Tucker Carlson
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons28

Tucker Carlson

American conservative political commentator (born 1969)

Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American conservative political commentator, journalist, and host of The Tucker Carlson Show since 2023. He previously hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News from 2016 to 2023, the highest rated cable news show at the time of its termination, and is an influential voice in right-wing media.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Tucker Carlson (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born May 16, 1969.1

About

Carlson began his media career in the 1990s, writing for The Weekly Standard and other publications. He was a CNN commentator from 2000 to 2005 and a co-host of Crossfire, the network's prime-time news debate program, from 2001 to 2005. From 2005 to 2008, he hosted the nightly program Tucker on MSNBC. In 2009, he became a political analyst for Fox News, appearing on various programs before launching his own show. In 2010, Carlson co-founded and served as the initial editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller, a right-wing news and opinion website, until selling his ownership stake and leaving in 2020. In the 2021 Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network defamation lawsuit, Carlson was among the hosts named for broadcasting false statements about the plaintiff company's voting machines. In April 2023, Fox News canceled Tucker Carlson Tonight, leading Carlson to launch his own program, The Tucker Carlson Show.

Originally a supporter of the Iraq War, he renounced his support in 2004 and has since been skeptical of U.S. foreign interventions. Formerly an economic libertarian, he now supports protectionism and restrictions on immigration. Carlson is known for introducing far-right ideas into mainstream politics and discourse. He has been noted for false and misleading statements on some topics and for promoting conspiracy theories on demographic replacement, COVID-19, the 2021 United States Capitol attack, and Ukrainian bioweapons. Some of Carlson's remarks on race, immigration, and women have been described as racist and sexist, and provoked advertiser boycotts of Tucker Carlson Tonight. A longtime supporter of U.S. president Donald Trump, he is said to have influenced Trump's decision-making, but has also been critical of Trump, most notably after the 2026 Iran war, causing him to leave the Republican Party. In February 2024 he became the first Western journalist to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. He has written three books: Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites (2003), Ship of Fools (2018), and The Long Slide (2021).

From Wikipedia’s article on Tucker Carlson, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • 1987St. George's School3
  • Date not recordedLa Jolla Country Day School3
  • Date not recordedThe Buckley School3
  • Date not recordedTrinity College Bachelor of Arts3

Tucker McNear Carlson was born at the Children's Hospital in San Francisco, California, on May 16, 1969. He is the elder son of Lisa McNear (née Lombardi; 1945–2011), an artist from San Francisco, and Dick Carlson (1941–2025), a former "gonzo reporter" who became the director of Voice of America, president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the U.S. ambassador to the Seychelles, and more recently a director at the lobbying firm Policy Impact Strategic Communications. Carlson's brother, Buckley Peck Carlson, later Buckley Swanson Peck Carlson, is nearly two years younger and has worked as a communications manager and a Republican Party political operative.

Carlson's paternal grandparents were Richard Boynton and Dorothy Anderson, who were teenagers when they placed his father at The Home for Little Wanderers orphanage in Boston, where he was fostered by Carl Moberger of Malden, near Boston, a tannery worker of Swedish descent, and his wife Florence Moberger. Carlson's father was adopted at the age of two by upper-middle-class New Englanders, the Carlsons, an executive at the Winslow Brothers & Smith Tannery of Norwood (the oldest tannery in America) and his wife.

Carlson's mother descends from Henry Miller, the "Cattle King", and from the Swiss-Italian Cesar Lombardi, who immigrated to New York from Switzerland in 1860. However, Carlson himself is only 1/32 Italian-Swiss.

Carlson is also a distant relative of Massachusetts politicians Ebenezer R. Hoar and George M. Brooks. Carlson himself was named after his great-great-great-grandfather J. C. Tucker and his great-great-grandfather George W. McNear.

In 1976, Carlson's parents divorced after the nine-year marriage reportedly "turned sour". Carlson's father was granted custody of Tucker and his brother. Carlson's mother left the family when he was six and moved to France. The boys never saw her again.

When Carlson was in first grade, his father moved Tucker and his brother to the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, and raised them there. Carlson attended La Jolla Country Day School and grew up in a home overlooking the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club. His father owned property in Nevada and Vermont, and islands in Maine and Nova Scotia. In 1984, his father unsuccessfully challenged the incumbent Republican Party mayor Roger Hedgecock in the San Diego mayoral race.

In 1979, Carlson's father married Patricia Caroline Swanson, an heiress to Swanson Enterprises (founded by Carl A. Swanson), daughter of Gilbert Carl Swanson and niece of Senator J. William Fulbright. Though Patricia remained a beneficiary of the family fortune, the Swansons had sold the brand to the Campbell Soup Company in 1955 and did not own it by the time of Carlson's father's marriage. This was the third marriage for Swanson, who legally adopted Tucker Carlson and his brother.

