke to President Donald Trump “last night” during a heated exchange with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), in which Cruz accused Carlson of no longer supporting the president.

Carlson and Cruz battled over U.S. policy toward Iran this week, with Carlson saying, “If you’re calling for toppling a government, it’s incumbent on you to know something about the country and to think through the consequences of that. And you haven’t and you don’t. And I’m saying that’s reckless.”

Cruz hit back, “Okay, you engage in reckless rhetoric with no facts, and to be clear, you put out a newsletter attacking Donald Trump and calling him complicit, I can read you.”

“Yes, you have,” insisted Cruz as Carlson protested, “I campaigned for Donald Trump, and this is like, after anti-Semitism, this is the last refuge, ‘You’re an anti-Semite and you hate Trump!’ I love Trump.”

“I will read. You put out a whole newsletter saying Trump has abandoned America first, and here’s what Trump said in response, ‘Well, considering that I’m the one that developed ‘America First’ and considering that the term wasn’t used until I came along, I think I’m the one who decides that. For those people who say they want peace, you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon, that’s not peace.’ That was directed at you,” Cruz said, reading a recent statement from Trump.

Trump also called Carlson “kooky” in recent days over his ongoing attacks on Trump’s support for Israel.

Carlson hit back with his typical laugh, “Oh man, this is, you got me. Busted.”

“No, I’m just saying–” Cruz tried to reply as Carlson said, “Look, my views, look, I like Trump, I campaigned for Trump, I know Trump, I talked to him last night, I’m not against Trump, and you know that.”

Cruz shot back, “But you’re against his foreign policy.”

Carlson defended himself, “I think that we should be very careful about entering into more foreign wars that don’t help us when our country is dying.”

“When you say don’t help us–” Cruz pressed as Carlson repeated, “And our country is dying.”

Cruz agreed, “Look, yes, focus on our country. I’m all for it, but the naivete–”

Carlson cut him off, adding, “You don’t even know how much money this costs. You don’t know anything about the country’s government you want to overthrow. And you’re calling me reckless!”

“I want to stop a lunatic who wants to murder us from getting nuclear weapons that could kill millions of Americans. I can’t see how that benefits America in any way — that is bizarre. And by the way, isolationism, your foreign policy is the foreign policy of Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama,” Cruz argued.

Carlson mocked him in reply, “Yeah, I’m a big leftist. This is so silly, and now I’m Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.”

Watch the clip above.