Tucker Carlson, increasingly at odds with Donald Trump over the Iran War, has expressed buyer’s remorse over his role in getting the president elected.
The former Fox News star said he expects to be “tormented by it for a long time.” Hosting his own brother, Republican operative Buckley Carlson, on his self-titled show Monday, the conservative continued his recent run of attacking Trump, which began with him calling Operation Epic Fury “absolutely disgusting and evil.”
“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,” Tucker Carlson told his sibling, expressing genuine contrition.
“It’s not enough to say, ‘I changed my mind.’ Or like, ‘Oh this is bad, I’m out.’ It’s like, 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.
“So I do think it’s like a moment to wrestle with our own consciences. You know, we’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be. And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional. That’s all I’ll say.”
Not finished there, he pivoted towards attacking Trump’s character.
“But the question is, what is this?” he asked. “Was this always the plan? You don’t want to be a conspiracy nut but, like, clearly there were signs of low character, we knew that, but it didn’t…
“There are tons of people of low character who, like, outperform their character. It doesn’t have to be …”
“Sort of the norm, actually, these days!” Buckley Carlson broke in, easing the tension as the pair erupted into hysterical laughter.
The brothers went on to discuss the two attempts on Trump’s life during the campaign – at Butler, Pennsylvania, and later at his Florida golf club – suggesting serious investigations into those incidents had been “stymied” by senior officials.
The pair also questioned the president’s loyalty to anyone other than his very wealthiest donors.
“The only people he has been loyal to are the neocons and his donors,” Tucker said bitterly.
While the pundit stumped for Trump in 2024, his personal reservations about the politician had been made public well before then.
In court filings from Dominion Voting Systems as part of its lawsuit against Fox News, Carlson’s former employers, it emerged that he had referred to Trump in private texts with colleagues as a “demonic force” who “could easily destroy us.”
The Carlson family’s break with the Trump administration continued Monday when it emerged that Tucker's son, also named Buckley Carlson, left his role as Vice President JD Vance’s deputy press secretary to set up his own consulting agency, a decision officials said was made before the war began.
Since leaving Fox and particularly since the first airstrikes on Tehran fell, Tucker Carlson has been highly critical of Israel’s part in it, recently suggesting it was time for the U.S. to “detach” from Jerusalem and “treat them like we treat every other country – as an ally but with restrictions and reservations, and redlines.”
His regular attacks on Israel and American “Christian Zionists” like U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who support its cause, have seen Carlson routinely labeled an antisemite, an accusation he has rejected, saying it is “immoral in my religion… to hate people for how they were born.”
One of Carlson’s sharpest critics on that score has been MAGA rival and Iran hawk Ben Shapiro, whom the former rebuked on his show Monday, saying he had made “many attacks on Jesus,” without offering examples.
Shapiro referred to Carlson and fellow podcaster Theo Von as “garbage” on a recent episode of his own program.
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