Carlson was briefly enrolled at Collège du Léman, a boarding school in the Canton of Geneva in French-speaking Switzerland, but said he was "kicked out". He attained his secondary education at St. George's School, a boarding school in Middletown, Rhode Island, where he started dating his future wife, Susan Andrews, the headmaster's daughter. He then attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. At the end of four years, he had achieved only a 1.9 Grade-Point Average (out of 4), and failed to graduate with his class. He graduated in absentia with the class of 1992. Carlson's Trinity yearbook describes him as a member of the "Dan White Society", an apparent reference to the American political assassin who murdered San Francisco mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk. After college, Carlson tried to join the Central Intelligence Agency, but his application was denied, after which he decided to pursue a career in journalism with the encouragement of his father, who advised him that "they'll take anybody".

From Wikipedia’s article on Tucker Carlson (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: podcaster, pundit, editor-in-chief, journalist, television journalist, columnist, television presenter.10 11

  • 2010 to 2020Worked at The Daily Caller4
  • 2009 to 2023Worked at Fox News4 5
  • 2005 to 2008Worked at MS NOW4
  • 2004 to 2005Worked at PBS4
  • 2000 to 2005Worked at CNN4
  • Date not recordedFounded Tucker Carlson Network6
  • Date not recordedFounded Daily Caller News Foundation7
  • Date not recordedFounded ALP Supply Co.8
  • Date not recordedFounded The Daily Caller9

Known for: Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites, Ship of Fools, The Long Slide, Crossfire, Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Tucker Carlson Show.12

1992–2006: Early career

Carlson began his career in journalism as a fact-checker for Policy Review, a conservative journal then published by the Heritage Foundation and later acquired by the Hoover Institution. He then worked as an opinion writer at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper in Little Rock, Arkansas, before joining The Weekly Standard news magazine in 1995. Carlson sought a role with the publication after hearing of its founding, fearing he would be "written off as a wing nut" if he instead joined The American Spectator.

In 1999, Carlson interviewed then-Governor George W. Bush for Talk magazine. He quoted Bush mocking Karla Faye Tucker, who was executed in Bush's state of Texas, and frequently using the word "fuck". The piece led to bad publicity for Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. Bush claimed that "Mr. Carlson misread, mischaracterized me. He's a good reporter, he just misunderstood about how serious that was. I take the death penalty very seriously." Among liberals, Carlson's piece received praise, with Democratic consultant Bob Shrum calling it "vivid". Carlson said of the interview, "I thought I'd be ragged for writing a puffy piece. My wife said people are going to think you're hunting for a job in the Bush campaign."

Further into his career in print, Carlson worked as a columnist for New York magazine and Reader's Digest; writing for Esquire, Slate, The Weekly Standard, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, The Daily Beast, and The Wall Street Journal. John F. Harris of Politico would later remark on how Carlson was "viewed... as an important voice of the intelligentsia" during this period. While working on a story for New York covering the Taliban, Carlson, alongside his father, was involved in a plane crash as it made its landing on a runway in Dubai on October 17, 2001. Carlson's 2003 Esquire profile on his journey to Liberia alongside Reverend Al Sharpton and other civil and political rights activists would garner a nomination at the National Magazine Awards.

In his early television career, Carlson wore bow ties, a habit from boarding school he continued on air until 2006.

On June 21, 2021, New York Times reporter Ben Smith reported that Carlson was a media source for several journalists and authors, including Michael Isikoff, Michael Wolff, Brian Stelter, and others who wrote critically of Donald Trump.

Read more

2000–2005: CNN

In 2000, Carlson co-hosted the short-lived show The Spin Room on CNN. In 2001, he was appointed co-host of Crossfire, in which Carlson and Robert Novak represented the political right (alternating on different nights), while James Carville and Paul Begala, also alternating as hosts, represented the left.

Carlson's 2003 interview with Britney Spears, wherein he asked if she opposed the ongoing Iraq War and she responded, "[W]e should just trust our president in every decision he makes", was featured in the 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11, for which she won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress at the 25th Golden Raspberry Awards.

Jon Stewart debate

In October 2004, comedian and The Daily Show host Jon Stewart appeared on Crossfire, ostensibly to promote America (The Book), but he instead launched into a critique of Crossfire, saying the show was harmful to political discourse in the U.S. Carlson was singled out by Stewart for criticism, with Carlson in turn criticizing Stewart for being biased toward the left. Carlson and Begala later recalled that Stewart and one of the book's co-authors, Ben Karlin, stayed at CNN for more than an hour after the show to discuss the issues he had raised on the air, with Carlson saying, "It was heartfelt. [Stewart] needed to do this." In 2017, The New York Times referred to Stewart's "on-air dressing-down" of Carlson as an "ignominious career [moment]" for Carlson, leading to the show's cancellation. The Atlantic suggested that Stewart's appearance was a turning point leading to how Carlson remade himself.

On January 5, 2005, CNN chief Jonathan Klein told Carlson the network had decided not to renew his contract. CNN announced that it was ending its relationship with Carlson and would soon cancel Crossfire. Carlson later said: "I resigned from Crossfire in April [2004], many months before Jon Stewart came on our show, because I didn't like the partisanship, and I thought in some ways it was kind of a pointless conversation."

2004–2005: PBS

Carlson was hired to helm a new program for PBS in November 2003, Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered, which ran concurrently with Carlson's Crossfire gig on CNN. The show launched on June 18, 2004, and was, according to The New Yorker, "part of a broader effort to push PBS further to the right ideologically".

