Tucker Carlson wrote a lengthy social media post alleging that the United States is preparing to send 40,000 bombs to Israel, warning “there is no precedent for what the Trump administration is doing.” Carlson, the former Fox News host and supporter of President Donald Trump, who has increasingly criticized the administration on foreign policy, has visited Israel during the war in Gaza and has been a vocal critic of it as well as U.S. support for Israel, claimed in the post that Washington is planning a major new weapons shipment to the country, sending over “40,000 tons of bombs.” Israel is among the largest recipients of U.S. military aid, with Washington providing billions of dollars in security assistance under a longstanding strategic partnership. Recent polling, however, shows declining support among some Americans for Israel's military operations in Gaza and for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The issue has exposed divisions within Trump's political coalition.
Some supporters aligned with the "America First" movement have argued that the U.S. should avoid deeper involvement in overseas conflicts, including the war in Gaza, and instead focus on domestic priorities. A U.S. official confirmed to The Washington Post that a $2.8 billion package of 20,000 MK-84s and 20,000 BLU-117s (both are types of aircraft bombs) to Israel is forthcoming. A senior Trump administration official told Newsweek on Tuesday, “All foreign arms sales are moving through the appropriate process.
We do not comment on pending sales," and a State Department official told Newsweek, "As a matter of policy, the Department does not confirm or comment on proposed arms sales until they have been formally notified to Congress." Newsweek has reached out to the State Department, Pentagon, White House, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for comment and confirmation via email on Tuesday. Citing an informed federal official, Carlson said the U.S. is planning to send tens of thousands of MK 84 and BLU-117 bombs to Israel.
The 2,000-pound bombs are known for their mass destruction, with Carlson pointing out “an American-made Mark 84 has a destruction radius of half a mile.” The reported sale comes nearly three years after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, in which it killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. The attack triggered Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, where more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to local health authorities. Carlson went on to note that the sheer volume of the sale "appears to be the largest transfer of conventional explosive ordnance from the United States in modern history." He referenced the Air Force's attack on Berlin, Germany, in March 1945 during World War II, noting that planes dropped "about 3,000 tons of bombs," as a comparison.
He noted that this shipment is "more than three times the destructive power of that nuclear explosion," in reference to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. That bomb yielded a 15-kiloton explosion, which is roughly equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT. A Mark 84 bomb contains around 1,000 pounds of TNT, meaning the alleged sale has much more TNT than the Hiroshima bomb.
"There is no precedent for what the Trump administration is doing," he said. Referring to Israel's use of the bombs, Carlson said the IDF dropped hundreds of them on densely populated areas of Gaza, adding, “The slaughter was so grotesque and embarrassing that for a moment the Biden administration paused a shipment of Mark 84s.” The Biden administration halted the delivery of about 1,800 of the bombs and another 1,700 smaller 500-pound bombs. "I made it clear that if they enter Rafah—and they haven't entered Rafah yet—if they do, I will not supply the weapons that have historically been used to address the situation in Rafah and other cities,” Biden said during a CNN interview in May 2024.
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