US President Donald Trump speaks during the announcement of a Minnesota company's plan to build a $15 billion steel mill in Iowa, at the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 28, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
A one-time Trump confidant who helped shape the president's second administration is now owning up to a painful miscalculation about their relationship.
Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host turned podcaster, told the Financial Times in an interview that he badly misjudged his sway over President Donald Trump. "I got completely deluded," Carlson said. "Like I so overstated my power that it was embarrassing. He didn't care what I thought at all."
Carlson, who campaigned for Trump in 2024 and helped him choose JD Vance as his running mate, said he believed he had earned the president's trust during the first term by never asking for favors. He told the Financial Times he pushed relentlessly to keep the United States out of foreign conflicts, butting heads with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo along the way.
That illusion shattered in February, when Trump launched a war against Iran that Carlson viewed as a betrayal of the president's "America First" promises. Carlson compared the moment to the ending of George Orwell's "Animal Farm," in which the farm animals realize the pigs have become the tyrants they overthrew. "That's how I felt," he said.
Carlson also revealed he keeps a running list on his phone of people who have suffered for their closeness to Trump, and said Vance is on it. "There is a one-to-one correlation between working for Trump and getting hurt," he said.
Trump, for his part, has made clear the feelings are mutual. Weeks before the interview, the president wrote on Truth Social that Carlson "has become totally irrelevant" and called him "a very Low I.Q. individual."
Carlson predicted Republicans will lose badly in the Nov. 3 midterms, in part because of the war and soaring gas prices. He also said he has no plans to run for office, though he will reassess after the election whether to build an alternative path with fellow MAGA defectors such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The Financial Times reporter noted that Carlson said, "You can write whatever you want about me" because "I won't read it."
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