A few years ago, then-Fox News star Tucker Carlson was one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent media defenders and a conservative icon within the Republican Party.
This week, Carlson claimed to have told the president to “shut up” and called him a “buffoon” — the latest dramatic, profane and public break from the Republican Party.
“Trump is super sophisticated about certain things, and obviously buffoonish in other ways, but he’s not stupid and he’s not senile,” Carlson said in a recent podcast.
The former Fox News star claimed he’d recently had private conversations with the president where Trump admitted his errors.
Carlson claimed that, in private, Trump had told to him that the war was “a massive mistake” with “no obvious military solution,” but responded by escalating his rhetoric rather than backing down.
“So he tried to posture his way out of it,” Carlson said, impersonating the president: “‘We’re going to eliminate you!'”
“After like the 400th Truth Social, [Iran] reached the same conclusion that everyone on the globe reached, which is this guy’s not strong, he’s weak,” Carlson said. “Strong people don’t brag about how strong they are. They just punch you in the face and end the conversation.”
Carlson put Trump squarely in the first category in his profane rant.
“Trump is very much ‘What’d you say?!'” he said. “Shut up, b***h! I don’t take you seriously. No, I’m not being mean. But like, come on.”
It is a stunning turn for a man who spent nearly a decade as one of conservative media’s most influential pro-Trump voices. Carlson’s break has been building since the Iran war began earlier this year. He has argued the conflict was never America’s war to fight, blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly for U.S. involvement.
“This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States’ war.” He has accused Netanyahu of starting the conflict through “lies” and claimed Israel’s true goal was regional control, not American security.
In April, Carlson and his brother Buckley, a former Trump campaign speechwriter, had publicly apologized for ever backing Trump. Buckley attacked the president and claimed he was an “out of control, megalomaniacal, destructive president.”
Days ago, Carlson renounced his support for the Republican Party completely.
“I voted Republican my entire life. I worked at Fox News. I’ve been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican Party, but there’s no defending this because it’s immoral,” he said, accusing the party of putting “the interests of a foreign country above those of its own citizens.”
Tucker is such a sad pathetic shill. We've all seen him bully people on Fox with his stupid little bow tie.
Every thing Tucker Carlson says is a projection of himself & his broken ego.
"Shut up bitch" referring to Trump.
Yeah okay Tucker you're so tough 🥱…— J (@JayTC53) June 25, 2026