Anti-Israel, antisemitic rhetoric up sharply among MAGA influencers in 2025 – study

Study found that far-right online influencers like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson ratcheted up anti-Israel rhetoric beginning in early 2025, with some later embracing openly antisemitic tropes.

By World Israel News Staff

Online influencers representing the far-right populist wing of the MAGA movement in the United States have displayed a growing “obsession with Israel,” according to a new study, with their content not only becoming more overtly hostile toward the Jewish state but also focusing on the State of Israel far more than before.

The study was conducted by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), based on artificial intelligence analysis of thousands of social media videos.

Two prominent podcasters who each have over five million subscribers on YouTube – Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens – were highlighted in the study.

The JPPI found that beginning in early 2025, first Owens and then Carlson dramatically increased their references to Israel, while also intensifying the hostility of their comments toward the Jewish state.

In the case of Owens, this trend was later followed by an embrace of explicitly antisemitic tropes, with researchers relying on the internationally accepted IHRA definition of antisemitism to distinguish between critiques of Israel and overtly anti-Jewish bigotry.

The findings indicate that within the MAGA camp, increasingly hostile rhetoric toward Israel is gaining visibility and influence, a trend that has intensified over the past year.

Over the past six months, there has been a sharp increase in references to Israel, Jews, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, compared with coverage of other major international issues such as the war in Ukraine or tensions with China or Iran.

The analysis shows that Israel has become a central, and at times dominant, topic in the discourse of both influencers.

For Candace Owens, this shift began in February 2025; for Tucker Carlson, in April. From those inflection points onward, references to Israel show a steep and sustained upward trajectory.

During the six months prior to February 2025, Owens’ comments on Israel were already overwhelmingly negative, with 96% of her references to the Jewish state being described as such in the study.

From February onward, however, the 36-year-old commentator substantially increased the overall volume of such negative content on Israel.

Across multiple videos, both figures employ sharp rhetoric, including comparisons between Israel and Hamas, use of the term “genocide,” accusations of deliberately killing children, and the circulation of conspiracy narratives alleging Israeli influence over the United States.

This was followed by a significant increase in Owens’ expression of antisemitic views, rising from 45% of her comments on Jews in the six months prior to February to 75% during the six months after.

These videos include sweeping generalizations about Jews, portrayals of Jews as a “cult,” accusations of “Jewish supremacy,” and classic antisemitic tropes alleging Jewish control, deception, and manipulation.

Such claims are frequently accompanied by the assertion that the deployment of charges of antisemitism and antisemite is merely a “Zionist tactic.”

On Carlson’s channel, the shift in tone regarding Israel beginning this April was even more pronounced.

While Carlson had also demonstrated increasing hostility toward the Jewish state over the past few years, during the six months prior to April, roughly half (51.1%) of his references to Israel were not found to be negative.

In the six months afterwards, however, that figure rose to 70.3%.

During that six-month period, ending in October, Carlson did not demonstrate a consistent pattern of explicit antisemitism, the study found.

However, Carlson repeatedly provides an uncritical platform to well-known antisemitic figures, including Holocaust deniers and extremist ideologues, such as Hitler apologist Nick Fuentes, without setting clear boundaries or offering meaningful critical challenge.

Beginning in October, after the period examined in the study, Carlson also began expressing criticism not just of the State of Israel, but also of Judaism, voicing support for Christian replacement theology and denying religious or genetic ties between modern Jews and the ancient Israelites.

“Antisemitism on the American far right is now overt and out in the open,” said JPPI Director-General Dr. Shuki Friedman.

“The data should serve as a flashing warning light for Israel and its leadership regarding the kind of support it can expect from the right, today and in the future. Only a determined effort to counter this extremism can help preserve this vital base of support in the United States.”