Mr Tucker Carlson, who was often at US President Donald Trump’s side during the 2024 presidential campaign, is now expressing remorse for that support, saying he will long be “tormented” by his role helping Mr Trump return to the White House.
Mr Carlson, a titan of conservative media who has broken sharply with Mr Trump over the war with Iran, acknowledged that he was part of the “reason this is happening right now”, referring to the conflict.
“It’s not enough to say, well, I changed my mind – or like, oh, this is bad, I’m out,” Mr Carlson said in an episode of his podcast released on April 20.
“It’s a moment to wrestle with our own consciences,” Mr Carlson said on the podcast, speaking with his brother Buckley, a former speechwriter for Trump. “We’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be. And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people.”
Mr Carlson, a former Fox News host and a longtime opponent of American foreign interventions, has feuded with Mr Trump and his allies for weeks over the war, which most Americans oppose, according to opinion polls.
He appeared particularly appalled by a threat Mr Trump made to Iran on social media on Easter Sunday that the country would be “living in hell” if it did not open the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping route that has been clogged during the war. After the post, Mr Carlson urged White House officials to stand up to the president, saying that Mr Trump’s behaviour was “evil”.
Mr Trump fired back at Mr Carlson and other conservative critics of the war in a lengthy Truth Social post two weeks ago, describing them as “Fools” and suggesting that Mr Carlson should “see a good psychiatrist”. In the post, Mr Trump said that Mr Carlson, who was dismissed by Fox News in 2023, had “never been the same” after he left the network.
Asked for comment on Mr Carlson’s remarks, the White House pointed to Mr Trump’s social media commentary.
On April 17, Mr Trump continued to lob insults at Mr Carlson on social media, writing that “Tucker is a Low IQ person – Always easy to beat, and highly overrated.”
One of the president’s allies, the far-right activist Laura Loomer, wrote on social media on April 20 that Mr Carlson was “trying to hand our country over to the Democrats”.
Mr Carlson, a right-wing brawler prone to spreading conspiratorial views, was once Fox News’ most popular prime-time host, and his TV programme was all but mandatory for many conservatives during Mr Trump’s first term.
But he was ousted by Fox News after it agreed to pay US$787.5 million (S$1 billion) to resolve a lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems over the network’s promotion of 2020 election misinformation. The case exposed instances in which Mr Carlson denigrated colleagues and privately attacked Mr Trump. In a text from Jan 4, 2021, that the case surfaced, Mr Carlson wrote of Mr Trump: “I hate him passionately.”
By 2024, Mr Carlson had re-emerged as a popular podcaster and smoothed out tensions with Mr Trump. Mr Carlson was among those who lobbied Mr Trump to choose J.D. Vance as his running mate.
When Mr Trump made a dramatic appearance at the Republican National Convention in July 2024, days after he was shot in the ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvaniaa, Mr Carlson was the first person to greet him.
Cameras later captured the two chuckling together in Mr Trump’s box at the convention in Milwaukee. From the stage of the convention, Mr Carlson described Mr Trump as “the funniest person I have ever met in my life.”
“He’s a wonderful person,” Mr Carlson said. “I know him well.” NYTIMES