Public opinion and media debates around Tucker Carlson—discover key moments of controversy.
Tucker Carlson is an American right-wing political activist and commentator. He hosts Tucker on X and The Tucker Carlson Show since 2023. Prior to that, he hosted Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News from 2016 to 2023. A strong advocate for Donald Trump, Carlson is considered a leading proponent of Trumpism and wields considerable influence within right-wing media.
Tucker Carlson has said normalization of relations with China following President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit led to unforeseen consequences, and that America became progressively worse off for it.
In 1999, Tucker Carlson interviewed then-Governor George W. Bush for Talk magazine, quoting Bush mocking Karla Faye Tucker and using the word "fuck", leading to bad publicity for Bush's 2000 presidential campaign.
In 1999, Tucker Carlson spread disinformation regarding the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, omitting to mention the ethnic cleansing of Albanians by Serbian forces that occurred during the war.
In 2003, Tucker Carlson publicly supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
In October 2004, Jon Stewart appeared on Crossfire and launched into a critique of the show, saying it was harmful to political discourse in the U.S.
In 2004, Tucker Carlson wrote a commentary in Esquire accusing President Bush of weakness after the September 11 attacks and in the invasion of Iraq, stating that Iraq was not worth invading.
In 2006, Carlson and Bubba the Love Sponge used the word faggot to describe their affection for each other.
In 2006, 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 Carlson describes an incident during high school of beating up a gay man who had made an advance on him in a public bathroom.
In July 2018, Tucker Carlson's assertion about Mexican interference in U.S. elections was disputed by a journalist, who noted that the number of Mexicans in the U.S. had decreased since 2009.
In June 2010, The Daily Caller released excerpts from emails between members of JournoList, a liberal forum. These emails, according to Carlson, revealed efforts to formulate talking points to defeat Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama. The leaked emails also contained controversial remarks from The Washington Post's Dave Weigel, leading to his resignation.
In 2011, Carlson used the words pig and cunt to describe several individual women in remarks from 2006 to 2011 on the radio show Bubba the Love Sponge.
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, with Carlson as co-author, published an investigative series on Media Matters for America. The piece was criticized for relying on conjecture and lacking evidence.
In October 2012, Tucker Carlson publicized a 2007 video of then-Senator Barack Obama criticizing the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and complimenting Reverend Jeremiah Wright. The video had been available online since 2007 and had portions that were already available online since 2007.
In 2013, Tucker Carlson said, "We still go to the Episcopal Church for all kinds of complicated reasons, but I truly despise the Episcopal Church in a lot of ways," citing his opposition to the church's support for same-sex marriage and abortion rights.
In March 2016, after Mitt Romney denounced Trump for evading questions about David Duke's support, Carlson criticized Romney and dismissed his speech by suggesting "Obama could have written this."
In June 2017, The Daily Caller was reported to have been paid $150,000 by Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign for its subscriber list. The Center for Media and Democracy watchdog group claimed Carlson had a conflict of interest and had violated journalistic standards as a result.
In July 2017, Tucker Carlson stated that "we actually don't face any domestic threat from Iran".
In April 2018, Tucker Carlson questioned whether Syrian President Assad was responsible for the Douma chemical attack.
In August 2018, Carlson alleged that the South African government was targeting white farmers because "they are the wrong skin color" and falsely said the country's president had changed the constitution to allow land thefts from whites during ongoing land reform efforts.
In October 2018, Tucker Carlson Tonight became the second-highest rated cable news show in prime time, with 3.2 million nightly viewers, after The Sean Hannity Show. By the end of 2018, a boycott by advertisers began after Carlson stated immigration makes the country "poorer, dirtier and more divided".
In November 2018, the "Smash Racism D.C." group protested outside Tucker Carlson's home in Washington, D.C., and vandalized his driveway. Carlson alleged damage to his front door, but police and a Washington Post columnist observed no such damage.
In 2018, Carlson criticized China's treatment of Muslims.
In 2018, Carlson described the effects of mass immigration on the United States using the terms dirtier, poorer, and more divided and said it "has badly hurt this country's natural landscape".
In 2018, Carlson incorrectly argued that Donald Trump had been a victim of extortion by Karen McDougal.
In 2018, Tucker Carlson began promoting more populist economic views, criticizing libertarianism and asserting that market capitalism is not a religion. He also suggested that some Republicans were controlled by banks.
In 2018, Tucker Carlson said "I'm not a racist. I hate racism."
In late 2018, protestors gathered in front of Tucker Carlson's home.
In January 2019, Tucker Carlson criticized what he described as the "mainstream Republican" worldview, specifically targeting unwavering support for a finance-based economy, using a The Washington Post op-ed by Romney as a basis for his criticism.
On June 28, 2021, the same day that Tucker Carlson claimed the NSA was monitoring his communications, a producer for Carlson filed an unusually broad Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the NSA, seeking records dating back to January 2019, well before Biden became president, regarding any communications between NSA officials concerning Tucker Carlson.
In March 2019, there were calls to fire Carlson from Fox News after Media Matters resurfaced remarks he had made to the radio show Bubba the Love Sponge. Despite boycotts, his ratings increased.