Carlson announced he was leaving the show roughly a year after it started on June 12, 2005, despite the Corporation for Public Broadcasting allocating money for another show season. Carlson wanted to focus on his new MSNBC show Tucker and said that although PBS was one of the "least bad" instances of government spending he disagreed with, it was still "problematic".

2005–2008: MSNBC

Carlson's early evening show Tucker, originally titled The Situation with Tucker Carlson, premiered on June 13, 2005, on MSNBC. Rachel Maddow and Jay Severin featured as guests on a rotating panel. He also hosted a late-afternoon weekday wrap-up for the network during the 2006 Winter Olympics. He reported the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting and Johnson Space Center shooting in 2007.

Tucker was canceled by the network on March 10, 2008, owing to low ratings; the final episode aired on March 14, 2008. He remained with the network as a senior campaign correspondent for the 2008 election. Brian Stelter, writing for The New York Times, reported that "during Mr. Carlson's tenure, MSNBC's evening programming moved gradually to the left. His former time slots, 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., were subsequently occupied by two liberals, Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow." Carlson said the network had changed a lot and "they didn't have a role for me".

2006–2008: Media outside journalism

Carlson was a contestant on season 3 of the reality show Dancing with the Stars, which aired in 2006; he was paired with professional dancer Elena Grinenko. Carlson took four-hour-a-day ballroom dance classes to prepare. In an interview a month before the show began, he lamented that he would miss classes during a two-week-long MSNBC assignment in Lebanon, saying, "It's hard for me to remember the moves." Carlson said he accepted ABC's invitation to perform because "I don't do things that I'm not good at very often. I'm psyched to get to do that." Carlson was the first contestant eliminated, on September 13, 2006.

Carlson had cameo appearances as himself in the Season 1 episode "Hard Ball" of 30 Rock and in a Season 9 episode of The King of Queens. He had a cameo appearance in the 2008 film Swing Vote, again playing himself.

2010–2020: The Daily Caller

On January 11, 2010, Carlson and Neil Patel (a former aide to Dick Cheney, and former college roommate of Carlson) launched a political news website titled The Daily Caller. Carlson served as editor-in-chief, and occasionally wrote opinion pieces with Patel. The website was funded by the conservative activist Foster Friess. By February 2010, The Daily Caller was part of the White House rotating press pool. Carlson reportedly offered his employees free junk food, an unmonitored keg, provided them with a ping pong table, and allowed them to sleep under their desks.

In interviews, Carlson said The Daily Caller would not be tied to ideology but rather "breaking stories of importance", and "We're not enforcing any kind of ideological orthodoxy on anyone." Columnist Mickey Kaus quit after Carlson refused to run a column critical of Fox News's coverage of the immigration policy debate due to his contractual obligations to Fox News.

In June 2010, The Daily Caller published excerpts from e-mails sent between members of JournoList, an invitation-only liberal forum, consisting of "several hundred journalists, academics and policy experts" launched in 2007 by Ezra Klein. The forum barred media reporters and conservatives. Carlson had earlier attempted to join the forum on May 25, 2010, but was denied by Klein. Klein offered to form a bipartisan forum with Carlson, but Carlson declined. Daily Caller employees later impersonated an editor of the Arkansas Times to gain entry into JournoList. The e-mails leaked by The Daily Caller, which detailed efforts to, according to Carlson, "formulate the most effective talking points in order to defeat Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama president", also contained statements by The Washington Post's Dave Weigel "wishing for the death of Rush Limbaugh" among other controversial remarks that The Washington Post considered "untenable", leading to his resignation.

In February 2012, The Daily Caller published an "investigative series" of articles co-authored by Carlson, purporting to be an insiders' exposé of Media Matters for America, the liberal watchdog group that monitors and scrutinizes conservative media outlets, and its founder David Brock. Reuters media critic and libertarian Jack Shafer, while commenting "I've never thought much of Media Matters' style of watchdogging or Brock's journalism", nevertheless sharply criticized The Daily Caller piece for relying on conjecture, absence of evidence, and inclusion of "anonymously sourced crap", adding that "Daily Caller is attacking Media Matters with bad journalism and lame propaganda."

In June 2017, the Center for Media and Democracy, a liberal watchdog organization, said The Daily Caller was paid $150,000 by Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign for its list of subscribers, whom the Trump campaign then emailed at least 25 times. The watchdog said Carlson had a conflict of interest and had violated journalistic standards.

In June 2020, Carlson sold his one-third stake in The Daily Caller to Patel for an undisclosed amount and said "Neil [Patel] runs it. I wasn't adding anything. So we made it official".

2009–2023: Fox News Channel

In May 2009, Fox News announced that Carlson was being hired as a Fox News contributor. He was a frequent guest panelist on Fox's late-night satire show Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld, made frequent appearances on the All-Star Panel segment of Special Report with Bret Baier, was a substitute host of Hannity in Sean Hannity's absence, and produced and hosted a special entitled Fighting for Our Children's Minds in September 2010.

