Tucker Carlson made an unexpected confession on Monday: after backing Donald Trump for 10 years, he said he and others who supported the president are partly responsible for what is happening now. Speaking with his son, Buckley Carlson, on The Tucker Carlson Show, Carlson said, “You and I and everyone else who supported him — you wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him — we’re implicated in this for sure.”
He did not stop there. Carlson said, “It’s not enough to say, ‘Well, I changed my mind’ or, like, ‘Oh, this is bad. I’m out,’” adding that “you and me and millions of people like us are the reason this is happening right now.” He also said, “We’ll be tormented by it for a long time — I will be,” before adding, “And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people.”
The comments land at a moment when Carlson has been breaking with Trump on issues that have widened the split between the two men, including Iran and the release of files tied to Jeffrey Epstein. Trump, who has already attacked Carlson on social media this month, also lashed out at Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in the same stretch of online posts.
In one post, Trump said he knew why Carlson, Kelly, Owens and Alex Jones had been fighting him for years, saying they believed it was wonderful for Iran to have a nuclear weapon and calling them “Low IQs.” Greene and Owens have also broken with Trump on the Epstein and Iran issues, underscoring how far the fractures have spread inside the conservative circle that once rallied around him. The feud has also spilled into the family orbit: Buckley Carlson recently quit his job in Vance’s office, a turn that came as the public fight around his father deepened.
What Carlson said on Monday matters because it was more than a political adjustment. It was an admission of ownership, from one of Trump’s most visible backers, that support can become part of the damage when a movement moves beyond its own promises. Whether that apology changes anything is the unanswered question now hanging over Carlson, Trump and the allies who spent years helping build this political moment.
