Fact Check: Was Netanyahu’s security caught attaching a device to Trump’s vehicle?

WASHINGTON, DC: Amid the conflict in the Middle East, following a joint operation by the United States and Israel against Iran, political commentator Tucker Carlson has claimed that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s security detail was caught attaching a device to President Donald Trump’s vehicle. Let us fact-check the viral claim.

Claim: Israel planted a device on Donald Trump's vehicle

Carlson made the claim during his interview with Joe Kent, who stepped down as President Donald Trump’s counterterrorism chief. 

Carlson claimed that Netanyahu’s security detail was caught twice by the Secret Service, attaching some device to the President’s Secret Service emergency response vehicle. In response to Carlson’s remark, Kent said that he had read that in the media, but did not give any further details about it.  

The clip from the interview is going viral on various social media platforms, garnering hundreds of thousands of views.

Fact Check: Unconfirmed, claim could not be independently verified

A Politico report from September 2019 suggested that Israel is likely to have planted mobile phone spying devices near the White House and other sensitive locations in the US capital over the past two years. The report cited three former US officials.

The report further said that the US government concluded Israeli operatives were most likely to have put them in place to spy on Donald Trump and his associates, but the office of the Israeli prime minister rejected the accusations as a 'blatant lie', saying the country had a longstanding commitment 'not to engage in any intelligence operations in the US​.'

However, the report could not be independently verified.

Joe Kent blames Israel for strikes on Iran

Kent opened up about his sudden resignation in a wide-ranging interview with Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, March 18, offering a blunt critique of the US decision to strike Iran.

Kent, who stepped down earlier this week, used the conversation to question the reasoning behind the military action and argue that the United States was pulled into the conflict by outside influence rather than a direct threat.

During the interview, Kent made it clear he believes the decision to take military action was not driven solely by US interests. “The Israelis drove the decision to take this action,” Kent told Carlson.

He argued that officials were aware of the consequences such a move would trigger. “Which we knew would set off a series of events, meaning the Iranians would retaliate,” he added.