In May 2019, Carlson said, "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 May 2019, Tucker Carlson defended President Trump's decision to place tariffs on Mexico unless it stopped illegal immigration to the United States, stating "Mexico is a hostile foreign power."
In June 2019, while touring with President Trump, Tucker Carlson defended Trump's friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, acknowledging the regime's atrocities but arguing that leadership sometimes requires killing people.
On July 9, 2019, Carlson accused 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".
In November 2019, Tucker Carlson repeated claims and queried whether the Douma chemical attack had happened at all.
In December 2019, Carlson falsely claimed that immigrants were responsible for making the Potomac River "dirtier and dirtier".
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 2019, Carlson accused Democrats of supporting increased immigration to change the racial demographics of the United States to increase the Democratic voter base.
In 2019, Media Matters for America released recordings of racist comments that Carlson made in 2006.
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.
In 2019, Tucker Carlson criticized hedge funds, singling out Republican donor Paul Singer, and private equity firms. He also praised Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's economic plan and her book, calling The Two Income Trap "one of the best books I've ever read on economics".
In 2019, during a discussion about U.S. military aid to Ukraine during the Donbas War, Tucker Carlson stated on his show, "Why shouldn't I root for Russia? Which I am", later claiming it was a joke, but then said that the US should take the side of Russia if it has to choose between Russia and Ukraine.
In May 2020, Tucker Carlson began to publicly question the severity of the COVID-19 virus, marking a shift from his earlier stance of taking the virus more seriously. He also criticized stay-at-home orders and defended protests against lockdowns in rural areas.
In July 2020, Blake Neff, Carlson's head writer, resigned after CNN Business reported he had been using a pseudonym to post racist, sexist, and homophobic remarks on AutoAdmit. This incident led to renewed scrutiny of Carlson's program.
In August 2020, Tucker Carlson aired segments defending Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot three protesters, killing two, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
In September 2020, on The Rubin Report, Tucker Carlson said that, unlike TV newscasters who he said "systematically lie", he will only lie "if I'm really cornered or something", saying, "I lie. I really try not to. I try never to lie on TV. ... I don't like lying. I certainly do it, you know, out of weakness or whatever."
In October 2020, Tucker Carlson alleged on his show that someone was reading his text messages after documents he claimed had compromising information on Joe Biden's son, Hunter, were lost and then found by United Parcel Service.
On November 20, 2020, The New York Times reported that Steve Bannon and Chinese businessman Guo Wengui brought Li-Meng Yan to America to promote the COVID-19 lab leak theory and set up appearances for Yan on Carlson's show to promote the theory.
Beginning the week of June 8–14, 2020, Tucker Carlson Tonight became the highest-rated cable news show in the U.S., averaging four million viewers. This occurred after Carlson criticized the Black Lives Matter movement, which caused some companies to pull their advertising from the show.
In 2020, Fox News successfully defended Carlson in a slander lawsuit by Karen McDougal, citing Carlson's use of hyperbole as a rhetorical device.
In 2020, Tucker Carlson criticized the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, calling it a "quagmire" and questioning the promotion of foreign interventions.
In 2020, after his head writer was fired for hateful blog posts, Carlson said of the posts, "They have no connection to the show. It is wrong to attack people for qualities they cannot control."
In 2020, text messages revealed that Tucker Carlson privately doubted false claims that the election was stolen and mocked Trump advisors, including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. He expressed frustration with the situation and the impact on Fox News.
Throughout 2020, particularly after Joe Biden won the election in November, Tucker Carlson raised false allegations of voter fraud. He promoted the idea that Democrats were promoting mail-in voting to manipulate the election results. He also mentioned names of purportedly dead individuals who voted in Georgia, but later apologized for the error.
Tucker Carlson criticized LeBron James for speaking out against Daryl Morey, the latter having tweeted in support of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests.
On January 26, 2021, Tucker Carlson hosted Mike Lindell, whose company My Pillow was a major advertiser on his show, to criticize Dominion Voting Systems. Lindell claimed that Dominion had "hired hit groups and bots and trolls" to target him following his Twitter account's suspension for promoting unfounded fraud claims.
In February 2021, after Merrick Garland's confirmation hearing, Tucker Carlson alleged that there was no evidence that white supremacists were responsible for the January 6 United States Capitol attack, a claim PolitiFact rated false. He also inaccurately stated that no one in the crowd on January 6 was found to be carrying a firearm.
In March 2021, Carlson stated that issues like the Latin American immigration crisis should be blamed on "other colonial powers centuries ago" instead of the United States, and suggested that the Spanish government should start by "sending back the gold now sitting in its central bank."
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 June 2021, Tucker Carlson promoted a conspiracy theory alleging that the Capitol storming was a "false flag" FBI operation to suppress political dissent. He claimed that unindicted co-conspirators in rioters' indictments were government agents.
On June 28, 2021, Tucker Carlson claimed on his program that a whistleblower informed him the National Security Agency (NSA) was monitoring his electronic communications and planning to leak them to take his show off the air, alleging the Biden administration was spying on him.
