Tucker Carlson extends his regrets for assisting in a second Trump presidency.
The right-wing commentator and ousted Fox News host has become increasingly critical of President Donald Trump in recent years, especially regarding the Trump administration’s war in Iran. Carlson, 56, said he and fellow Republicans are “implicated” in “Operation Epic Fury,” which Carlson called “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,” he said on a Monday, April 20, episode of “The Tucker Carlson Show,” in conversation with his former GOP speechwriter brother, Buckley Carlson. “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.”
In a response to a request for comment, the White House pointed to Trump’s April 9 Truth Social post, which criticized Tucker Carlson and other conservative commentators who have broken with him over the war – including Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens and Alex Jones – saying they they have “Low IQs” and are “stupid people.”
Carlson told his brother, who wrote speeches for Trump back in 2015, that the current situation is “a moment to wrestle with our own consciences.”
“We’ll be tormented by it for a long time,” he said. “I will be. And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional. That’s all I’ll say.”
Comments on the episode, which has over 500,000 views, expressed similar regrets, with viewers citing the war, the president’s association with Israel, the handling of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the response to the Epstein files as their breaking point.
“The question is, what is this?” Carlson asked. “Was this always the plan? You don’t want to be a conspiracy nut, but clearly, there were signs of low character. We knew that.”
Tucker, who endorsed Trump in the 2024 election, most notably broke with Trump in 2025 when he and other MAGA figures pressed for the U.S. military to stay out of Israel’s conflict with Iran, citing his 2024 White House campaign promise to “prevent World War III.” At the time, the former Fox News host accused Trump of being “complicit in the act of war” in a newsletter.
Trump hit back at Carlson while fielding questions from reporters. “I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen,” Trump said.
And in 2023, while Carlson still had his show on Fox News, reports came out that he and other hosts privately criticized Trump’s claims of election fraud after the 2020 election. On Jan. 6, 2021, the day the U.S. Capitol was stormed by a pro-Trump mob as Congress sought to certify the results of the election, Carlson texted his producer that Trump is “a demonic force, a destroyer. But he’s not going to destroy us.”
Contributing: Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tucker Carlson says he’ll be ‘tormented’ for helping get Trump elected
Reporting by Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY Network / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
