For years, Tucker Carlson made a name for himself on cable television and built a loyal following through attacks on Democrats, rival network news hosts, and other leading enemies of the right.
Now the conservative political podcaster and social media personality is turning his fire on the company that helped build him up — and then terminated him three years ago after he served as a staple of its prime-time lineup: Fox News.
Carlson, who opposed U.S. intervention in the Israeli-Iran war, has ripped Fox over its coverage of the conflict.
“The Murdochs really hate Trump,” Carlson said during a recent episode of his online commentary and interview show. “I got fired in April of 2023. In May of 2023, they asked me to run for president against Trump and said they would back me.”
His battle with his former employer underscores the MAGA fight for the president’s ear.
Anti-war MAGA figures like Carlson are worried that Fox News, which has been reliably supportive of calls to attack Iran, has had too much influence on President Trump, who last Saturday ordered strikes on three Iranian nuclear plans.
Trump is known to watch media coverage of his decisionmaking as president closely and in real time, placing particular stake in how things “play” on Fox, those around him say.
The New York Times reported several top advisers to the president are irritated Carlson is no longer at Fox, fearing Trump was not hearing enough of a more isolationist argument when deciding whether to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Carlson has made this argument explicit, saying Fox is engaging in pro-war “propaganda” as part of an effort to “scare old people” and benefit the “warmongers” running the network.
As Carlson hosted a conversation with Steve Bannon, a former top White House aide who also is known for taking shots at the Murdoch family, Carlson remarked it “feels like Fox is playing a central role in the pro-war push.”
“They’re doing the thing they always do,” he said. “Turning up the propaganda hose to full blast and just knock elderly Fox viewers off their feet and make them submit to a new war.”
Mark Levin, a weekend Fox News host and conservative talk radio firebrand, has been a target of Carlson’s and has often pushed back.
Levin, who often raises his voice and shakes as he speaks with passionate bombast, has advocated for more military action against Iran and called Carlson out by name over his previous positions on the Middle East when he worked as a host on the more liberal CNN and MSNBC.
“His preposterously hysterical warnings about what would happen if the president acted militarily against Iran’s nuclear sites were illustrative of his unhinged bravado,” Levin wrote on social media of his former fellow Fox host. “He’s very proud of his depraved insanity.”
Levin then called Carlson “Qatarlson,” a play on Qatar, an ally of Iran.
“Qatarlson has been a liberal, a libertarian, an actual neo-con, a conservative, and today just a simple reprobate who has much in common with Bernie Sanders and Rashida Tlaib,” Levin said.
Fox News did not comment on criticisms from Carlson, Bannon and others in recent days, though the network did send a press release on Tuesday celebrating its industry-leading ratings during the U.S. military strike on Iran.
Carlson has turned some of his criticism on Trump himself, surprising many in media and political circles when he blasted the president as “complicit” in the escalating violence in the Middle East.
Those comments earned the commentator a rare rebuke from the president, who called him “kooky” in a social media post last week.
Later, Trump told reporters he had spoken to Carlson by phone and the two had reconciled.
“DJT and Tucker are good,” one source with knowledge of the dynamic told The Hill this week. “And this thing getting wrapped up so quickly basically stopped a major civil war on the right.”
But the war between Carlson and Fox appears far from over.
“All of this is deranged,” Carlson said again this week after playing for his online audience clips from Fox hosts and guests warning about the dangers of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons and advocating for regime change in Tehran.
“These are all people who hate Trump,” he said of GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Ted Cruz (Texas) and others featured in the montage, all of whom see themselves as allies of the president.
Carlson earned a flurry of headlines and even some rare praise from liberals last week for an interview he conducted with Cruz days earlier questioning the lawmaker on the merits of U.S. involvement in the Middle East and quizzing him on basic facts about Iran.
The two battled when Cruz — who has made regular appearances on Fox in recent weeks to advocate for a stronger U.S. posture toward Iran, primarily on pundit Sean Hannity’s prime-time program — acknowledged he did not know the population of Iran.
Some observers say Carlson is also playing a game to his own benefit.
“Tucker Carlson is doing what he does best, which is playing the role of Tucker Carlson,” said Peter Loge, a professor of politics and communications at George Washington University. “If he isn’t outraged or shouting at people in power, he isn’t doing his job. Biting hands is how Tucker Carlson pays the bills.”
If Fox News’s coverage leans pro-Trump and approves of his decision to launch strikes at Iran, that is also a conscious choice by the network, one GOP political operative said.
“This is pretty made for TV, all of it. It’s a deliberate strategy by Fox to keep people watching,” the Republican political operative said.
This source also said Trump will continue to play to both sides.
“Trump recognizes the following Tucker has but he also knows he needs Fox. He’s one for flattery, so he’s going to weigh both sides of it, but we know he’s ultimately going to do what he sees fit,” the operative said.
