Tucker Carlson has warned that former President Donald Trump may order a nuclear strike on Iran's Pickaxe Mountain site, a heavily fortified underground complex near the Natanz nuclear facility, reigniting debate over U.S. nuclear policy and Middle East escalation.
According to Carlson, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pressuring Trump daily about the strike, claiming Netanyahu is 'cornered and desperate' after recent election results prevent him from forming a government without U.S. assistance. Carlson alleges the Trump administration quietly rewrote U.S. nuclear doctrine in February to make battlefield nuclear weapons easier to use.
Carlson has warned that a strike would unleash radioactive contamination across the Persian Gulf and potentially trigger nuclear escalation involving Russia, India, Pakistan and North Korea, saying after the first nuclear strike, 'World War Three is inevitable. That war would be short and final.' Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has confirmed a change in U.S. nuclear doctrine. Carlson identifies no named American official and produces no documentary evidence for his central claims.
In October, Trump told Newsmax: 'I wouldn't use nuclear. We don't have to.' Critics note Carlson has become a dissenting voice within the MAGA movement over Israel and Iran, arguing America should not subordinate its foreign policy to Israeli interests. His comments have been ridiculed in serious policy circles for lacking substantiated evidence, though they reflect broader divisions within conservative politics about the scope of U.S. support for Israel and the risks of Middle Eastern escalation.
