Tucker Carlson has issued a striking admission of regret over his backing of Donald Trump, telling his brother on his podcast that he feels "tormented" by the choice and apologizing for "misleading people" during the 2024 campaign.
The conservative podcaster made the confession during a Monday episode of The Tucker Carlson Show, in a conversation with his brother Buckley Carlson, a former Trump speechwriter. The exchange centered on how the Republican Party has shifted away from traditional conservative values under Trump's leadership.
"You know, we'll be tormented by it for a long time, I will be," Carlson said. "And I want to say I'm sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional, that's all I'll say."
Carlson's pivot represents a dramatic reversal. In 1999, he had called Trump "the single most repulsive person on the planet." But before Trump's 2016 victory, Carlson was among the first to signal that the businessman deserved serious consideration. He remained a steadfast supporter through the 2024 race, even appearing at a campaign rally just five days before Election Day.
The falling out has centered on U.S. support for Israel and a war involving Iran that began in late February. Carlson labeled Trump's rhetoric on the conflict "vile on every level" and laid bare his sense of complicity in Trump's return to power.
"You and I and everyone else who supported him, you wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him, I mean we're implicated in this for sure," he told his brother. "It's not enough to say 'Well, I changed my mind' or like 'Oh, this is bad, I'm out.' In very small ways, but in real ways, you and me and millions of people like us are the reason this is happening right now."
Carlson's comments arrived as Trump has been attacking rightwing figures who once championed his movement. Trump posted on social media calling Carlson "a Low IQ person, Always easy to beat, and highly overrated." The president also vowed to release "a list of good, bad, and somewhere in the middle" supporters of his Make America Great Again movement.
Earlier in April, Carlson had told Newsmax: "I've always liked Trump and still feel sorry for him, as I do for all slaves. He's hemmed in by other forces. He can't make his own decisions. It's awful to watch."
That sentiment hardened after Trump launched attacks on Pope Leo XIV, a U.S.-born critic of the Iran war, and posted an AI image depicting himself as Jesus Christ. Carlson addressed the provocations directly on his podcast, questioning whether Trump could be "the antichrist." He noted the president was "mocking Jesus" and "making fun of Christianity," calling it a troubling development.
On Monday, Carlson doubled down on his criticism of the Iran conflict, claiming Trump "clearly had no plan for it, wasn't enthusiastic about it, was fully aware of the risks, fully aware that it was a betrayal of his explicit promises for 10 years not to do this. He did it and did it against his will."
Carlson's journey to independent media began when Fox News fired him in 2023 after 14 years at the cable network. The dismissal followed Fox's $787.5 million settlement with voting machine maker Dominion over false claims that the company had orchestrated a plot to steal the 2020 presidential election. He launched his own podcast and media operation, though not without controversy. In October, he interviewed white supremacist Nick Fuentes, drawing widespread criticism.
Previous scandals have included promoting testicle tanning during his Fox tenure and enthusiastically praising a Russian grocery store he visited in 2024, two years after that country's military invasion of Ukraine.
Author James Rodriguez: "Carlson's confession reads less like genuine soul-searching and more like a public falling-out with a benefactor who no longer finds him useful."
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