Overview

The June 2025 Tucker Carlson Ted Cruz Interview refers to discussions and memes about former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson interviewing Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Carlson began posting clips of his interview with Cruz to X / Twitter on June 16th, 2025, and posted the entire two-hour-long interview on June 18th. In the days leading up to the interview, a clip of Ted Cruz failing to answer Carlson's question about the population of Iran went viral online, with internet users commenting on Carlson's tough and combative interviewing style. Ted Cruz subsequently posted an AI-generated comic of Tucker asking Luke Skywalker from Star Wars about the population of the Death Star.

Background

On June 17th, 2025, broadcast journalist Tucker Carlson posted a clip from his interview with Texas Senator Ted Cruz to his X^[1] account, writing, "Ted Cruz on Iran. Full interview tomorrow." The video gathered over 36 million views and 161,000 likes in two days. A transcript of the interaction is shown below:

Tucker: How many people live in Iran?
Cruz: I don’t know the population
Tucker: You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?
Cruz: How many people live in Iran?
Tucker: 92 million. How could you not know that?

Ted Cruz on Iran. Full interview tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/hJNwAHAnxZ

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 18, 2025

Tucker Carlson then posted the full interview with Ted Cruz to his X^[2] account on June 18th, with timestamps marking the different topics he discussed with the Senator. The video gathered over 5.9 million views and 50,000 likes in a day.

Senator Ted Cruz demands regime change in Iran. He’s not interested in the details.

(0:00) Why Does Cruz Want Regime Change in Iran?
(6:28) Is the US Currently Acting in Its Own Best Interest?
(7:49) Was Regime Change in Syria Beneficial to the US?
(12:31) Was the Iraq War a… pic.twitter.com/iIdENogQ2T

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 18, 2025

Developments

Segments from Tucker Carlson's interview with Ted Cruz began making the rounds on Twitter / X on June 17th and June 18th, 2025, showing Carlson pressing Cruz on his opinions on Israel.

On June 18th, the Tucker Carlson Network's X^[3] account posted a clip of Ted Cruz citing a Bible verse as his reasoning for his support for Israel, gathering over 7.2 million views and 17,000 likes in a day. Relevant transcripts of the conversation are shown below:

Cruz: Those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed… That's in the Bible.
Tucker: Where is that?
Cruz: I don't have the scripture…
Tucker: So you're quoting a Bible phrase — you don’t know where in the Bible it is, but that's your theology?

Cruz: Biblically, we're commanded to support Israel.
Tucker: We are commanded as Christians to support the government of Israel? Is the nation God is referring to in Genesis — is that the same as the country run by Netanyahu right now?
Cruz: Yes

Sen. Ted Cruz tries (and fails) to use the Bible to justify his support for Israel’s bombing of Iran.

Watch the full episode today at 1PM ET on https://t.co/czOhKmdlbW. pic.twitter.com/QdUuSin3a7

— Tucker Carlson Network (@TCNetwork) June 18, 2025

Also on June 18th, X^[4] user @Acyn reposted a clip of Carlson asking Cruz about AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee), gathering over 1.7 million views and 33,000 likes in a day.

Tucker: My understanding is that AIPAC lobbies on behalf of the Israeli government.

Cruz: Wrong.

Tucker: When was the last time AIPAC took a position that deviated from Netanyahu’s?

Cruz: All the time.

Tucker: Name one.

Cruz: pic.twitter.com/fOD2WeILKP

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 18, 2025

Later on June 18th, 2025, President Donald Trump claimed that Tucker Carlson had called him to apologize for saying, "things that were a little bit too strong." X^[11] user @CollinRugg posted a clip of Trump's statement, gathering over 170,000 views and 1,000 likes in a day.

NEW: President Trump says Tucker Carlson called him to apologize after CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked him about the Iran situation.

Collins: It seems like the Iran issue is kind of dividing a lot of your supporters.

Trump: My supporters are for me. My supporters are… pic.twitter.com/Ff0v67Hhky

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 18, 2025

Ted Cruz's Response

On June 18th, 2025, Ted Cruz posted a tweet to X^[5] that read, "Did a long interview w/ Tucker. He released a snippet playing a 'gotcha' on the population of Iran. I declined to play that silly game. / WATCH the full 2-hr interview, where Tucker ATTACKS Trump, attacks the 'AIPAC lobby,' & falsely claims Iran is NOT trying to assassinate Trump."

Also on June 18th, Ted Cruz posted an AI-generated comic showing Tucker Carlson asking Star Wars character Luke Skywalker the population of the Death Star to his X^[6] account, gathering over 17 million views, and 87,000 likes.

Online Reactions

On June 17th, 2025, Redditor /u/ExactlySorta reposted a clip from Tucker Carlson's interview with Senator Ted Cruz to the subreddit /r/PublicFreakout,^[10] writing, "'You’re a U.S. senator and you don’t know anything about the country you want to topple.' Tucker Carlson taunts Ted Cruz as he pushes for war with Iran," and gathering over 24,000 upvotes in two days.

Several internet users reacted to Tucker Carlson's questioning of Ted Cruz, including right-wing political commentator Matt Walsh, who wrote on X,^[7] "I've always liked Senator Cruz, and still do. But Christians are not obligated to have any particular stance one way or another about the modern state of Israel, which is a political entity like any other country." The tweet was posted on June 18th, 2025, gathering over 29,000 likes in a day.

On June 18th, Redditor /u/Miserable-Lizard posted a clip of Tucker Carlson calling Ted Cruz a "sleazy feline" for "implying" that Carlson is an anti-Semite, gathering over 7,000 upvotes on the subreddit /r/PublicFreakout^[12] in a day.

That same day, X^[8] user @souljagoytellem tweeted a news article that read, "'Are we supposed to take out Spiderman and Spongebob?' Iranian cleric mocks US and says Tehran can't strike back at targets of Soleimani's stature because America only has fictional heroes," gathering over 8,000 likes in a day.

Also on June 18th, 2025, X^[9] user @desusnice tweeted an image from the time Ted Cruz's official Twitter account was shown to have "liked" an explicit tweet, gathering over 20,000 likes in a day.

Related Memes

Tucker Carlson Asking 'How Many People Live In Iran?'

Tucker Carlson Asking 'How Many People Live In Iran?' refers to memes and jokes about Tucker Carlson asking Texas Senator Ted Cruz about the population and ethnic distribution of Iran. Tucker Carlson released a combative interview with Ted Cruz in June 2025, where he pressed the Republican Senator about his opinions on the Iran war amidst the Israel-Iran Conflict. After Cruz expressed his belief that Iran requires a regime change, Carlson began to press him on facts about Iran, asking, "How many people live in Iran?" to which Cruz replied, "I don’t know the population," and Carlson rebutted, "You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?" Internet users began spreading exploitable memes and phrasal template jokes inspired by Carlson's line of questioning, soon after the clips went viral online.

Search Interest

External References