On April 20, 2026, Tucker Carlson issued a stunning public apology for his role in helping Donald Trump return to the White House, telling listeners of “The Tucker Carlson Show” that he misled people and will be tormented by his actions for years to come.
“I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional,” Carlson said during a conversation with his younger brother Buckley, a former Trump speechwriter the family calls “Uncle Buck.”
The 56-year-old former Fox News host’s break with Trump has escalated in recent months over Operation Epic Fury, a U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran that lasted 38 days from Feb. 28 to April 7, 2026. The operation assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and destroyed over 85% of Iran’s defense industrial base before a ceasefire was reached.
Carlson has condemned it as a betrayal of MAGA voters who supported Trump to avoid foreign wars, calling the operation “absolutely disgusting and evil.” He previously accused the administration of carrying out the war solely at Israel’s behest and called Trump’s Easter morning social media post threatening Iran “vile on every level.”
During the podcast, both brothers accepted what they called personal responsibility for Trump’s 2024 election victory. Buckley Carlson called Trump an “out of control, megalomaniacal, destructive president” and suggested Congress should “consider” invoking the 25th Amendment.
“You and I and everyone else who supported him, you wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him, I mean, we’re implicated in this for sure,” Carlson told Buckley. “It’s not enough to say, ‘Well, I changed my mind,’ or like, ‘This is bad. I’m out.’ It’s like, in very small ways, but in real ways, you and me and millions of people like us are the reason this is happening right now.”
Carlson acknowledged he and others ignored early warnings about Trump’s character. “Was this always the plan? You don’t want to be a conspiracy nut, but clearly, there were signs of low character,” he said. “We knew that. But there are tons of people of low character who outperform it.”
President Trump responded to the criticism with characteristic vitriol. In a 485-word Truth Social post on April 9, Trump branded Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones as “stupid people” with “low IQs.” He singled out Carlson as “a broken man” who “couldn’t even finish college” and was “never the same” after being fired from Fox News, adding that the podcaster should “see a good psychiatrist.”
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle, when asked for comment on the podcast apology, simply replied with a link to that same Truth Social post.
The public apology stands in sharp contrast to Carlson’s past actions. Private text messages revealed during the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit showed that just two days before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, Carlson wrote “I hate him (Trump) passionately” and called him “a demonic force, a destroyer,” on the day of the attack.
Fox News settled that lawsuit for $787.5 million. Days later, Carlson’s show was dropped from the network. He launched his own podcast and then, despite those private admissions, endorsed Trump for president in 2024 and campaigned for him.
Hosts on The View showed no sympathy. Sara Haines said Carlson “will literally do, say anything for money, for clicks, for power. That man just needs to disappear.” Joy Behar quipped that Carlson has “what they call liar’s remorse.”
A UMass Lowell poll conducted in late March showed Carlson’s favorability among Republicans has dropped to 31%. His podcast episode has drawn more than 500,000 views. Carlson is not alone in his break from Trump. Alex Jones, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Joe Rogan, and Candace Owens have all, in varying degrees, publicly criticized the president over the Iran war and other issues. But none have gone as far as Carlson in accepting personal blame for putting Trump back in power.
