Public opinion and media debates around Tucker Carlson—discover key moments of controversy.
Tucker Carlson is an American conservative political commentator known for hosting Tucker on X and previously Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News. A prominent figure in right-wing media, he was a strong advocate for Donald Trump and his political ideology. However, in 2026, Carlson publicly retracted his support for Trump, apologizing for previously promoting him. Carlson's views and commentary have made him a significant, albeit controversial, voice in American political discourse.
In 1999, Tucker Carlson interviewed then-Governor George W. Bush for Talk magazine. The piece included Bush mocking Karla Faye Tucker and using the word "fuck", leading to bad publicity for Bush's 2000 presidential campaign.
In 2000, The article from 1999, led to bad publicity for Bush's 2000 presidential campaign.
In October 2004, Jon Stewart appeared on Crossfire to promote America (The Book) but criticized the show for harming political discourse, singling out Tucker Carlson.
In 2006, Tucker Carlson made racist comments including that Iraq was not worth invading because he believed it to be a country made up of "semi-literate primitive monkeys" and "lunatic Muslims who are behaving like animals".
In 2007, Senator Barack Obama made controversial statements that were later publicized by Tucker Carlson in 2012.
In 2008, Jeremiah Wright's sermons sparked controversy in Obama's presidential campaign.
In June 2010, The Daily Caller published excerpts from emails sent between members of JournoList, a liberal forum. The emails detailed efforts to defeat Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama.
In 2011, a group of protesters gathered outside Tucker Carlson's house in Kent, Washington, D.C., to protest Carlson.
In February 2012, The Daily Caller published an investigative series of articles co-authored by Tucker Carlson, purporting to be an insiders' expose of Media Matters for America, and its founder David Brock.
In October 2012, Tucker Carlson publicized a 2007 video recording of then-Senator Barack Obama criticizing the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and complimenting Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
In 2015, Tucker Carlson said Australian gun laws were "insane" and "childish".
In March 2016, Tucker Carlson criticized Mitt Romney for denouncing Donald Trump's response to questions about David Duke's support, suggesting "Obama could have written this."
In 2016, Donald Trump's presidential campaign paid The Daily Caller $150,000 for its list of subscribers.
In June 2017, the Center for Media and Democracy reported that The Daily Caller was paid $150,000 by Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign for its subscriber list, leading to allegations of a conflict of interest for Carlson.
In July 2017, Tucker Carlson said that "we actually don't face any domestic threat from Iran".
In 2017, The New York Times referred to Jon Stewart's October 2004 critique of Tucker Carlson on Crossfire as an "ignominious career [moment]" for Carlson.
In 2017, Tucker Carlson stated his Democratic registration was to vote in mayoral primaries and that he favored corrupt candidates to stem progressivism.
In 2017, Tucker Carlson stated that he does not approve of white supremacy.
In March 2018, Tucker Carlson criticized Donald Trump for comments supporting gun control after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
In April 2018, Tucker Carlson questioned whether Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the Douma chemical attack that had occurred a few days earlier and killed dozens.
In August 2018, Tucker Carlson claimed the South African government was targeting white farmers because of their skin color and falsely stated the president changed the constitution to allow land thefts. News outlets like CBS News, Associated Press, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal labeled Carlson's segment as false and misleading because violence against farmers was at a low and the reforms were primarily aimed at unused land and hadn't passed.
In November 2018, a "Smash Racism D.C." group protested outside Tucker Carlson's home in Washington, D.C., and his driveway was vandalized.
In 2018, Tucker Carlson accused Karen McDougal of extorting Donald Trump on an episode of his show.
In 2018, Tucker Carlson criticized China's treatment of Muslims.
In 2018, Tucker Carlson described the effects of mass immigration on the United States using the terms dirtier, poorer, and more divided, and questioned how diversity is a strength.
In 2018, Tucker Carlson stated, "I'm not a racist. I hate racism." Bill Kristol described Carlson's commentaries as "close now to racism" and "ethno-nationalism of some kind, let's call it".
In late 2018, protesters gathered in front of Tucker Carlson's home.
In January 2019, Tucker Carlson used a The Washington Post op-ed by Romney to criticize what he described as the "mainstream Republican" worldview, consisting of "unwavering support for a finance-based economy.
In March 2019, there were calls to fire Tucker Carlson from Fox News after Media Matters resurfaced remarks he had made over several years to the radio show Bubba the Love Sponge concerning women, statutory rape, Iraqis, and immigrants.
In May 2019, Tucker Carlson defended President Trump's decision to place tariffs on Mexico unless Mexico stopped illegal immigration to the United States, stating, "When the United States is attacked by a hostile foreign power it must strike back, and make no mistake Mexico is a hostile foreign power."