On the eve of then-President Barack Obama's first debate with Mitt Romney in October 2012, Carlson publicized a 2007 video recording of then-Senator Obama criticizing the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and complimenting his pastor at the time, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Wright's sermons had been a controversy in Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Portions of the video had been available online since 2007. An anonymous user going by the name "Sore Throwt" (a pun on famous Watergate informant Deep Throat) had been looking for a buyer of the tape for a week before Carlson distributed it.

In April 2013, Carlson replaced Dave Briggs as a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend, joining Alisyn Camerota and Clayton Morris on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Tucker Carlson Tonight

On November 14, 2016, Carlson began hosting Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News. The premiere episode of the show, which replaced On the Record, was the network's most watched telecast of the year in the time slot, with 3.7 million viewers.

Tucker Carlson Tonight aired at 7:00 p.m. each weeknight until January 9, 2017, when Carlson's show replaced Megyn Kelly at the 9:00 p.m. time slot after she left Fox News. In January 2017, Forbes reported that the show had "scored consistently high ratings, averaging 2.8 million viewers per night and ranking as the number two cable news program behind The O'Reilly Factor in December". In March 2017, Tucker Carlson Tonight was the most watched cable program in the 9:00 p.m. time slot.

On April 19, 2017, following the cancellation of The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News announced that Tucker Carlson Tonight would air at 8:00 p.m. Tucker Carlson Tonight was the third-highest-rated cable news show as of March 2018.

In October 2018, Tucker Carlson Tonight was the second-highest rated cable news show in prime time, after The Sean Hannity Show with Sean Hannity, with 3.2 million nightly viewers. By the end of 2018, the show had begun to be boycotted by at least 20 advertisers after Carlson said immigration makes the country "poorer, dirtier and more divided". According to Fox News, the advertisers only moved their ad buys to other programs.

In November 2018, a "Smash Racism D.C.", a local anti-fascist group, protested outside Carlson's home in Washington, D.C. Carlson's driveway was vandalized with a spray-painted anarchist symbol. Carlson alleged "someone started throwing himself against the front door and actually cracked the front door," though police observed no damage to the door, nor did Washington Post columnist Erik Wemple when he visited the Carlson home the next day. Carlson was not home at the time of the incident.

By January 2019, Carlson's show dropped to third with 2.8 million nightly viewers, down six percent from the previous year. The show also lost at least 26 advertisers.

In March 2019, there were calls to fire 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, calling them "like dogs" and "extremely primitive", and statutory rape, Iraqis, and immigrants. His ratings rose eight percent that week despite the boycotts.

By August 2019, Media Matters calculated that some companies had fulfilled their media buy contracts and advertising inventory for the time slot and had now begun their purchases for other time slots on Fox News. At the close of 2019, Carlson's Nielsen ratings among all viewers 25–54 placed him second only to Fox's The Sean Hannity Show among cable news shows.

In December 2019, Playboy model Karen McDougal sued Fox News after Carlson, in a 2018 episode of his show, accused her of extorting Donald Trump. In September 2020, federal judge Mary Kay Vyskocil dismissed the lawsuit, citing Fox News' defense that Carlson's extortion claims were opinion based and not "statements of fact". The judge also agreed with Fox News' defense that reasonable viewers would have "skepticism" over statements Carlson makes on its show, as he often engages in "exaggeration" and "non-literal commentary", and that Carlson is not "stating actual facts" on its show.

Beginning the week of June 8–14, 2020, Tucker Carlson Tonight became the highest-rated cable news show in the U.S., with an average of four million viewers, beating out the shows hosted by fellow Fox News pundits Hannity and Laura Ingraham. This came in the wake of Carlson's remarks criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement, which had caused some companies to pull their advertising from the show, including The Walt Disney Company, T-Mobile, and Papa John's.

In July 2020, Carlson's head writer Blake Neff resigned after CNN Business reported that he had been using a pseudonym to post remarks that were widely described as racist, sexist, and homophobic on AutoAdmit, a message board known for its lack of moderation of offensive and defamatory content. The incident drew renewed scrutiny to Carlson's program, already under pressure from sponsors because of Carlson's remarks about Black Lives Matter. Neff had also previously been a writer on The Daily Caller. Carlson condemned Neff's posts on the second episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight that aired after the posts were initially reported.

By October 2020, Tucker Carlson Tonight averaged 5.3 million viewers, with the show's monthly average becoming the highest of any cable news program in history at that point. In the 25–54 demographic, the show maintained an average viewership of just over a million, with 670,000 being between 18 and 49. Carlson's program saw a dip in viewership following the aftermath of the 2020 election, losing out to Anderson Cooper 360° in the 25–54 demographic, which Carlson had maintained a hold of the prior month. In 2020, Tucker Carlson Tonight and The Sean Hannity Show became the first cable news programs to finish a full year with viewership in excess of four million.

In the week following the inauguration of Joe Biden as president, Tucker Carlson Tonight remained the only cable news program not to see a drop in viewership, slightly increasing from where it stood one week prior and reclaiming its lead among the 25–54 demographic. It remained the most-watched news-related cable show as of mid-2021. Through May 2022 it was a close second to The Five, while leading in the 25–54 demographic.

