Tucker Carlson says he, staff were detained in Israel after interview with US Ambassador

Tucker Carlson claimed that he and his staff were detained by Israeli authorities at an airport after he traveled there to interview US Ambassador Mike Huckabee.

“Men who identified themselves as airport security took our passports, hauled our executive producer into a side room and then demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about,” the podcaster and ex Fox News host said in a statement to The Post.

“It was bizarre. We’re now out of the country.”

Ex Fox News host Tucker Carlson claims he and his staff were detained by Israeli authorities. X/TuckerCarlson

When he arrived, Carlson posted a picture of himself and his business partner, Neil Patel, in front of the Ben Gurion Airport, captioned “Greetings from Israel.”

Carlson, 56, veered sharply into slamming Israel since he was pushed out of Fox News in 2023.

Carlson was in Israel to interview US ambassador Mike Huckabee. Jim Hollander/UPI / Shutterstock

He launched his independent stream “The Tucker Carlson Show” just one year later–where he has platformed scores of renowned antisemites, including Nick Fuentes, an unabashed admirer of Adolf Hitler.

StopAntisemitism, a grassroots watchdog organization, named Carlson the “Antisemite of the Year” in December 2025.

Critics were quick to call out Carlson’s refusal to leave the airport during his visit, which lasted only a few hours.

“Too bad Tucker stayed in the airport in the face of so many invitations to see so many wonderful places. A huge and obviously intentional missed opportunity,” David Friedman, the former US ambassador to Israel during Trump’s first term, wrote on X