In May 2019, Tucker Carlson stated that "The flood of illegal workers into the United States has damaged our communities, ruined our schools, burdened our healthcare system and fractured our national unity."
In June 2019, Tucker Carlson defended President Trump's friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. While acknowledging North Korea as a "disgusting place" and the regime as "monstrous," Carlson argued that leading a country "means killing people" and that many countries, including U.S. allies, commit atrocities.
On July 9, 2019, Tucker Carlson concluded Tucker Carlson Tonight with a monologue accusing Representative Ilhan Omar of being ungrateful to the United States and called her "living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country". The Guardian described his monologue as racially loaded, and Omar responded that advertisers should not underwrite this rhetoric.
In November 2019, Tucker Carlson repeated this claim and queried whether the attack had happened at all.
In December 2019, Playboy model Karen McDougal sued Fox News after Tucker Carlson accused her of extorting Donald Trump in a 2018 episode of his show.
In December 2019, Tucker Carlson falsely claimed that immigrants were responsible for making the Potomac River "dirtier and dirtier".
In 2019, Media Matters for America released recordings of racist comments that Tucker Carlson made in 2006, including derogatory remarks about Iraqis and Muslims.
In 2019, Tucker Carlson criticized LeBron James for speaking out against Daryl Morey, who had tweeted in support of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests.
By May 2020, Tucker Carlson began to publicly question the severity of the COVID-19 virus, despite earlier advocating for it to be taken more seriously.
In July 2020, Tucker Carlson's head writer, Blake Neff, resigned after CNN Business reported on his racist, sexist, and homophobic posts on AutoAdmit.
In August 2020, Tucker Carlson aired segments defending Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot three protesters, killing two, in confrontations during unrest after a police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
In September 2020, federal judge Mary Kay Vyskocil dismissed the lawsuit filed by Karen McDougal against Fox News, citing that Carlson's claims were opinion-based.
In October 2020, Tucker Carlson alleged on his show that someone was reading his text messages after documents regarding Hunter Biden were lost and then located by United Parcel Service. Carlson did not specify the contents of the documents.
On November 20, 2020, Li-Meng Yan appeared on Tucker Carlson's show to promote the COVID-19 lab leak theory, after being brought to America by Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui. Though Carlson later stated he didn't endorse the theory, he hosted Yan for a second appearance.
In 2020, Carlson privately doubted the false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Carlson texted to Laura Ingraham, "Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It's insane" and "Our viewers are good people and they believe it."
In 2020, after his head writer, Neff, was fired for hateful blog posts, Tucker Carlson stated that the posts had "no connection to the show" and that "It is wrong to attack people for qualities they cannot control."
Throughout 2020, ahead of the election, Carlson told viewers that Democrats were promoting mail-in voting to manipulate the results. After Joe Biden won in November, Carlson raised false allegations of fraud and mentioned purportedly dead individuals who voted in Georgia. He later apologized for the error.
On January 26, 2021, Carlson brought on Mike Lindell, whose company My Pillow was the largest advertiser on Tucker Carlson Tonight, to criticize Dominion Voting Systems and claim it had "hired hit groups and bots and trolls" to target him following his Twitter account's permanent suspension.
In February 2021, after attorney general nominee Merrick Garland pledged to prosecute "white supremacists and others" involved in the January 6 United States Capitol attack, Carlson alleged, "There's no evidence that white supremacists were responsible for what happened on January 6. That's a lie." PolitiFact rated Carlson's claim false.
In March 2021, Carlson was rebuked by the U.S. military after he ridiculed maternity flight suits for U.S. women soldiers and described a decision by the Chinese military to build ships as "more masculine".
In March 2021, Tucker Carlson suggested that the Latin American immigration crisis should be blamed on "other colonial powers centuries ago" instead of the United States. He suggested that the Spanish government should start by "sending back the gold now sitting in its central bank", prompting criticism from Hermann Tertsch and Mamela Fiallo.
In June 2021, Tucker Carlson promoted a conspiracy theory alleging the Capitol storming was a "false flag" FBI operation to suppress political dissent, claiming government agents organized the attack. This claim was widely refuted by legal experts, and embraced by Republican House members.
On June 28, 2021, Tucker Carlson claimed on his program that a government whistleblower informed him the NSA was monitoring his communications and planning to leak them to get his show off the air, alleging the Biden administration was spying on him. A producer for Carlson filed a FOIA request with the NSA.
In July 2021, Carlson suggested that "there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November" despite the state's election results being validated via both hand and machine recounts. PolitiFact found that none of the evidence provided by Carlson substantiated his conclusion.
In July 2021, Charlotte Alter of Time wrote that Carlson sometimes tells "outright falsehoods", but generally "avoids assertions that are factually disprovable, instead sticking to innuendo".
