U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee lobbed an attack on conservative media figure Tucker Carlson Wednesday in the form of an April Fools’ Day joke, and a prominent group of Florida Republicans appear to have taken the bait.
Huckabee’s swipe at Carlson comes in the wake of his explosive interview with the MAGA icon in February, during which Huckabee ignited an international firestorm by making “deranged” remarks that appeared to endorse the idea of Israel seizing control of “basically the entire Middle East.”
Before admitting it to be an April Fools’ Day joke, Huckabee claimed in a post on social media that Carlson had called him by phone to apologize.
“Wow. Tucker Carlson just called – wants to come to Jerusalem to share Easter Sunday with me,” Huckabee wrote in a social media post on X. “Said he's been wrong about Israel, Jews, Iran, criticizing Trump & wants to publicly renounce stuff he's been saying and do it right in [the] heart of Israel!”
Less than a minute later, Huckabee wrote in a follow-up post: “April Fool’s! (C’mon, you KNEW it was!)”
Despite Huckabee making clear within seconds that his remarks were an April Fools’ Day gag, the Volusia County Republican Party – the official GOP organization representing Republicans in Volusia County, Florida, which sits just outside Orlando and includes Daytona Beach – appeared to have taken his comments at face value.
“We’ll wait to see what happens,” the Volusia County Republican Party official account on X wrote in response to Huckabee’s social media post.
Huckabee has frequently caused headaches for the Trump administration with his remarks and actions as they relate to Israel, including by
appearing to endorse the idea of “Greater Israel,” a concept referring to the Biblically-defined territorial aspirations of some Israelis to significantly expand the nation’s borders. The concept is far from fringe in Israel, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu –
indicted for war crimes in 2024 – saying last August that he “
absolutely” subscribed to a “vision” for “Greater Israel.”
"This is no April fool's joke, this is a disaster," Enten said. "All these numbers are a disaster for President Trump. I mean, let's just talk about inflation, which is the name of the game. Okay, highest disapprovals on this inflation about this time in a presidency. Whenever you have Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter on the board and you're matching them or slightly exceeding them when it comes to inflation, you know it's bad. Look at this – 72 percent in our latest CNN poll say they disapprove of the president on inflation. Joe Biden, an average of polls at this point in his presidency, 68 percent, and Jimmy Carter, whose presidency, just like Joe Biden's, was absolutely wrecked by inflation, was at 66 percent about at this point in his presidency back in 1978."
"Donald Trump, even worse than they are," he added. "So you see it here, and the one word is or phrase I might say is, oh my goodness gracious, what a disaster."
Inflation was substantially higher during Biden's presidency than Trump's second term, but rising fuel costs associated with his Iran war are driving voter approval into the tank.
"Biden's worst number, his worst number in any poll I could find, was 72 percent disapprove of Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump," Enten said. "Right now, in our CNN poll, 76 percent, 76 percent, three in four Americans disapprove of the way that Donald Trump is handling gas prices, and again, the gas prices were higher during Biden, but the increase has been so dramatic under the last month under Donald Trump – we're talking about an increase of about a dollar – it's the highest increase that we've seen since at least 1991 in terms of raw dollars. No wonder this number is so high. He is beating or doing even worse than Joe Biden was on gas prices, which of course was such a major issue."
Trump's approval rating on the economy is historically bad compared to other presidents, Enten said.
"These are the worst in our poll – 69 percent disapprove of Donald Trump on the economy," he said. "For George W. Bush it was 57 percent, in terms of the average, Barack Obama, 56 percent. Donald Trump is crushing them on a metric you don't want to be crushing anybody on, which is disapproval ratings on the economy – he's double digits. I was looking at some other polling data also above the 57 percent to 56 percent, the worst of all time at this point. In term number two, it's the economy dragging Trump down, being, of course, accelerated by inflation being so bad, and, of course, the gas prices just adding up. It's like a pancake tower and you're just reaching the top, and this is not a tower you want to climb."
"Where does the Kalshi prediction market say that we're going on inflation chance CPI year over year is above 4 percent in any month in 2026, 64 percent [chance]," Enten added. "That would be for the first time since 2023, so the inflation tower that we're going up, it seems like there are more steps on a stairway, certainly not to heaven, more like hell, if you're the president of the United States."
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Collinson wrote, "Walking away might leave turmoil. But it would be consistent with Trump’s methodology, which in practice has been more effective in destroying status quos than building new systems.
"It would also extend the America First principle that the country should act at all times within the confines of its exclusive national interests. And it would indulge Trump’s anger at NATO allies he regards as leeching off American security guarantees.
"But America doesn’t exist in a vacuum defined by Trump’s rhetoric. He’d struggle to outrun the economic and political reverberations of keeping the strait under the control of a reinvigorated Iran. Trump may be able to create political spin to explain his exit — but the markets are unlikely to be as easy to convince."
Collinson went on to warn that a sudden exit from Iran while the Strait of Hormuz remains closed could trigger a global economic crisis and even threaten global relations between the US and NATO allies.
"That economic blow threatens to set off a global recession that would crash onto US shores — possibly months before the midterm elections, in which Democrats hope to score a big win that will help them rein in Trump’s second-term power," Collinson wrote.
"More broadly, the fallout of the Iran war now threatens another consequence: an even deeper fracture in the transatlantic alliance. This would only underscore the need for European allies — and those Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney calls ''middle powers' — to invest more in their own militaries with the understanding that America’s post-World War II security umbrella has become unreliable."
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"So if somebody showed up here in 1868 and established domicile, that was perfectly fine without respect to anything, any immigration laws," Gorsuch said. "And so why wouldn't we, even if we were to apply your own test, come to the conclusion that the fact that someone might be illegal is immaterial?"
"I would first cite Wong Kim Ark on that point," Sauer replied, pointing to an 1898 case that was largely thought to codify birthright citizenship.
"Well, I'm not sure how much you want to rely on Wong Kim," a skeptical Gorsuch shot back.
All Rise News editor Adam Klasfeld saw the exchange as bad news for the Trump administration.
"He cuttingly refers to the Trump admin's reliance on 'Roman law sources,'" Klasfeld noted of Gorsuch. "Looking predictably bad for Trump."
Fox News contributor Jonathon Turley called Gorsuch's remark "worrisome."
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