JERUSALEM—As President Trump’s MAGA coalition grapples with deepening divisions over U.S. support for Israel, his ambassador to the country, Mike Huckabee, knows where he stands.
An evangelical Christian, Huckabee first visited Israel 50 years ago at the age of 17 and was immediately impressed when he saw a pioneering, shabby democracy fighting for freedom like early America. In the land of the Bible, he thought he was seeing prophecies fulfilled as the Jews returned to their God-given homeland.
This was the first of more than 100 trips to the country, many of them he ran with a tour company that organized pilgrimages for thousands of other evangelicals to strengthen their connection with the Holy Land.
“Unlike some people who would be in culture shock, I feel at home. And I’m very comfortable here, and I love it here,” Huckabee, 70, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
That unrequited affection has not only denied them diplomatic positions designed to balance support for Israel wants Palestinian statehoodBut also with the increasingly vocal MAGA group, which is skeptical of American support for Israel.
Commentators and political figures, including Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.), argue that Israel is tilting US policy away from US national interests. On the other side are evangelical Christians, major donors like billionaire Miriam Adelson, and foreign policy conservatives who support close Israel ties as a cornerstone of U.S. policy in the Middle East.
The rift has come out into the open, with Carlson, who like Huckabee once had his own Fox News show, debating Senator Ted Cruz (R, Texas) about America’s support for Israel and interviewing white nationalist Nick Fuentes on his podcast in late October. In the interview, Carlson took aim at Huckabee among many Republican supporters of Israel.
“Christian Zionist-like, what’s that?” Carlson said. “I can just say for myself, I dislike them more than anyone… because it is Christian heresy, and as a Christian I am offended by it.”
The debate is raising questions about the sustainability of US support for Israel at a time when the heavy toll of Israel’s military operations during the war in Gaza has already alienated many voters on the left. Israel is heavily dependent on the US for arms supplies and has relied on US help to fend off missile and drone attacks from Iran.
Huckabee is not backing down.
“I am deeply saddened by Tucker’s level of hatred toward me and other Christians,” Huckabee said. “I’m not sure Tucker is the right person to give me a lesson in theology or to define what a ‘real Christian’ is. I’ll leave that up to God. Tucker should do the same.”
Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate, is the first outspoken Christian leader to serve as U.S. ambassador to Israel. He represents an administration that has abandoned standard policy toward the country — instead recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem in Trump’s first term — without setting clear guidelines for what happens next.
His appointment has energized a key Republican constituency. Evangelical Protestants make up about a quarter of American adults, according to a post-election survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, and white evangelicals were among the strongest supporters of the Trump ticket, with more than 85% of them casting their vote for it in November 2024.
Current and former US officials said Huckabee’s ambassadorship is thanks in part to Adelson, who donated nearly $100 million to the president’s election campaign and lobbied Trump to give him the job. Adelson did not respond to a request for comment.
According to Pew Research Center polling conducted in March, 72% of white evangelicals have a favorable opinion of Israel, virtually equal to the approval rate among Jews, 73%. By comparison, less than half of American adults and only 45% of Catholics say they view Israel favorably.
Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance nodded to that important evangelical constituency in recent trips to Israel. “The God who once lived among his people in this city still calls us in the words of Scripture,” the president said in a speech to Israel’s parliament in October.
But that support is waning, while views about Israel like Carlson’s are gaining ground. Although 69% of older evangelical Republicans say their sympathies lie more with the Israelis than with the Palestinians in the conflict, only 32% of those aged 18-34 agree, according to polling this summer by the University of Maryland.
In February, as Huckabee was preparing to be confirmed as ambassador by the Senate, Charlie Kirk interviewed him. He discussed the decline in support for Israel among Americans, especially young Christians.
“What troubles me is that many young people have been raised in churches that give them a soft exposure to the Bible,” Huckabee said on the show.
Richard Land, the longtime chair of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, says he has known Huckabee since the late 1970s. He has similar concerns.
“There’s a generational divide,” said Land, now 70. “If this trend continues, Mr. Trump could be the last strongly pro-Israel president.”
Israel has deep spiritual significance for many evangelicals. This connection is rooted in Biblical prophecy and verses identifying the Jews as God’s chosen people. Although interpretations vary, many evangelicals believe that establishing a significant Jewish presence in Israel will bring about the end times, including the return of Jesus to defeat evil and establish his kingdom on earth.
“If God doesn’t keep His promises to the Jews, how do I know He will keep His promises to me?” The evangelical mindset plays out, Land said. “Supporting Israel means we are going to advocate policies for which God will bless the United States.”
Huckabee grew up in poverty in a small town in Arkansas, where he attended a Missionary Baptist Church. A teenage friend’s wealthy father paid for Huckabee’s first trip to Israel so that the friend would not have to travel alone. The pair came to the country in 1973, just months before the Yom Kippur War, when a surprise attack by Egypt and Syria crushed Israel’s front line.
This trip inspired him to eventually create a business, Blue Diamond Travel, which brought religious pilgrims on similar trips. He has described how Americans who joined his tours fell in love with Israel like him and became supporters of the country.
“The Christian heritage is built on a Jewish foundation,” Huckabee told the Journal. “Without a Jewish basis, there is no Christianity.”
Huckabee said he had turned over his interest in Blue Diamond Travel to his son before he was confirmed as ambassador.
As ambassador, Huckabee has been an exceptionally strong supporter of Israel’s interests. He has visited many Israeli settlements west coast and have long pushed back against In most parts of the world they are considered illegal,
“There is no such thing as the West Bank. This is Judea and Samaria,” he said in 2017, using the Biblical term for the territory, to which he said Israel had the ownership deed. “There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as a business.” He has also questioned the notion of a separate Palestinian identity.
His comments have angered supporters of Palestinian statehood and raised concerns from some former US officials.
Huckabee stood by all those comments in his interview with the Journal. Regarding the annexation of the West Bank, which the US has long opposed, he said, “This is really a decision to take for the people here.”
“You can’t separate who you are, what your values are, what your worldview is, and I don’t try to separate myself from who I am,” Huckabee said in the interview. “When I give speeches, you know, I don’t try to do it in some sterile way as if I don’t have any ideas. Of course I do, and I express them, because I think it’s an honest thing that anyone should do.”
Write to Omar Abdel-Baqi omar.abdel-baqui@wsj.com