In July 2021, Tucker Carlson stated in Time magazine that the Republican Party is "inept and bad at governing" and more effective as an oppositional force than governing.
In August 2021, Tucker Carlson traveled to Hungary and broadcast from Budapest. He praised the country and its prime minister, Viktor Orbán, for rejecting asylum seekers, and dismissed claims that Orbán was authoritarian. He also spoke at a conference sponsored by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium.
In August 2021, the NSA inspector general's office announced it was examining Tucker Carlson's allegation that the NSA was spying on him. This followed reports that Carlson had been unmasked after being mentioned by third parties under surveillance.
In late October 2021, Tucker Carlson produced a three-part series titled Patriot Purge, released on Fox Nation, suggesting the January 6 attack was a government false flag operation. The series was criticized for containing falsehoods and conspiracy theories, leading to resignations from conservative writers and objections from Fox News anchors.
In December 2021, Carlson expressed concern over the falling labor participation rate of U.S. men, stating that men and women are very different and society is built on their differences. He also alleged that feminists want girls to make gains at the expense of boys.
In 2021, Carlson belittled the paternity leave taken by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, joking that Buttigieg could be "trying to figure out how to breastfeed".
In 2021, Tucker Carlson described "demographic replacement" as "the Great Replacement," using white nationalist terminology. He has been described as mainstreaming principles of white nationalism.
In January 2022, Tucker Carlson released the film "Hungary vs. Soros" on Fox Nation. The film promoted conspiracy theories about George Soros, suggesting that criticism of the Hungarian government was due to jealousy from the political left. The Open Society Foundations called the film "anti-American propaganda."
In February 2022, Carlson supported the Canada convoy protest against COVID-19 restrictions, calling it "the single most successful human rights protest in a generation". He also claimed that some U.S. officials were overstating the deadliness of the virus and mentioned ivermectin as a possible treatment.
In April 2022, The New York Times released a three-part, 20,000-word investigative series on Tucker Carlson called "American Nationalist", which documented his rise and rhetoric on immigration, race, and COVID-19, and described Tucker Carlson Tonight as potentially the most racist and successful show in cable news. Carlson dismissed the series and denied obsessing over ratings, claiming he's taken unpopular stances against neocons, vaccines, and the Ukraine war.
In August 2022, Tucker Carlson was deposed as part of a lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News over false claims of voter fraud. The following February, texts were released revealing that Carlson privately doubted the claims, mocked Trump advisors and wanted Jacqui Heinrich fired for a fact-check.
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, Tucker Carlson stated that the British Empire, despite not being "perfect", brought civilization to regions it occupied with "decency unmatched by any empire in human history". This statement drew criticism in India.
On October 11, 2022, Vice's Motherboard published unaired footage from Tucker Carlson's interview with Ye. In the unaired footage, West expressed Black Hebrew Israelite views, stated he had received a COVID-19 vaccine, and claimed that paid child actors had been placed into his house. The footage was scrutinized after antisemitic statements West made on social media. The Washington Post wrote that Carlson had presented a version of West's remarks that mirrored Carlson's rhetoric on race and politics.
In November 2022, Carlson's promotion of inflammatory rhetoric about LGBTQ controversies was scrutinized after the Colorado Springs nightclub mass shooting. Carlson has strongly criticized the transgender rights movement, including saying hospitals that provide gender-affirming healthcare to minors are criminals who harm children.
In 2022, Carlson released The End of Men, a Tucker Carlson Original alleging a decline in American masculinity. The episode featured Raw Egg Nationalist, a pseudonymous author affiliated with neo-Nazi publishing house Antelope Hill.
In 2022, Tucker Carlson responded to a New York Times report criticizing his show, stating that his show adheres to Martin Luther King Jr.'s principles and that all people should be judged by their actions, not their appearance. He also praised Malcolm X.
In 2022, on October 6 and 7, Tucker Carlson aired an edited interview with Ye (Kanye West) on Tucker Carlson Tonight. West, who had been seen wearing a "White Lives Matter" shirt, told Carlson he found it funny and agreed with the message. He also claimed Black babies were being aborted more than born in New York City.
Tucker Carlson was noted for defending Vladimir Putin in the lead-up to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
In March 2023, Carlson said in an interview that he was "enraged that my private texts were pulled" for the court case, and asserted: "I love Trump ... I think Trump is funny and insightful."
In March 2023, an attorney for Ray Epps, a pro-Trump protestor, demanded that Tucker Carlson issue a public retraction of "false and defamatory statements" regarding Epps's alleged involvement as a federal agent instigating the January 6 attack. Epps and his wife were subjected to threats and harassment, leading them to sell their home and business.
On April 24, 2023, Fox News dismissed Tucker Carlson and the executive producer of his evening show. Carlson did not appear to receive advance notice of his dismissal.