Tucker Carlson Today

In February 2021, Carlson announced a multiyear deal with Fox News to host a new weekly podcast and series of monthly specials dubbed Tucker Carlson Originals on sister streaming service Fox Nation, which released on March 29. In spring of 2021, he began hosting a show on Fox Nation called Tucker Carlson Today.

Departure from Fox News

On the morning of Monday, April 24, 2023, Fox News dismissed Carlson and the executive producer of his evening show. It does not appear that Carlson received advance notice of his dismissal, given that on Friday, April 21, in what became his final show's sign-off, he told his viewers that he would "be back on Monday". As of October 2023, a rotation of guest hosts fill Carlson's old slot until a permanent replacement is found. On April 26, Carlson responded to his departure by tweeting a video that was watched millions of times.

Fox did not provide a reason for Carlson's termination. The Los Angeles Times wrote that the Chairman of Fox Corporation, Rupert Murdoch was responsible for the firing, and that a pending lawsuit from former Fox producer Abby Grossberg and Carlson's coverage of the January 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection both influenced the decision. The Wall Street Journal wrote that Carlson was dismissed due to private messages in which he criticized Fox's management, using vulgar and offensive language. In May, The New York Times reported that in one such message Carlson expressed racist views by criticizing three Trump supporters who were beating one antifa activist: "It's not how white men fight." Less than a week before his ouster Fox retained law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate Tucker over this and potentially other messages due to liability concerns. The Washington Post wrote that the decision to oust Carlson was made by Murdoch's son, Lachlan, and Fox CEO Suzanne Scott. Fox was reported to have a "stockpile" of damaging information that they would be ready to release in case of any retaliation made by Carlson; the network denied this, however.

2023–present: Tucker on Twitter / Tucker on X

In a video on his Twitter feed on May 9, 2023, Carlson said he would relaunch his show on Twitter. Just before making the announcement, Carlson's attorneys sent a letter to Fox executives, alleging that Rupert Murdoch and other senior executives "intentionally" broke their promises to him, an alleged breach of contract that he says ought to free him from his non-compete clause. Fox News reportedly sent him a cease and desist after the first episode aired.

The first episode of the show, called Tucker on Twitter, was released on June 6, 2023, and lasted just over 10 minutes. During the episode, Carlson claimed that the US had recovered an extraterrestrial starship and its pilot; that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is "sweaty and rat-like", and was persecuting Christians; that the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam was done by Ukrainian forces; that the Black Lives Matter riots were organized by an unknown entity; and that the truth behind the September 11 attacks was still classified.

In June 2023, he was reportedly seeking funds to start a new media company with Neil Patel.

From Wikipedia’s article on Tucker Carlson (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

  • BornMay 16, 1969, San Francisco13
  • CitizenshipUnited States14
  • Children415 16

Carlson is married to Susan Thomson Carlson (née Andrews). They met at St. George's School, where she was the daughter of the school's headmaster and priest. They were married on August 10, 1991, in the school chapel. They have four children. His son Buckley worked as Deputy Press Secretary to Vice President JD Vance.

Carlson was baptized and continues to identify as an Episcopalian but has said he grew up with secular beliefs; he credits his wife for his religious faith. In 2013, 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. He has said he stays in the Church because he "loves the liturgy" and "likes the people".

Carlson quit drinking alcohol in 2002. A few years earlier, he quit smoking cigarettes (a habit begun in eighth grade) and took up nicotine gum, which he "chews constantly", and nicotine pouches. He became a co-founder of nicotine pouch company ALP Supply Co. after publicly turning on the nicotine pouch brand Zyn. He is a Deadhead (a fan of the rock band Grateful Dead) and has attended more than fifty Dead concerts.

In 2011, a group of protesters gathered outside his house in Kent, Washington, D.C., to protest Carlson. In 2017, Carlson sold his home and purchased another nearby. In late 2018, protestors gathered in front of their home. In 2020, Carlson sold his home in Kent and bought a house on Gasparilla Island, on Florida's Gulf Coast, and in the summer of 2022, a second home next door.

They now also live part of the year in Maine near his "favorite place in the world", Bryant Pond, Woodstock, Maine.

In September 2022, Carlson spoke at the funeral of Hells Angels president Sonny Barger. Carlson said that he had been a fan of Barger since his college years, quoted Barger as saying "stay loyal, remain free, and always value honor", and added "I want to pay tribute to the man who spoke those words".

In 2024, Carlson shared with a documentary producer that he believes that he was mauled by a demon while he was in bed. The attack left him bleeding. A few days later he referred to nuclear technology as "demonic".

From Wikipedia’s article on Tucker Carlson (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Politics

Carlson has been described in the media as a conservative, paleoconservative, right-wing extremist, and far-right. In 2021, Time magazine said Carlson "may be the most powerful conservative in America". Writing for New York magazine's Intelligencer in 2019, Park MacDougald called Carlson a "Middle American radical", which he described as someone who holds populist economic beliefs; hostility to corporatocracy; fervent positions on nationalism, race, and immigration; and a preference for a strong U.S. president. MacDougald identified this form of radicalism as the ideological core of Trumpism. Carlson is noted for circulating white nationalist views and terminology into mainstream political discourse, in particular, repackaging the fringe racist "replacement" conspiracy theory into a version that accuses Democrats and "elites" of forcing demographic change. More virulent versions of the conspiracy theory have been cited by gunmen in several mass shootings targeting minorities; Carlson has denounced the attacks.

