Tucker Carlson Apologises for Backing Trump, Says He Will Be 'Tormented' by Role in His Election

On Monday, on his own podcast, Tucker Carlson told his brother Buckley that he expects to be tormented for a long time by the part he played in getting Donald Trump elected. Buckley had written speeches for Trump in 2015, and he was the guest on The Tucker Carlson Show. Carlson said he was sorry for misleading people.

He did not frame it as a simple change of heart. Carlson told his brother that the two of them, and everyone else who backed Trump, were implicated, one writing speeches and the other campaigning. In his words, it is not enough to say you changed your mind. He added that the misleading was not intentional. He also conceded that there had been signs of low character, though he said plenty of people of low character outperform it.

The apology lands against the backdrop of the Iran war, which the former Fox News host has opposed from the start. He is not alone among MAGA media figures: Megyn Kelly, Alex Jones and Candace Owens have also been at odds with Trump over the conflict.

The reversal is large because of how long Carlson stood on the other side. According to The Guardian, he saw Trump's potential before most commentators when Trump first ran, even though in 1999 he had called Trump the single most repulsive person on the planet. Rolling Stone reports that during the 2016 campaign he praised Trump's strange charisma. At Fox News he was among Trump's biggest boosters, rivaled perhaps only by Sean Hannity, who recently said he was choosing Trump over the Pope. By 2020 Carlson backed the America First agenda and repeated Trump's false claims that the election was rigged for Joe Biden.

Privately, the tone was different. Text messages made public in Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuit show Carlson calling Trump demonic around the time of the Capitol insurrection and writing that he hated him passionately and could not handle much more. In public he held the line. He described the January 6 rioters as patriots and confused tourists, and in 2024 he campaigned for Trump, including a rally with him in Arizona. He called Trump a national leader and said the attempted assassination had transformed him.

The Iran war appears to have ended that. Carlson has said Trump had no plan, was not enthusiastic, knew the risks, and knew the war betrayed ten years of explicit promises, yet did it against his own will. Trump's feud with Pope Leo XIV, and his posting of AI-generated images linking himself to Jesus, deepened the break. Carlson said Trump was mocking Jesus and Christianity, and wondered aloud whether he might be the antichrist, adding, "who knows?" He told Newsmax in April that he still feels sorry for Trump, as he does for all slaves, saying Trump is hemmed in by other forces and cannot make his own decisions.

His language has grown sharper. Carlson called Trump's Easter Sunday post vile on every level and said the threat to bomb infrastructure was a war crime. He urged US military officials to refuse orders to kill civilians, and said that if Trump wanted a nuclear strike on Iran they should tell him to figure out the codes on the football himself.

Trump has answered in kind. Earlier this month on Truth Social he called Carlson, Kelly and Owens stupid people and troublemakers who will say anything for cheap publicity, and claimed they share low IQs. He said Carlson calls him all the time and that he does not respond, preferring smart people to fools.

Skepticism is likely. The article notes the apology comes as Trump has become the most unpopular president in modern history and as Republican chances of holding Congress are fading. Whether other MAGA voices follow Carlson, and how that plays in the midterm picture, is what to watch next.