According to Tucker Carlson, a tiny country that struggles to control its own security environment is somehow powerful enough to strong-arm the United States into toppling the Iranian regime.

In a February 26, 2026 video, Carlson claimed Israel is driving President Trump toward war with Iran. The argument has been echoed by professional Israel critics and Islamic apologists like Candace Owens, Cenk Uygur, and Ian Carroll. 

It’s an emotional narrative that squarely contradicts reality.

Yes, Israel’s interest in stopping the Islamic Republic of Iran is real. Tehran funds and arms terror proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah that have been open about their mission to kill as many Israelis as possible.

But it’s not just Israel that has advocated for a US strike on Iran. Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also been urging President Trump to attack Iran, according to the Washington Post. Yet Tucker is not accusing Saudi Arabia of pushing the US into war.

Moreover, the idea that America’s stake is secondary — that Washington is merely doing Jerusalem’s bidding — is absurd. In fact, the United States has interests in Iran that go well beyond Israel’s.

Iran’s Proxies Don’t Just Target Israel

Over four decades, Iranian-backed groups have killed hundreds of Americans—and according to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, thousands.

After Hamas launched its October 7, 2023 war, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen began attacking U.S. vessels in the Red Sea. Commercial traffic through the Suez Canal dropped by as much as 60–70 percent. When President Trump ordered retaliatory airstrikes, the Houthis agreed to stop targeting U.S. ships — but continued attacking American drones and publicly claimed victory, saying Washington had “backed down.”

Israel fights many of these same proxies. But the global cost — disrupted shipping lanes, threatened Gulf partners, and the drain on U.S. military resources — falls disproportionately on the United States.

Iran has also reportedly sought to orchestrate assassination plots against American officials, including Trump, on U.S. soil. If protecting American lives is the goal, that alone places Iran squarely in Washington’s crosshairs.

Nuclear Proliferation Is a U.S. Issue

A nuclear-armed Iran would reshape the entire regional security landscape.

It could spark a nuclear arms race, with countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt feeling compelled to build their own bombs in response. That kind of spread would transform the Middle East into a cluster of nuclear-armed Islamic states, dramatically increasing instability and severely undermining U.S. power, deterrence, and strategic influence in the region.

It would also undermine decades of international efforts to keep nuclear weapons from proliferating and weaken the global non-proliferation framework that the US has helped establish since 1968.

Furthermore, even though the U.S. has become a net oil exporter, the global economy still depends heavily on oil flowing from the Middle East. A nuclear-armed Iran would heighten tensions around key chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz, where a large portion of the world’s oil passes. Any disruption there would ripple through global markets, hurting the U.S. economy and its allies.

Iran Is a Pillar of the Anti-U.S. Axis

Iran plays a structural role in what analysts call the emerging axis of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea — a coordinated bloc bound by opposition to the U.S.

It supplies drones and missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine. Iranian-designed Shahed drones are used by Russia in its war against Ukraine. That directly challenges U.S. commitments to NATO and has cost Washington billions in military support for Kyiv. A weakened or transformed Iranian regime would sever a key supply line sustaining Moscow’s war effort — a matter of enormous consequence for the United States.

Meanwhile, Iran has deepened ties with China, integrating into Beijing’s Belt and Road ambitions and expanding energy and infrastructure cooperation. For China, Iran offers a strategic foothold in the Persian Gulf — a way to threaten global oil flows and tie down U.S. resources in a critical region.

The Political Reality

And then there are the inconvenient facts that don’t fit Tucker’s narrative.

The day before Tucker released his video, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated plainly that “Iran poses a very grave threat to the United States and has for a very long time.” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee confirmed that Iran threatens not just Israel, but America itself.

Those are American officials articulating American interests.

The idea that Israel is “dragging” the United States into war is absurd on its face. It turns the most powerful military on earth into a helpless puppet and pretends Washington has no interests of its own.

Iran has attacked U.S. forces. Its proxies have attacked the US and choked global shipping. It arms Russia and bolsters China, both US adversaries. It has plotted against American officials on American soil. And it’s racing toward nuclear capability. None of that requires Israeli persuasion.

Sources

X, Washington Post, State Department, Jerusalem Post, FDD, NPR, NDTV, ECFR, Washington Post, Truth Social, CNAS, USCC, Financial Times, The Washington Institute, AP, The National