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 suggested that there was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, during the previous November's election, despite validations via hand and machine recounts. PolitiFact found that the evidence he provided did not substantiate his conclusion.
In August 2021, Tucker Carlson traveled to Hungary, broadcasting from Budapest and praising Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's policies on asylum seekers. 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 had unmasked his identity.
In October 2021, 'Patriot Purge,' a three-part series produced by Tucker Carlson, was released on Fox Nation. The series promoted a conspiracy theory suggesting the January 6 attack was a government false flag operation. It was widely criticized for containing falsehoods and conspiracy theories, leading to the severing of ties between some conservative writers and Fox News.
In a December 2021 segment despairing the falling labor participation rate of U.S. men, Carlson said, "Men and women are very different, extremely different. Society is built on their differences."
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, Carlson described the Democrats seeking "demographic replacement" as "the Great Replacement", using white nationalist terminology.
In January 2022, Tucker Carlson released the film Hungary vs. Soros on Fox Nation, which promoted conspiracy theories about George Soros. The Open Society Foundations called the film "anti-American propaganda".
In February 2022, Tucker Carlson voiced his support for the Canada convoy protest against COVID-19 restrictions, describing it as "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, a claim that PolitiFact deemed mostly false.
In April 2022, The New York Times published a three-part 20,000-word investigative series on Carlson called "American Nationalist", documenting Carlson's rise to prominence and his rhetoric on immigration, race relations and the COVID-19 pandemic. Carlson responded by denying allegations from the Times about obsessing over ratings, saying that "I've never read the ratings a single day in my life. I don't even know how. Ask anyone at Fox."
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, Carlson opined that the British Empire, although "not perfect", had brought civilization to regions it occupied with "decency unmatched by any empire in human history".
On October 11, 2022, Vice website Motherboard published leaked unaired footage from the interview of Carlson with Ye. The leaked footage was heavily scrutinized in light of other antisemitic statements West had made on social media in the days after the Tucker Carlson Tonight interview aired.
In November 2022, Carlson's promotion of inflammatory rhetoric about LGBTQ controversies was scrutinized after the Colorado Springs nightclub mass shooting.
In 2022, Bump argued that compared with other television anchors, Carlson is loath to acknowledge factual errors in his commentary.
In 2022, Carlson has challenged accusations that he believes the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, describing it as a "voting rights question".
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 was noted for defending Vladimir Putin in the lead-up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In early 2022, Tucker Carlson downplayed Russia's military buildup on Ukraine's borders and promoted pro-Russian disinformation after the invasion, including a conspiracy theory about U.S. and Kyiv developing biological weapons in Ukraine. His broadcasts were used by Russian state media to support their messaging.
On the October 6 and 7, 2022 episodes of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson aired an edited version of an interview with rapper and fashion designer Ye, also known by his birth name Kanye West.
In March 2023, Tucker Carlson commented on his private texts being pulled for a court case, expressing anger about it. He also asserted that he loves Trump and finds him funny and insightful.
In March 2023, an attorney for Ray Epps wrote to Tucker Carlson demanding a public retraction of "false and defamatory statements" related to a conspiracy theory Carlson promoted, alleging Epps was a federal agent instigating the January 6 attack.
On June 6, 2023, the first episode of Tucker on Twitter was released. During the episode, Carlson made controversial claims regarding extraterrestrial starships, Volodymyr Zelensky, the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, Black Lives Matter, and the September 11 attacks.
On September 6, 2023, Tucker Carlson interviewed Larry Sinclair, who claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Barack Obama. The interview was widely criticized.
In September 2023, Tucker Carlson interviewed a man who claimed to have had sex with Barack Obama.
In November 2023, La Gaceta retracted Mamela Fiallo's rebuttal article after Carlson appeared with Santiago Abascal in support of the 2023 Spanish protests.
In 2023, Tucker Carlson, along with Clean Ocean Action and multiple Republicans, criticized New Jersey and New York's use of wind power, falsely claiming it contributed to whale deaths.
On September 2, 2024, Tucker Carlson hosted Darryl Cooper on Tucker on X. Cooper endorsed Holocaust denial and deviated from the historical consensus regarding World War II, causing controversy, without correction or contradiction from Carlson.
In 2024, Tucker Carlson dismissed the link between climate change and hurricanes, attributing it to abortion.
In January 2025, Tucker Carlson repeated his narrative regarding the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, describing it as a "bombing of Christians in Yugoslavia" during a debate with Piers Morgan.
In September 2025, Carlson criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi for 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. The Heritage Foundation's president, Kevin Roberts, publicly defended Carlson for having Fuentes on his podcast, igniting a debate about antisemitism among conservatives. Republicans including Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell condemned the Heritage Foundation's defense of Carlson.
In November 2025, Tucker Carlson promoted the chemtrail conspiracy theory.
In December 2025, Tucker Carlson was named "Antisemite of the Year" by StopAntisemitism due to remarks critical of Israel and allegedly antisemitic made throughout 2025.
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