Candace Owens Says Donald Trump, JD Vance Let Pro-Israel Neocons Ruin MAGA

Candace Owens accused President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Thursday of letting pro-Israel "neocons" take over the MAGA movement, and said Trump is "protecting the blackmailed politicians"—an accusation for which she offered no evidence.

The remarks, delivered on Thursday's episode of her podcast Candace, mark the latest escalation from a host once among the most prominent voices in Trump's coalition. Trump and Vance have not publicly responded.

The accusation lands amid a documented generational split among Republican voters on Israel. A Pew Research Center survey conducted March 23 to 29 found that Republicans 50 and older are nearly twice as likely as younger Republicans to express confidence in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The survey shows no support for a claim that officials are being blackmailed.

What Candace Owens Said About Trump and JD Vance

Owens tied her attack on Trump and Vance to a broader argument that the pro-Israel wing of the party is responsible for what she sees as the collapse of MAGA's promises.

"It is exceptional to look at the cope, particularly from the pro-Israel crowd, of course, because they are the neocons that ruined the MAGA movement," she said. "Trump allowed it to happen, J.D. Vance allowed it to happen. They did not draw a line in the sand and listen to the people that got them into office, deliver the promises that they made."

"That was the whole first term, promises made, promises kept, exact opposite," Owens added.

Later, after playing clips of Netanyahu's address to the United Nations General Assembly, she went further. "The American military is his military, because he's blackmailed all of our politicians," Owens said. "Trump is protecting the blackmailed politicians. He's protecting the class that harms children."

"He had a duty as president, and he failed," she said of Trump. "He's been a wimp. He's been a coward, and his legacy will be exactly that, one of cowardice."

The 'Blackmailed Politicians' Claim

Owens named no politician she believes is being blackmailed and cited no document, witness or report to support the assertion.

Owens also faulted Trump's response to Kirk's death, saying that "the best Trump could do was an AI photo of him hugging an Israeli flag, mixed with the American flag, and a speech. That's it, no investigation."

A state prosecution is underway. Tyler Robinson, charged with killing Kirk on September 10, 2025, was ordered to stand trial on September 1 after a Utah judge found probable cause on all counts, including aggravated murder, which makes him eligible for the death penalty, NBC News reported. He has pleaded not guilty. Trump also posthumously awarded Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a Rose Garden ceremony on October 14, 2025, which would have been Kirk's 32nd birthday.

Republican Voters Split by Age on Israel, Pew Finds

While the blackmail accusation is Owens's own, the rift she is speaking to is measurable. The Pew Research Center survey of 3,507 U.S. adults, published April 7, found that 57 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents ages 18 to 49 hold an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 50 percent a year earlier, though Republicans overall still view Israel favorably, 58 percent to 41 percent. The gap is sharper on Netanyahu: 58 percent of Republicans 50 and older express at least some confidence in the prime minister to do the right thing in world affairs, compared with 30 percent of Republicans under 50, while confidence among all U.S. adults stands at 27 percent.

Netanyahu's UN Speech and Tucker Carlson's Trump Account

Owens's remarks followed Netanyahu's speech to the General Assembly on Thursday, when dozens of delegates walked out as he took the podium and he dared any "moral cowards" still in the hall to leave, Fox News reported. Owens played the walkout footage and, per the PBS broadcast of the address, the passage in which Netanyahu compared the October 7 attack to "40,000 innocent Americans slaughtered in less than 24 hours. That's 16 times 9/11."

Owens responded by asserting that "Israel is behind 9/11. Everybody knows it." The 9/11 Commission, the bipartisan panel created by Congress, concluded that al-Qaeda planned and carried out the attacks. She also said "our government is enslaved by a foreign nation and that you will suffer at the pump so that Bibi Netanyahu can get what he wants," and read from a Reuters report, published by The Irish Times under the headline "Israeli bulldozers smash Palestinian olive trees before annual harvest," which described villagers "wailing over the mangled remains of their olive trees" after the Israeli military uprooted them with bulldozers before this year's harvest.

Near the end of the show, Owens read a listener comment about a Tucker Carlson interview with NPR. "On that note, via NPR, Carlson recounts a meeting with Trump in which he says Trump dismissed his concerns about the Iran war," she said, rendering Trump's words as "We're all going to die anyway."

In the NPR interview, published Thursday, Carlson said he warned Trump in the Oval Office four days before the war began that it would destroy his legacy, and that Trump replied: "Yes, you're right. But in the end, we all die anyway, so it doesn't matter."

"That should have been your perspective when Israel blackmailed you into doing everything you're doing now," Owens said, again without offering evidence.

Owens Tells Listeners Midterm Voting Is 'Not Your Duty'

Owens also urged her audience to disregard appeals to turn out for Republicans in November. "If you're feeling like me and not inspired to get out of bed a midterm day, do not allow people to gaslight you into telling you that it's your duty," she said. "It's absolutely not your duty."

That message arrives as Republicans confront a difficult map. PolitiKool's polling average puts Democrats ahead on the generic congressional ballot, 48.6 percent to 41.2 percent, while PolitiKool's polling average of Trump's approval stands at 38.1 percent approve to 59.1 percent disapprove. Steve Bannon, another host on the right, told his own listeners this week that the party should "assume we're losing" without a turnout surge.

Owens closed by pitching a mug reading "Israel is our greatest ally" and quipping that MAGA "is now MIGA. Make Israel great again." She said she will hand her show to a substitute host when she begins maternity leave.