Top 6 moments from Mike Huckabee's tense interview with Tucker Carlson: 'Frankly confusing'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Monday, February 23, 2026

1. Huckabee on land promises, Genesis 15: 'It would be fine if they took it all'

Carlson, who famously tussled with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, last June when Cruz defended his views about modern-day Israel by appealing to God's promise to Abram in Genesis 12, pressed Huckabee to explain the geopolitical implications of believing that the land promises in Genesis remain in effect.

According to Genesis 15:18, God promised territory to Abram's descendants that would stretch "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates," which was the largest extent of ancient Israel under King Solomon before the kingdoms split and were later conquered, according to 2 Chronicles 9:26.

“Huckabee said Israel should conquer the Middle East.”

No, he didn’t. Instead of relying on the clipped version Tucker posted, watch the full exchange.

You may still disagree with the Ambassador, but he was offering his personal view — not speaking for the U.S. government pic.twitter.com/ZWIE7CiOsc

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) February 21, 2026

If the land promises of Genesis are applicable today, Carlson noted, Israel would have a divine right to territory that now encompasses several sovereign countries.

"That would be the Levant, so that would be Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon. It would also be big parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq," Carlson said, to which Huckabee replied, "Not sure we'd go that far. I mean, it would be a big piece of land."

"So God gave that land to His people, the Jews, or He didn't; you're saying He did," Carlson said. "What does that mean? Does Israel have the right to that land? Because you're appealing to Genesis, you're saying that's the original deed."

"It would be fine if they took it all, but I don't think that's what we're talking about here today," Huckabee said, though he quickly walked back his remark as "somewhat of a hyperbolic statement" and maintained that Israel has no intention of conquering the wider region and simply wants to maintain peace in its present territory.

"I'm trying to understand the implications of your theology for geopolitics, because you're saying that the present government of Israel has a moral right to take over what are now other people's countries," Carlson said.

"No, I didn't say that," Huckabee responded.

Huckabee's statement prompted outrage from Arab and Muslim nations on Saturday, with neighboring Egypt and Jordan, Saudi Arabia, as well as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the League of Arab States issuing separate statements condemning Huckabee's rhetoric as "extremist" and "unacceptable."

Laying aside the supposed biblical justification for modern-day Israel, Huckabee noted that their right to exist has been affirmed repeatedly by the nations of the world, citing the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the League of Nations in 1927 and the United Nations in 1947, as well as the multiple wars Israel has won since its establishment in 1948.

Christians disagree over the interpretation of the land promises in the Old Testament, and younger Evangelicals increasingly question the prevailing dispensationalist premillennial view that Genesis 12 or Genesis 15 applies to the modern nation-state, or that Israel plays a key role in the End Times.

Charles E. Hill, who serves as emeritus professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, told The Christian Post in 2024 that he ultimately became convinced of an amillennial eschatology after his studies led him to "seeing the unity of Scripture and the unity of the people of God throughout Scripture."

"Those are very big for me, seeing that there's always been a spiritual Israel; that the land promises always had a typical function of pointing ahead to Christ and to His ownership of the world," he said at the time.