On June 6, 2023, Tucker Carlson released the first episode of his show, Tucker on Twitter. During the episode, he made several controversial claims, including allegations about the U.S. recovering an extraterrestrial starship, Volodymyr Zelensky's character, the Kakhovka Dam destruction, the Black Lives Matter riots, and the September 11 attacks.
On August 23, 2023, Tucker Carlson hosted Donald Trump on Tucker on X, the re-branded name of Twitter, deliberately to conflict with the first 2024 Republican debate.
On September 6, 2023, Tucker Carlson interviewed Larry Sinclair, who had a criminal record, largely for crimes of deceit and who claimed that he had "had a night of crack cocaine-fueled sex with Barack Obama" 24 years before. The interview was criticized by many, including Elon Musk, owner of X.
In September 2023, Tucker Carlson interviewed a man who claimed to have had sex with Barack Obama.
In November 2023, Mamela Fiallo's rebuttal article in La Gaceta, which criticized Tucker Carlson's statements on Spain, was retracted after Carlson appeared with Santiago Abascal in support of the 2023 Spanish protests.
In 2023, Tucker Carlson, Clean Ocean Action, and multiple Republicans criticized New Jersey and New York's use of wind power, falsely claiming that it has been contributing to the deaths of whales.
In early 2023, Tucker Carlson aired portions of security surveillance video from the day of the Capitol attack, framing the event as "peaceful chaos." This portrayal was condemned by the family of deceased Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, and both Democratic and Republican politicians.
On September 2, 2024, Tucker Carlson hosted podcaster and amateur historian Darryl Cooper on Tucker on X. Cooper endorsed Holocaust denial and other deviations from historical consensus regarding World War II, causing controversy.
In 2024, Tucker Carlson dismissed the link between climate change and the increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes, attributing it instead to abortion, comparing abortion to ritual sacrifice.
In January 2025, Tucker Carlson repeated disinformation regarding the Yugoslav Wars during a debate with Piers Morgan. He used the example of NATO's intervention in Serbia in 1999 to claim that it is not a defensive but an offensive organization, describing the campaign as a "bombing of Christians in Yugoslavia" which paved the way for the creation of Kosovo as an independent country while omitting to mention the ethnic cleansing of Albanians by Serbian forces that occurred during the war.
In September 2025, Tucker Carlson criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi for allegedly attempting to exploit the assassination of Charlie Kirk to suppress free speech in the United States.
On October 28, 2025, Tucker Carlson hosted white nationalist political commentator Nick Fuentes. This led to public defense from Kevin Roberts of The Heritage Foundation and sparked debate about antisemitism among conservatives.
In November 2025, Tucker Carlson promoted the chemtrail conspiracy theory.
In a podcast interview with Piers Morgan in November 2025, Carlson repeatedly challenged Morgan to say the homophobic slur "faggot", questioning the "political correctness" around the word. When Morgan refused, Carlson insinuated that Morgan refused to say the slur because he was afraid of being arrested.
In December 2025, Tucker Carlson called attacks on Muslim Americans "disgusting" and claimed that radical Islam is not a threat to the US.
In December 2025, the pro-Israel and Jewish advocacy group StopAntisemitism called Tucker Carlson "Antisemite of the Year" for several remarks he made in 2025 that were critical of Israel and allegedly antisemitic.
In 2025, Tucker Carlson criticized the Trump administration's support for Israel in the Gaza war.
In February 2026, Tucker Carlson visited Israel, interviewed U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, and subsequently claimed he and his team were detained and questioned by Israeli airport security. Israeli authorities refuted the detention claim, stating it was routine passport control. The Jerusalem Post published footage showing Carlson interacting positively with airport staff after the encounter.
On March 2, 2026, in a phone interview with Rachael Blade of The Inner Circle, Donald Trump declared that Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly "aren't MAGA" due to their criticisms of his Iran policy.
On March 5, 2026, ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl revealed that Trump had stated that "Tucker has lost his way," and is "not MAGA."
In March 2026, Tucker Carlson claimed that "Sharia Law has made Islamic societies more advanced than the West", drawing criticism from other right-wing commentators.
On March 18, 2026, former National Counterterrorism Center head Joe Kent appeared on The Tucker Carlson Show, alleging Israel's influence on U.S. participation in the Iran War. Kent also alleged that right wing American political activist Charlie Kirk had broken with Israel shortly before his murder.
In 2026, Tucker Carlson publicly withdrew his support for Donald Trump and apologized for "misleading" people into supporting him.
Regarding the 2026 Iran war, Tucker Carlson stated that “This happened because Israel wanted it to happen. This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States’ war,” and accused the conflict of being started by "lies" spread by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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