Carlson formerly identified as a Republican. He was previously registered as a Democrat in Washington, D.C., from 2006 to 2020. In 2017, Carlson said his registration as a Democrat was to gain the right to vote in the primaries for mayoral elections in the district, and that he nevertheless "sincerely despise[s]" the Democratic Party and "always vote[d] for the more corrupt candidate over the idealist" in order to favor the status quo and stem progressivism. Carlson campaigned for Republicans and Republican-affiliated causes during his time as a Democrat. In June 2026, Carlson stated that he was "out" of the Republican Party.

Parties and candidates

In public correspondence in Slate with Texas Monthly's Evan Smith on November 29, 1999, Carlson agreed with Smith's low opinion of Donald Trump, who was then running for president with the Reform Party. Carlson wrote that Trump was "the single most repulsive person on the planet" and that the Reform Party consisted of "a bunch of wackos". Separately, he criticized the party's eventual nominee, Pat Buchanan. In his 2018 book, Ship of Fools, Carlson wrote that he had adopted some of Buchanan's views.

Carlson voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 election. Carlson told Salon in 2003 that some Washington conservatives suspected he was "secretly liberal" because he liked John McCain. Carlson said in an interview, "by my criteria, Bush isn't much of a conservative". Carlson did not vote in the 2004 election, citing his souring on the Iraq War, his disillusionment with the once small-government Republican Party, and his disappointment with Bush and like-minded conservatives.

Carlson was reportedly floated as a potential candidate for the Libertarian nomination in the 2008 presidential election. He was included in polling at the 2008 Libertarian National Convention, with unconfirmed speculation arising that he was personally funding the effort. Carlson spoke at Ron Paul's independent Rally for the Republic convention, opposite the official 2008 Republican National Convention, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which served as a "message of revolt to the Republican Party" and a general celebration of Paul's policy proposals.

He expressed his disappointment with the Republican nominee for the 2012 election, Mitt Romney, and the health care reform he signed in 2006 as governor of Massachusetts, which contained an individual mandate, saying, "out of 315 million Americans, the Republican Party managed to find the one guy who couldn't run on Obamacare."

Writing for Politico in January 2016, Carlson expressed his support for Donald Trump's candidacy and his positions, such as his proposed "Muslim ban", and criticized the other Republican candidates for not similarly making immigration a core issue. During the Trump presidency, Carlson was described in Politico as "perhaps the highest-profile proponent of 'Trumpism' – a blend of anti-immigrant nationalism, economic populism and America First isolationism". Carlson's commentaries did not uniformly praise Trump, but he had frequent scorn for Trump's critics; some commentators called Carlson an exemplar of "anti-anti-Trump" arguments. In March 2023, Carlson defended Trump after he was indicted in New York, calling the indictment "election interference". Despite his praise for Trump, he has at times been critical. Carlson criticized the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, ordered by Trump in January 2020 and said in June 2020 that Trump had let Black Lives Matter protests go too far. In private correspondence, he referred to Trump as a "demonic force" and wrote, "I hate him passionately".

Following the 2020 election, Carlson reportedly told people he had voted for independent candidate Kanye West, though Politico points out that it was unclear whether Carlson "was serious or merely joking". In July 2021, Carlson told Time magazine that the Republican Party is "inept and bad at governing" and "much more effective as an oppositional force than it is as a governing party".

Carlson supported JD Vance in the 2022 Republican U.S. Senate primary in Ohio and privately persuaded Trump to endorse him despite Vance's past anti-Trump comments. Former Hawaii congresswoman and Democratic presidential primary contender Tulsi Gabbard was a substitute host on Tucker Carlson Tonight in 2022; she appeared on the show the night she left the Democratic Party in October 2022, to Carlson's praise.

Read more

Abortion

Carlson opposes abortion and has said it is the only political issue he considers non-negotiable. Carlson has described Roe v. Wade as "the most embarrassing court decision handed down in the last century".

In 2024, Carlson dismissed the link between climate change and the increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes, attributing it instead to abortion. Explaining his rationale, he has compared abortion to ritual sacrifice, saying that one "can't participate in human sacrifice without consequences".

Death penalty

Carlson wrote in 2000 that capital punishment "deserves more vigorous debate", and in 2003 told Salon, "I'm opposed to the death penalty as I am adamantly opposed to abortion". After saying on Fox News in 2010 that Michael Vick "should have been executed" for dog fighting, Carlson stated that he is "not comfortable with the death penalty under any circumstances".

Guns

Carlson supports the right to keep and bear arms. He has opposed gun control and the assault weapons ban. He has debated several Democrats on gun control. In 2015, he said Australian gun laws were "insane" and "childish". In March 2018, he criticized Donald Trump for comments supporting gun control after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. In a 2019 interview, Carlson said he owns an AR-15 style rifle and said "all my guns are working-class guns". He has a concealed carry permit in the District of Columbia.

