President Donald Trump accused Tucker Carlson on Thursday of having “lost his way” following recent criticism from the commentator of the U.S. military operation in Iran, asserting that the former Fox News host was not representing the views of the Make America Great Again movement.

Trump made the comments while speaking to ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on Thursday afternoon after being asked about Carlson’s characterization of the ongoing U.S.-Israeli operation as “absolutely disgusting and evil” and his broader attacks on the Trump administration’s friendly relationship with Israel. 

“Tucker has lost his way,” Trump said. “I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things. And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”

In response, Carlson told Status News, “There are times I get annoyed with Trump, right now definitely included, but I’ll always love him no matter what he says about me.”

The president told journalist Rachael Bade on Monday that Carlson’s vocal opposition to his strikes on Iran had “no impact” on him, adding that Carlson “can say whatever he wants.”

“MAGA is Trump — MAGA’s not the other two,” he added, referring to Carlson and Megyn Kelly. 

The criticism came less than a day after Carlson dropped a new episode of his podcast in which he accused the Chabad Lubavitch movement of seeking to start a “religious war” to facilitate the destruction of al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem in order to build the Third Temple on top of its ruins. 

Carlson claimed in the episode that the goal of the Hasidic sect’s movement is the rebuilding of the Temple, based solely on the fact that Orthodox Jews believe that the Temple will be rebuilt when the Messiah comes, a prophetic vision that has been a part of daily Jewish prayer for two millennia. He failed to mention, however, that no mainstream Jewish denomination, including the Hasidic and the Orthodox, advocates for the destruction of the al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, in order to build the Temple. 

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), the D.C.-based Chabad which engages with foreign and domestic political leaders, told Jewish Insider late Thursday that he welcomed Trump’s rejection of Carlson’s embrace of anti-Israel and antisemitic ideas.

“With regard to Tucker Carlson, the president must have come to the conclusion that while difficult and perhaps unpleasant, his own statement earlier today was necessary,” Shemtov told JI. “In a more perfect world, Tucker might recognize that some of his expressed beliefs simply do not coincide with established facts and historic Jewish beliefs. He might also realize that Israel and the Jewish people are merely an appetizer for the voracious hateful appetite of the Iranian regime. America and the West would be the main course.”

Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, a Chabad rabbi in Lexington who leads the Kentucky Jewish Council, told JI that Carlson’s attacks on the Hasidic group had prompted an outpouring of support from Jewish and non-Jewish supporters.

“This is not someone stumbling. These are intentional choices. They are choices that are intended to make Jews around the world feel unsafe, and they had the exact opposite reaction,” Litvin said of Carlson. “There were more positive tweets about Chabad today than there have been since I’ve been on Twitter, which is, I think, 15 years. There has never been as many positive tweets about Chabad in a day as there are right now.”