Trump's position on vaccines could spark a 'cold war' with Tucker Carlson: analysis

Fox News host Tucker Carlson was one of former President Donald Trump's biggest defenders during his four years in the White House -- but the Washington Post's Philip Bump believes there's a potential rift opening up between the two men.

In particular, Bump says that Trump's comments urging his supporters to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus could create an opening for Carlson to take control of Trump voters who are still refusing to get vaccinated.

Bump notes that Carlson went on the air to push bogus claims about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines right after Trump told Fox News that he personally vouched for their safety.

The Washington Post reporter speculates that Carlson is deliberately trying to create space between himself and the former president because he has political ambitions of his own.

"It was perhaps inevitable that Carlson and Trump would butt heads," he writes. "Carlson's viewership almost certainly overlaps with Trump's to a large extent, meaning that the Fox host is often talking to people over whom Trump wants to maintain primacy. Even before Trump had left the White House, Carlson was charting a course that brought him into conflict with the legacy Trump sought to maintain."

All of this leads Bump to conclude that "the Trump-Tucker cold war has begun."