The feud between Ben Shapiro and Nick Fuentes is now mainstream GOP politics
Even the Heritage Foundation has become entangled in this highly online conflict. After Tucker Carlson gave a platform to a virulently antisemitic livestreamer, the organization found itself drawn into the ongoing struggle within the conservative movement.
What began as a long-standing feud between white supremacist streamer Nick Fuentes and Jewish conservative commentator Ben Shapiro — who have openly scorned each other — has now burst beyond the internet. The controversy escalated recently when Fuentes, known for his unapologetic antisemitic views, reached a new level of recognition among right-wing circles.
“Hitler was really fucking cool.”
That remark, one of Fuentes’s most notorious, resurfaced as Tucker Carlson, now a podcaster, invited him for an hourlong interview on U.S. policy and Israel’s war in Gaza. The discussion gave Fuentes a legitimacy he had not previously enjoyed within the GOP sphere.
Carlson, who has a history of criticizing Israel and indulging in antisemitic tropes, commands a vast audience and wields considerable influence among conservatives. Previously, some of his conspiracy theories — such as claims that Ukraine was developing bioweapons, that COVID-19 was engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews, or that male infertility could be reversed with infrared therapy — failed to impact mainstream politics. This time, however, his decision to feature Fuentes risks bringing extremist rhetoric deeper into the party’s mainstream discourse.
Author’s Summary
The article explores how Tucker Carlson’s decision to host Nick Fuentes transformed an online right-wing feud into a broader political controversy touching the Republican mainstream.