Trump–Carlson feud
The Trump–Carlson feud refers to the ongoing public dispute between U.S. president Donald Trump and conservative media personality Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host and podcaster. Once close political allies, the two have engaged in escalating public clashes primarily rooted in disagreements over U.S. foreign policy particularly the American military intervention in Iran and Carlson's accusations that Trump had betrayed the America First movement he campaigned on.
Carlson, who had been one of Trump's most prominent media backers throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, began criticizing the administration's foreign policy direction as early as June 2025. After a brief reconciliation, the feud resumed in earnest following joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in February 2026, leading Carlson to publicly denounce the president in unusually harsh terms. In April 2026, Carlson apologized on his podcast for having "misled" supporters into voting for Trump, calling the moment a cause for personal torment.
Tucker Carlson and Trump: early tensions
Tucker Carlson served as a prime-time host at Fox News for nearly two decades before his contract was terminated in April 2023, after which he launched The Tucker Carlson Show, an independent podcast and media platform that quickly amassed millions of subscribers across multiple platforms.
Despite publicly supporting Trump's political agenda for years, Carlson privately harbored reservations about Trump. Text messages released during the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox News revealed that, following the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, Carlson had described Trump as someone who was "only good at destroying things" and wrote that he "hated him passionately." He also suggested Trump's first term had been a failure, writing that "We're all pretending we've got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it's been is too tough to digest."
2024 alliance and election
Despite the private tension, Carlson became an increasingly vocal Trump supporter in the run-up to the 2024 United States presidential election. After the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago in 2022, Carlson told Roseanne Barr in an interview that he had "always agreed with Trump's policies" and described himself as an "active Trump supporter" from that point forward.
At the 2024 Republican National Convention in July 2024, Carlson gave a prime-time address in which he praised Trump as a "wonderful person" and described Trump's survival of the [...] attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania as "divine intervention." Donald Trump Jr. reportedly stated at the time that he would have been satisfied with either JD Vance or Carlson as his father's running mate.
Carlson subsequently joined Trump on the campaign trail, conducting high-profile interviews with the candidate and appearing at rallies, including at Madison Square Garden in October 2024 and a live interview at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on October 31, 2024.
Following Trump's victory in the 2024 election, Carlson met with the incoming president at the White House on multiple occasions and was described by some reports as serving in an informal advisory capacity during the early months of the second Trump administration.
First phase: June 2025
By mid-2025, Carlson began publicly criticizing the Trump administration's foreign policy, particularly regarding the Middle East and early signals that the administration might support Israeli military action against Iran. In June 2025, ahead of U.S. participation in strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites alongside Israel, Carlson urged Trump to stay out of the conflict, framing any military intervention as a betrayal of the "America First" posture on which Trump had campaigned.
Trump responded by publicly labeling Carlson "kooky" in posts on Truth Social, a nickname he applied to several conservative media figures who broke with his administration's foreign policy positions. Carlson's interviews with foreign leaders including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had already raised eyebrows in MAGA circles, with critics questioning whether he was acting as a journalist or a vehicle for America's adversaries.
The two men subsequently mended their differences, with Trump telling reporters that Carlson had called him to apologize, and public appearances suggested a temporary thaw in the relationship. Carlson was still photographed at the White House in January 2026, attending a meeting with oil executives in the East Room.
U.S. strikes on Iran and renewed rupture
On February 28, 2026, the United States joined Israel in launching major strikes on Iran in what Trump announced as the beginning of "major combat operations." The decision prompted an immediate and fierce backlash from Carlson, who condemned the joint attack as "absolutely disgusting and evil" in an interview with ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl, adding that it would "shuffle the deck in a profound way" for Trump's political movement.
Carlson branded the military campaign "Israel's war" and accused Trump of being beholden to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "ambitions," calling the president a "slave" to Israel. The remarks drew accusations of antisemitism from some quarters, which Carlson denied.
Easter Sunday post
Tensions escalated further after Trump posted a vulgar message on Truth Social on Easter Sunday threatening Iran with strikes on civilian infrastructure: "Tuesday will be power plant day, and bridge day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it! Open the f--kin' Strait, you crazy b-stards, or you'll be living in hell. Just watch. Praise be to Allah."
Carlson described the post as "vile on every level," accusing Trump of threatening what amounted to "a [...], a moral crime, against the people of the country." He condemned in particular the post's use of the phrase "Praise be to Allah," which he characterized as mocking Islam on one of Christianity's holiest days. "How dare you speak that way on Easter morning to the country," Carlson said on his show. "Who do you think you are?"
