‘Pat Buchanan in a New Guise’: Trump Aide Sebastian Gorka Slams Tucker Carlson Over Anti-Israel Stance

A senior aide to US President Donald Trump on Tuesday repudiated controversial political commentator Tucker Carlson for promoting what he described as an isolationist foreign policy that’s hostile to Israel, suggesting that Carlson is “repackaging” the ideology of infamous paleoconservative intellectual Pat Buchanan.

Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the White House National Security Council, made the comments while appearing for an event at the Hudson Institute, a prominent think tank in Washington, DC.

Moderator Michael Doran, a Hudson senior fellow and Middle East expert, asked Gorka to address the growth of anti-Israel, antisemitic sentiment on right-wing podcasts and social media.

“This wing of isolationism is nothing new. We had this 100 years ago, and this is just a poor, substandard repackaging of neo-Buchananite isolationism,” Gorka said in response.

“The Tucker right wing is basically, you know, Pat Buchanan in a new guise. It is actually a shallower version. Pat is far smarter than this version of isolationism,” Gorka continued.

Carlson, a right-wing podcaster and former Fox News host, has repeatedly argued on his podcast that the US should withdraw from costly foreign entanglements and focus on domestic issues. That perspective has led him to sharply criticize US support for Israel, which he has framed as an unnecessary drain on American resources and a distraction from pressing challenges at home.

Carlson has often warned that Washington’s commitments to its allies, particularly in the Middle East, risk dragging the United States into wars that he believes serve little purpose for the average American family. His rhetoric has placed him at odds with more traditional conservatives who view support for Israel as central to US foreign policy.

In June, Carlson clashed with US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) over the latter’s support for Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a lobbying group that promotes bipartisan support for a strong US-Israel relationship. During the tense interview, Cruz called out Carlson over his “obsession” with the world’s lone Jewish state.

“You’re asking, ‘Why are the Jews controlling our foreign policy?’” Cruz stated. “If you’re not an antisemite, give me another reason why the obsession is Israel.”

Carlson recently came under fire for interviewing Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian but not pushing back against his claims or challenging the leader on Iran’s nuclear program or human rights record.

Meanwhile, Buchanan regularly courted controversy with provocative statements depicting the so-called “Israel lobby” as a sinister force swaying US policy — even claiming Capitol Hill is “Israeli occupied territory.” He has also cast doubt on established Holocaust history, minimizing atrocities at Treblinka, and framed Jewish influence in ways many critics condemned as antisemitic. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) branded him an “unrepentant bigot” and claimed that he “repeatedly demonizes Jews and minorities and openly affiliates with white supremacists.”

Gorka dismissed the vocal chorus of isolationist, anti-Israel conservatives as “probably half a dozen very loud people on Twitter [now officially called X] and Rumble.” He emphasized that isolationist ideologues such as Carlson are not representative of the broader conservative political base. 

“I mean, you get out of the miasma, the cesspit that is social media and you talk to representative MAGA [Make America Great Again] of the 80 million that put the president back in the White House,” Gorka said. “They don’t think that we should pull down the shutters on the Pacific and the Atlantic coast. They don’t think that Israel is the reason for [Hamas’s attack on Israel on] October the 7th. They actually have a very special place in their heart for Israel, and they don’t think that hospitals being bombed in Ukraine is a good thing.”

Gorka added that the Americans people will not be easily swayed by the isolationist wing of the conservative movement. 

“One of the most trenchant, indicative characteristics for me of the American people is common sense. They understand who was responsible for October the 7th. They understand who Vladimir Putin is,” Gorka said. 

Doran argued during the event that the anti-Israel wing of conservatism maintains “no hold” on Trump. 

“It’s clear that that President Trump is not listening to them, making decisions in a completely different way,” Doran said. “I mean, he basically signaled it with that Truth Social posting where he said, ‘Who’s going to tell kooky Tucker Carlson that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon?’”