Tucker Carlson, the conservative podcaster, has said he is “tormented” by his support for Donald Trump, issuing an extraordinary apology to his supporters. In a conversation with his brother Buckley Carlson on The Tucker Carlson Show, he admitted misleading people and called for a moment to “wrestle with our own consciences”.
Carlson, who backed Trump during the 2024 election campaign and spoke at a rally five days before election night, said he took personal responsibility for the president’s return to power. “You and I and everyone else who supported him … we’re implicated in this for sure,” he told his brother.
The rift between Carlson and Trump has deepened over US support for Israel and the war in Iran, which began in late February. Carlson described Trump’s language on Iran as “vile on every level” and criticised the president’s lack of a plan for the conflict. He also questioned whether Trump could be “the antichrist” after the president mocked Pope Leo XIV and posted an AI image of himself as Jesus Christ.
Trump retaliated with a social media post calling Carlson a “Low IQ person – Always easy to beat, and highly overrated!!!” and threatened to produce a list of supporters ranked by loyalty. The exchange underscores growing tensions within the Make America Great Again movement.
Carlson’s disavowal marks a stark reversal from years of public support. In 2020, he extolled Trump’s “America first” agenda, and in 2024, he praised him at the Republican National Convention. However, it emerged during the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit that Carlson had privately called the first Trump presidency a “disaster” and said he hated Trump “passionately”.
