US President Donald Trump on Sunday defended online provocateur Tucker Carlson after the far-right podcaster came under fire from prominent conservative figures for conducting a friendly interview with Nick Fuentes, an openly antisemitic white supremacist.

Trump’s defense came hours before a leading conservative intellectual, Robert P. George, announced on Monday his resignation from the board of the Heritage Foundation think tank, a decades-long fixture of right-wing political thought in Washington, DC that has faced widespread backlash for supporting Carlson’s decision to platform Fuentes.

“I think he’s good, we did some good interviews,” Trump told reporters in Palm Beach, Florida, referring to Carlson. “You can’t tell him [who] to interview. If he wants to interview Nick Fuentes — I don’t know much about him — but if he wants to do it, get the word out.”

Trump added that “people have to decide.”

A few minutes later, Trump reportedly said, “Meeting people, talking to people for somebody like Tucker — that’s what they do. You know, people are controversial. I’m not controversial, so I like it that way.”

Trump dined with Fuentes and rapper Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida in November 2022, when the hip-hop star had begun a media tour announcing a range of antisemitic and pro-Hitler views.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) responded to Trump’s latest comments on X.

“When leaders are asked about antisemitism, there’s only one responsible answer: denounce it,” the civil rights group posted. “President Trump’s refusal to condemn Nick Fuentes — an avowed antisemite — or to call out Tucker Carlson for amplifying him is unacceptable and dangerous.”

George, a well-known professor at Princeton University and one of the most respected scholarly voices on the political right, took a different approach to Carlson’s embrace of Fuentes and the subsequent backing of that relationship by Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts.

“I have resigned from the board of the Heritage Foundation. I could not remain without a full retraction of the video released by Kevin Roberts, speaking for and in the name of Heritage, on October 30th,” George wrote in a Facebook post. “Although Kevin publicly apologized for some of what he said in the video, he could not offer a full retraction of its content. So, we reached an impasse.”

George described Roberts as “a good man” and noted the Heritage head had admitted his error. However, this was not sufficient. “What divided us was a difference of opinion about what was required to rectify the mistake,” George wrote.

The academic who specializes in political theory and public law wrote that his hope for Heritage was that the think tank “will be unbending and unflinching in its fidelity to its founding vision, upholding the moral principles of the Judeo-Christian tradition and the civic principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.”

He continued, “I pray that Heritage’s research and advocacy will be guided by the conviction that each and every member of the human family, irrespective of race, ethnicity, religion, or anything else, as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, is ‘created equal’ and ‘endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.’ The anchor for the Heritage Foundation, and for our nation, and for every patriotic American is that creed. It must always be that creed. If we hold fast to it even when expediency counsels compromising it, we cannot go wrong. If we abandon it, we sign the death certificate of republican government and ordered liberty.”

Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University and the chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, a leading libertarian think tank, expressed support for Roberts’ decision.

“Robert George is right about the moral rot at Heritage, and he’s not the one who needs to leave, though I totally understand his reasons for doing so,” Somin wrote. “I’m a former Heritage intern (way back in 1994) but would never work with them today.”

The Manhattan Institute’s Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the conservative think tank, expressed similar views on X.

“Robby George was the head of the ‘Kevin Roberts showed terrible judgment and there need to be consequences’ camp, which has apparently lost out to ‘everything is well, nothing to see here’ camp,” Shapiro wrote. “Heritage will now decline as an institution (or we will decline as a nation). Sad.”

Additional controversy over Carlson this weekend involved US Vice President JD Vance.

On Sunday, Vance re-shared an X post from conservative journalist Sloan Rachmuth and offered a defense of Carlson’s son, Buckley, who serves as the vice president’s deputy press secretary.

Rachmuth wrote, “Today, we learned that Tucker Carlson’s brother idolizes Nick Fuentes. Racism and antisemitism is a Carlson family trait. Is Tucker’s son Buckley, who serves as JD Vance’s top aide also a vile bigot? America deserves to know how deep the Carlson’s family ethnic and religious hatred runs.”

Vance responded in a post that as of Monday afternoon has gotten more than six million views: “Sloan Rachmuth is a ‘journalist’ who has decided to obsessively attack a staffer in his 20s because she doesn’t like the views of his father. Every time I see a public attack on Buckley it’s a complete lie. And yes, I notice ever person with an agenda who unfairly attacks a good guy who does a great job for me.”

Continuing, Vance wrote that “Sloan describes herself as a defender of ‘Judeo-Christian Values.’ Is it a ‘Judeo-Christian value’ to lie about someone you don’t know? Not in any church I ever spent time in!”

Rachmuth pushed back against Vance on X.

“Mr. Vice President, that ‘someone I don’t know’ is one of your top advisors being paid with taxpayer funds,” she posted. “It’s not the guy who trims your shrubs or cuts your hair. And YES, defending Judeo-Christian values entails speaking out against the antisemitism that’s tearing our nation apart. It also involves questioning those at the highest level of government about their hires, and speaking truth to power when needed. Sir, shall I remain quiet while Jews like me are being targeted by massive media platforms, and while our country is being destroyed by hate?? Or can I continue to ask questions and fight against injustices without being unfairly questioned about my loyalty to my country? I look forward to hearing back from you.”