Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President George W. Bush, on Sunday called conservative commentator Tucker Carlson a “phony” for accusing the Trump administration of being “complicit in the act of war” in supporting Israel in its conflict with Iran.

“I’ve known Tucker for 25 years, when he co-hosted an MSNBC show with Paul Begala. Tucker doesn’t have a consistent thought in his head, except self-promotion,” Mr. Fleischer posted Sunday on X with past videos of Mr. Carlson calling for Iran’s destruction. “Now he says that’s a warmonger. He’s a modern carnival barker.”

Mr. Carlson, who was a top draw on Fox News, has been a close ally of President Trump’s. He appeared with him on the campaign trail and walked out at a UFC event last year with Mr. Trump, Kid Rock and UFC President Dana White.

In recent years, Mr. Carlson has become a vocal critic of military adventurism across the globe, arguing the United States should not be spending so much taxpayer money on being the world’s police and has proven to be bad at it, including in Iraq.

As a spokesman for Mr. Bush, Mr. Fleischer advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Addressing Israel’s strikes against Iran, Mr. Carlson took issue with the Trump administration in a Friday newsletter, suggesting it was not involved.

“While the American military may not have physically perpetrated the assault, years of funding and sending weapons to Israel, which Donald Trump just bragged about on Truth Social, undeniably place the U.S. at the center of last night’s events,” Mr. Carlson wrote.

“Politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it,” he said.

Elaborating further on X, Mr. Carlson said the “real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians.” He said the real divide is “between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers.”

He said the warmongers calling on Mr. Trump “to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran” include “Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson.”

“At some point, they will all have to answer for this, but you should know their names now,” he said.

Mr. Trump pushed back in an interview with The Atlantic, saying he will decide what the America First movement stands for.

“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 that decides that,” the president said.

“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,” he said.

On Sunday, Mr. Fleischer’s post on social media included a video clip from 2006, when Mr. Carlson criticized antisemitism in Iran and said Iran should be given two options: “You either stop the nuclear program or we will bring down an earthquake upon you using God’s wrath.”

It included a 2012 clip in which Mr. Carlson says, “I’m sure I am the lone voice in saying this, I think Iran deserves to be annihilated.”

“I think they are lunatics, I think they are evil,” he said.

• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.