(LifeSiteNews) – Populist podcaster Tucker Carlson formally disavowed his previous support for President Donald Trump, claiming to be “tormented” by his role in helping Trump return to the presidency.
During his Monday show, an interview with his brother and former Trump speechwriter Buckley Carlson, the former Fox News giant discussed breaking ranks with the president over his decision to launch military strikes on Iran starting February 28, an operation that continued all throughout March and is now awaiting the outcome of a tenuous ceasefire slated to end this week, which will determine whether hostilities resume or an agreement can be reached on the Islamist regime’s nuclear program and stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
“You wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him. I mean, we’re implicated in this, for sure,” Carlson said. “It’s not enough to say, ‘Well 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.”
.@TuckerCarlson says he’s “tormented” and “sorry” for helping elect Trump. “I misled people.” pic.twitter.com/9DkdfJxyd8
— LifeSiteNews (@LifeSite) April 21, 2026
“So I do think it’s like a moment to wrestle with our own consciences,” he continued. “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, and it was not intentional. That’s all I’ll say.”
After decades as a mainstream conservative media figure, Carlson rose to superstardom in 2017 when he became the permanent host in the Fox News primetime slot once held by Bill O’Reilly, finding great success by channeling what was perceived neglected common sense in an authentic and entertaining way.
In April 2023, however, Fox fired Carlson without explanation, prompting a flurry of speculation. Unconfirmed theories ranging from a costly defamation suit by voting machine company Dominion which Fox had settled just days before the ouster (despite Carlson himself having expressed skepticism about claims that Dominion was involved in “stealing” the 2020 election) and controversial claims about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to behind-the-scenes bad blood between himself and other Fox personnel.
Carlson quickly shifted to his current internet-based show, distributed across X, YouTube, and podcasting platforms, finding success in shifting his focus to long-form interviews with figures outside the political mainstream, such as Andrew Tate, Nick Fuentes, and Vladimir Putin, as well as a heavy emphasis on foreign affairs and in particular the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Carlson also ingratiated himself in Trump’s inner circle, establishing a rapport with presidential son Don Jr., speaking frequently with Trump himself by phone and at the White House, and reportedly even playing a key role in persuading Trump to select JD Vance as his running mate. Carlson formally endorsed Trump for the GOP’s 2024 nomination in December 2023, reversing his 2020 declarations in private text messages that he “passionately” hated Trump, whom he considered a “destroyer” whom he “can’t wait” for “being able to ignore.”
Conflict with Carlson’s loyalty to Trump and his non-interventionist streak first simmered last year, when he predicted a “strike on the Iranian nuclear sites will almost certainly result in thousands of American deaths at bases throughout the Middle East.” Trump disregarded those warnings and struck Iranian nuclear facilities last summer, but tensions between the two men largely receded after the brief operation failed to yield such a catastrophe.
Trump’s much more extensive and complicated actions in Iran this year, however, appear to have been the point of no return for the pair’s relationship.
Trump has repeatedly condemned Carlson and other former boosters for their stance. “I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years, especially by the fact that they think it is wonderful for Iran, the Number One State Sponsor of Terror, to have a Nuclear Weapon — Because they have one thing in common, Low IQs,” the president wrote on Truth Social April 9. “They’re stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it, too! … MAGA is about WINNING and STRENGTH in not allowing Iran to have Nuclear Weapons.”
Over the weekend, it was reported that Carlson’s son, also named Buckley, left his job in Vance’s office for a new consulting venture amid the collapsing relationship between the two camps, although the vice president’s office says the departure has been in the works since December.
Which side has the upper hand in the public relations battle is a more complicated question. RealClearPolitics’s polling average shows the Iran war is unpopular with the general public at 54.9 percent disapproval and 41.3 percent approval, but other polling shows 89 percent of self-identified MAGA supporters approve of the strikes.