AI-generated religious imagery
Carlson was also among the conservative commentators who criticized Trump for posting an AI-generated image depicting himself as a robed, luminous figure evoking Jesus Christ, which circulated online after Trump publicly clashed with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war. The image was later deleted, and Trump maintained it was intended to depict him as a doctor rather than a religious figure. Carlson rejected the explanation and later called a subsequent AI-generated image of Trump being embraced by Jesus a "mockery" of religion.
Last White House meeting
According to Carlson's own account, the final time he visited the Oval Office was in February 2026, where he and Trump argued about the "war in the Middle East." Carlson later told the Wall Street Journal that during the meeting, Trump raised accusations that Carlson was an antisemite, and that the president appeared "sad and resigned." Carlson said he left in a state of disbelief.
Reflecting on what he described as the system's power over any individual, Carlson told the Journal: "If anything, Trump just proved the system was stronger than him." He also said: "Trump has proven his own point, unfortunately, which is that the people running your government are only about themselves."
Trump's counterattacks
Trump responded to Carlson and other dissenting conservative media figures including Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones with a series of Truth Social posts characterizing them as having "Low IQs." In one lengthy post, Trump linked to a CNN poll suggesting he remained more favorable with the public than Carlson, and accused the group of abandoning conservatism for personal attention.
CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings was skeptical of Carlson's break with Trump, questioning whether Carlson's alternative had been for Kamala Harris to become president. On the Iran issue, Jennings argued Carlson should have foreseen Trump's position: "Is he now claiming he had no idea that Donald Trump held the position that he would never permit Iran to have nuclear weapons?"
Buckley Carlson departs Vance's office
The rift between Carlson and Trump reverberated within the administration. Buckley Carlson, the 28-year-old son of Tucker Carlson, who had served as a deputy press secretary in Vice President JD Vance's office since January 2025, departed the position in April 2026 to start his own political consulting firm. The vice president's office stated that Buckley had decided to leave in December 2025 and had stayed on to ensure a smooth transition, though the timing drew considerable attention amid the widening public feud between Tucker Carlson and the White House. Trump critic Laura Loomer had previously raised questions about the younger Carlson's continued employment given the elder Carlson's criticism of the president.
April 2026: Public apology
On April 21, 2026, Carlson recorded an episode of The Tucker Carlson Show with his brother Buckley Carlson a former Trump campaign speechwriter in which he offered a formal apology to his audience for having supported and promoted Trump during the 2024 campaign. "You wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him. I mean, we're implicated in this, for sure," Carlson told his brother.
Carlson said it was "not enough to say 'well, I changed my mind,'" adding: "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 a moment to wrestle with our own consciences. 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."
Carlson also told the Wall Street Journal that he had assumed Trump was sincere in his America First commitments and said that after the 2024 election, "Trump changed dramatically."
Conservative media
Carlson's denunciation of Trump was noted as part of a broader pattern of prominent MAGA-aligned media figures expressing disillusionment with the administration, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones all of whom had also raised concerns about Trump's Iran policy and had suggested invoking the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to remove him from office. Megyn Kelly also publicly criticized Trump over the Iran war and his feud with the pope without formally apologizing for past support.
Dr. Mark Shanahan, associate professor of political engagement at the University of Surrey, told TIME that the feud fit a broader pattern of Trump's leadership style. "The whole of Trump's presidency is based on public feud. This is a media President whose character was created by the media. He has to win, and in order for him to win, somebody else has to lose. The spats he's had across the media are a microcosm of that."
Despite the high-profile defections, Trump retained strong approval ratings within his Republican base. A 2025 Pew Research Center study found that just 9% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they often got their news from the Tucker Carlson Network, raising questions about the extent of Carlson's influence over Trump voters.
Potential presidential candidacy
Carlson has long been mentioned as a potential future presidential candidate in his own right. He was influential in JD Vance's selection as Trump's running mate in 2024, and about 7 in 10 Trump voters viewed him favorably in a 2024 national poll. CNN's analysis noted that the Iran war had emerged as a potential growing weakness for Trump beyond his core MAGA base, though it remained unclear how definitively Carlson's break would affect the broader Republican electorate.
See also
- Trump–Musk feud
- Second presidency of Donald Trump
- Tucker Carlson
- 2026 United States–Israel strikes on Iran
- America First (policy)