LOS ANGELES (BN24) — Actor John Cusack sparked controversy over the weekend after declaring that Iran should acquire nuclear weapons to counter what he called unrestrained U.S. and Israeli aggression across the Middle East, remarks that came days after President Donald Trump ordered a major military assault on Iranian targets.
Cusack, known for films including Say Anything and High Fidelity, posted his comments on X last Friday, writing that nuclear weapons are “the only way to deter U.S. and Israel from bombing every country in Middle East.”
“Iran will surely rush to get a nuclear weapon—and they should get one,” Cusack wrote to his nearly 2 million followers, underscoring his support for Tehran’s nuclear ambitions as a counterbalance to American and Israeli power.
The remarks arrived less than a week after Trump announced a wave of airstrikes that targeted three Iranian facilities suspected of developing nuclear weapons. According to the Pentagon, B-2 stealth bombers on June 21 dropped 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on sites across Iran in what the president called “a spectacular military success.”
Cusack has for months been openly critical of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and recent cross-border clashes with Iran. In a series of posts prior to endorsing an Iranian nuclear arsenal, he accused the United States of aligning itself with what he described as a “genocidal regime” in Israel.
“Blind allegiance for Israel is alliance to a genocidal regeme—it’s a nation state—run [by] a murderous gangster—not some fixed star,” he wrote in another message, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Cusack also condemned Israeli strikes in Lebanon, which Israeli defense officials have said targeted Hezbollah positions in retaliation for rocket attacks.
“Israel bombs Lebanon! Well, they can’t have any days when they are not illegally bombing someone while the US grovels,” he wrote.
The Oscar-nominated actor did not stop at foreign policy. He weighed in on domestic politics as well, praising democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, calling it a “f— you to billionaires, dem establishment, and the genocide in Gaza—the bombing of Iran.”
Cusack’s comments quickly drew backlash from conservative critics who accused him of legitimizing nuclear proliferation and minimizing the threat posed by a nuclear-armed Iran. But the actor, who has long been outspoken about U.S. military interventions and Middle East policy, did not retract his statements over the weekend.
Neither the White House nor the Israeli government responded publicly to Cusack’s remarks. Trump has repeatedly defended the June 21 strikes as necessary to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, saying Tehran’s nuclear ambitions were a red line for U.S. security.
Foxnews