Carlson aired segments defending Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old who shot three protesters, killing two, in August 2020 in confrontations during unrest after a police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin. At trial, Rittenhouse pled self defense, and was found not guilty on all charges.

Economics

Early in his career, Carlson supported libertarian economics. He supported Ron Paul's 1988 presidential candidacy, when Paul ran as the candidate for the Libertarian Party, along with his 2008 presidential candidacy, when Paul ran as a Republican. Carlson said in 2004, "I hate all nanny-state regulations, such as seat belt laws and smoking bans." From 2009 through 2015, Carlson was a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Since 2018, he has promoted more populist economics, attacking libertarianism, saying "market capitalism is not a religion" and portraying some Republicans as "controlled by the banks". In an interview, he said that economic and technological change that occurs too quickly can cause widespread social and political upheaval, and praised President Theodore Roosevelt, saying his intervention in the economy in the early 1900s may have prevented a communist revolution in the United States. In 2019 on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson said America's "ruling class" are, in effect, the "mercenaries" behind the decline of the American middle class, and "any economic system that weakens and destroys families is not worth having. A system like that is the enemy of a healthy society." He cited parallels between the problems of inner cities and rural areas as evidence that the "culture of poverty" cited by conservatives as the cause of urban decline "wasn't the whole story", and that "Certain economic systems allow families to thrive. Thriving families make market economies possible." In January 2019, 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.

Carlson has criticized hedge funds (singling out the Republican donor Paul Singer in 2019) and private equity (in criticizing Mitt Romney, former CEO of Bain Capital). He described the business model of firms like Bain as: "Take over an existing company for a short period of time, cut costs by firing employees, run up the debt, extract the wealth and move on, sometimes leaving retirees without their earned pensions.... Meanwhile, a remarkable number of the companies are now bankrupt or extinct." He attacked payday lenders, saying they "loan people money they can't possibly repay" and "charge them interest that impoverishes them" He praised Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's economic plan and called her book The Two Income Trap "one of the best books I've ever read on economics".

Environment

On his show, Carlson frequently hosts guests who downplay the scientific consensus on climate change, and disagreed with Bill Nye on the subject. Carlson has also said that he does not consider climate change a threat. Carlson argues that global warming will have many positive effects on Earth, namely "more arable land in places like Canada and northern Europe".

In 2023, 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 November 2025, Carlson promoted the chemtrail conspiracy theory.

Foreign policy

Carlson is skeptical of foreign intervention, has expressed regret for his public support of the U.S. invading Iraq in 2003, and has said "the U.S. ought to hesitate before intervening abroad". Carlson is known for some defenses of authoritarian foreign leaders, including President Vladimir Putin of Russia, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, and Prime minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary. Carlson was noted for defending Putin in the lead-up to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Carlson's praise for Orbán included a visit and his online film Hungary vs. Soros.

Russia

Carlson is sympathetic to Russian president Vladimir Putin, has defended Putin's Russia, and has promoted pro-Russian disinformation and propaganda.

Carlson said he does not consider Russia a serious threat to the United States, and called for the United States to work with Russia in the Syrian Civil War against a common enemy like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). He asserts that Putin does not hate the United States as much as American liberals do, and suggested there is no reason to dislike Putin, asking his viewers to consider whether Putin has ever called them racist or threatened to get them fired for disagreeing with him. Carlson said it is "not treason, it is not un-American" to support Putin.

In 2019, while discussing U.S. military aid to Ukraine during the Donbas War, Carlson said on his show: "Why shouldn't I root for Russia? Which I am". At the end of the show, he claimed to have been joking. Afterwards, he explained: "I think we should probably take the side of Russia if we have to choose between Russia and Ukraine".

In early 2022, Carlson downplayed Russia's military buildup on Ukraine's borders as a "border dispute". Although Carlson called the Russian invasion of Ukraine "awful" and acknowledged Putin's responsibility, he has promoted pro-Russian disinformation since then, such as a Russian conspiracy theory that the U.S. and Kyiv were developing biological weapons in Ukraine. Many of Carlson's broadcasts have been used by Russian state media to support their messaging, and Mother Jones reported that the Kremlin sent a memo to state media outlets saying it was "essential" to use video clips of Carlson "as much as possible". Mother Jones further observed Carlson was the only Western media pundit that the Kremlin adopted in this way.

Carlson's views of Putin's Russia have changed markedly since the 2000s. Back then, he agreed that Russia was becoming a "police state" where "freedom of the press is disappearing", and said that Putin was "in league with our enemies".

Peter Beinart of The Atlantic said Carlson has been an "apologist for Donald Trump on the Russia scandal". Carlson described the controversy over revelations that Donald Trump Jr. was willing to accept opposition research about Hillary Clinton from a Russian government official as a "new level of hysteria" and said that Trump Jr. had only been "gossiping with foreigners".

After the death of prominent Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison days after the interview, Carlson faced fresh criticism for holding the interview with Putin and saying that "leadership requires killing people". Carlson called Navalny's death "barbaric and awful" in a statement to The New York Times.

