Tucker Carlson is claiming he was effectively “detained” and interrogated by Israeli authorities the moment he landed in Tel Aviv turning what officials describe as routine airport questioning into what he portrays as a “bizarre” confrontation.

Carlson, who traveled to Israel for a planned sit down with former Arkansas governor and U.S. Ambassador nominee Mike Huckabee, said airport officials confiscated passports and pulled members of his team aside for questioning about the nature of their visit. According to Carlson, his executive producer was taken into a separate room and pressed about the content of their upcoming interview.

The former Fox News host described the encounter as far from ordinary passport control, suggesting Israeli authorities were scrutinizing him over his recent commentary on Israel and the war in Gaza.

U.S. embassy officials quickly pushed back, saying the questioning amounted to standard entry screening procedures that countless visitors experience every day at Ben Gurion Airport. No formal detention was recorded, and Carlson was ultimately allowed to enter the country without charges or restriction.

But Carlson framed the episode as something far more sinister, implying that raising questions about Israel now triggers state level suspicion, even for American journalists.

Carlson told the Daily Mail exclusively that shortly after the interview, Israeli officials confiscated his passport and hauled off his executive producer to an interrogation room. 

‘Men who identified themselves as airport security took our passports, hauled our executive producer into a side room and then demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about,’ Carlson told the Daily Mail. 

‘It was bizarre. We’re now out of the country.’ 

A spokesperson for the US embassy in Israel denied that Carlson was detained and claimed he ‘received the same passport control questions that countless visitors to Israel including Ambassador Huckabee and other diplomats receive as part of normal entrance and exit from Israel.’

‘It is not accurate that Israel only was going to let Tucker into the country for the interview,’ the spokesperson added. ‘The only engagement the Embassy had with Israel about his visit was to coordinate his private plane landing as part of facilitating a seamless visit. It was Tucker who chose to only come into the country for a few hours and depart. And Tucker received the same positive treatment of any visitors to Israel.’

Either way, Carlson turned a passport stamp into a political spectacle and ensured the story traveled far beyond the airport terminal.