Tucker Carlson distances himself from Republican Party
Longtime conservative commentator Tucker Carlson has publicly denied that he will support Republicans in the midterm elections.
Tucker Carlson said he would no longer support the Republican Party ahead of the November midterm elections.
The longtime conservative commentator and “consistent defender” of the Republican Party said there was “no chance at all that I would support the Republican Party” during a speech on the podcast “Cannot Censor.”
“I’m not going to support the Democratic Party,” Carlson, 56, said on the June 18 episode. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. But at this point, how can I support a party that has no loyalty to the United States? How can I or any American voter support a party that puts foreign interests ahead of the interests of its own people?”
The ousted Fox News host, the network’s most popular host, has become increasingly critical of President Donald Trump in recent days, especially after Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran in February. Carlson has repeatedly criticized the war as being ordered by Israel and at the expense of the American people, and attacked his party for not representing his own voters, people and country.
“They’re making decisions based on other criteria, like what’s best for this company, what’s best for Israel, what’s best for our donors,” he said. “They’re going in the wrong direction. It’s unacceptable, it’s treasonous, it’s immoral, we can’t continue this.”
Carlson said he has “consistently defended the Republican Party for 35 years,” but “nobody defends this.”
“So, no, I’m absent. And if I’m absent, I think a lot of other people are going to be absent too,” he added.
Carlson previously apologized for “misleading” the public.
Carlson previously said he and other Republicans were “involved” in Operation Epic Fury, calling it “absolutely disgusting and evil” and expressing regret for helping Trump become president.
“You and I and others who supported him, you wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him, so we definitely have a hand in this,” Carlson said in a conversation with his brother Buckley Carlson, a former Republican speechwriter, on the Monday, April 20 episode of “The Tucker Carlson Show.” “It’s not enough to just say, ‘I changed my mind,’ or, ‘Oh, this is bad, I’m not going to do it anymore.’ It’s a very small thing, but in a very real sense, you and I and millions of people like us are like the reason this is happening right now. ”
Although Mr. Tucker supported Mr. Trump in the 2024 election, he most notably fell out with Mr. Trump in 2025, when he and other MAGA figures cited his 2024 White House campaign promise to “prevent World War III” and press for the U.S. military to stay out of the Israeli-Iranian conflict. At the time, the former Fox News host accused President Trump of being “complicit in an act of war” in a newsletter.
“We’re going to suffer from that for a long time,” he said. “That’s going to happen. And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people. It wasn’t intentional. That’s all I can say.”
Contributor: Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact her at sshafiq@usatodayco.com and follow X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