Iraq

Carlson initially supported the Iraq War. A year after the invasion of Iraq, he began criticizing the war, telling The New York Observer: "I think it's a total nightmare and disaster, and I'm ashamed that I went against my own instincts in supporting it." In 2004, Carlson wrote a commentary in Esquire accusing Bush of weakness after the September 11 attacks and in the invasion of Iraq. Carlson said "Iraq is a crappy place filled with a bunch of, you know, semi-literate primitive monkeys, that's why it wasn't worth invading.".

Iran

In July 2017, Carlson said that "we actually don't face any domestic threat from Iran". He asked Max Boot to "tell me how many Americans in the United States have been murdered by terrorists backed by Iran since 9/11?" According to The New York Times, Carlson played an influential role in dissuading Trump from launching military strikes against Iran in response to the shooting down of an American drone in June 2019. Carlson reportedly told Trump that if he listened to his hawkish advisors and went ahead with the strikes, he would not win re-election. In 2019, Carlson lobbied Donald Trump to fire his national security advisor, John Bolton. Carlson said Bolton was "demented" for seeking a military strike against Iran and accused him of undermining Trump by disagreeing publicly with Trump's decisions. Trump fired Bolton on September 10, 2019.

Carlson called the 2020 assassination of Qasem Soleimani a "quagmire". He criticized the "chest-beaters" who promote foreign interventions, particularly Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE), and asked, "By the way, if we're still in Afghanistan, 19 years, sad years, later, what makes us think there's a quick way out of Iran?"

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. Carlson dismissed the idea that the conflict was based on the interests of the United States or Israel, claiming “You have that country breaking apart, and what does that mean? Hard to see that as a good thing for the rest of the world” and "“The United States didn’t make the decision here. Benjamin Netanyahu did.” Carlson also dismissed concerns about Iranian weapons and further alleged that “The point is regional hegemony. Really simple,” and that “Israel wants to control the Middle East.”

Syria

Carlson opposed overthrowing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has downplayed some of the Assad regime's human rights violations in the Syrian Civil War. In April 2018, Carlson questioned whether Assad was responsible for the Douma chemical attack that had occurred a few days earlier and killed dozens. In November 2019, Carlson repeated this claim and queried whether the attack had happened at all. Carlson suggested that a similar attack that occurred the year before (the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack), which was attributed to Assad's forces and which the OPCW JIM indicated was carried out with sarin that bore the regime's signature, was a false flag attack perpetrated to falsely implicate the Assad government. Carlson compared Assad's war crimes during the Syrian Civil War to Saudi Arabia's war crimes in Yemen.

Israel

In 2006, Carlson appeared live from Israel during the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Early on in the conflict, Carlson proposed that Lebanon fight and push out Hezbollah instead of going to war with Israel. During the conflict, he criticized Syria's involvement in the conflict in supporting Hezbollah and later expressed some support for the Israel Defense Forces. However, he also criticized the tactics used by the Israel Defense Forces in fighting Hezbollah.

During the Gaza war, Carlson criticized both President Joe Biden and Republican House speaker Mike Johnson for their support for military aid to Israel and called for American neutrality during the conflict. He declared Israel guilty of war crimes. Commentators have described him as part of a growing faction within the Republican Party that is either indifferent, or directly opposed, to Zionism.

In 2025, Carlson criticized the Trump administration's support for Israel in the Gaza war. In June, he criticized Trump's support for Israeli strikes against Iran, opposing the possible involvement of the United States in a war with Iran. Carlson said: "I think this can be stopped. But it's going to require a really tough step which is to say to our client state which is to say, 'We love you, we want to help you, we don't think you're acting in your own interest. We're not going to … imperil American national security, the American economy, or America itself on your behalf."

Carlson was accused of making antisemitic comments at the memorial service of Charlie Kirk by suggesting he supported the conspiracy theory that Jews or Israel were responsible for Kirk's assassination. Carlson said that Kirk's killing reminded him of the death of Jesus Christ, who was killed by powerful people for telling the truth. Carlson claimed that Kirk loved Israel, but he disliked Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was "appalled by what was happening in Gaza", and most of all, he disliked that Netanyahu was using the United States to wage wars on Israel's behalf. In December 2025, the pro-Israel and Jewish advocacy group StopAntisemitism called Carlson "Antisemite of the Year" for several remarks he made in 2025 that were critical of Israel and allegedly antisemitic.

In February 2026, Carlson made a brief visit to Israel to conduct an interview with U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee at Ben Gurion International Airport. After the interview, Carlson publicly claimed that he and his team were detained and questioned by Israeli airport security before departing the country. Israeli authorities, including the Israel Airports Authority, and the United States Embassy in Jerusalem stated that the encounter involved only routine passport control questions. Video footage published by The Jerusalem Post showed Carlson smiling, embracing, and posing for photos with airport staff following the encounter.

Hungary

In August 2021, Carlson traveled to Hungary, broadcasting from Budapest. He praised the country and its prime minister, Viktor Orbán, for rejecting asylum seekers on its border, and ridiculed the idea that Orbán

From Wikipedia’s article on Tucker Carlson (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Awards

  • 2021Time 10017
  • 2018Salvatori Prize for American Citizenship17 18

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28