American conservative commentator Tucker Carlson is one of the most consequential political figures in today’s United States. Millions tune into his monologues, interviews and shows across platforms and formats at a scale rarely seen in the western public sphere. He has termed the war against Iran “evil”, and said, following the American bombing of a school in Iran, that a country that thinks it is acceptable to kill innocent children in a war was not worth defending.
Mr. Carlson’s influence comes from the courage of innocence. He casts himself as the child who screams that the king is naked in the parade. He asks the most elementary questions about claims held as theology by the religious and secular warriors of the West, simply by exposing them to scrutiny. What actually is “Israel’s right to exist”, which is distinct from any other country — the U.K., U.S., Lebanon, or Iran?, he asked The Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, who tried to corner him on the charge of being an antisemite. Where exactly in the Bible does it say that supporting Israel is obligatory for Christians, he asked Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who had suggested precisely that. Can the modern state of Israel claim all of the land the Old Testament says god gave to his chosen people, he asked the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.
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After some experiments with television on CNN and MSNBC, where he tried to play the mandatory conservative role, he landed in a primetime slot on Fox News in 2017, just as Mr. Trump was upending American politics. They agreed on most issues and reinforced each other’s positions. Mr. Trump considered Mr. Carlson as a Vice-Presidential candidate in 2024 before choosing J.D. Vance, who is also Mr. Carlson’s friend. Mr. Carlson tried to persuade Mr. Trump against launching a war on Iran. They have since fallen out.
Mr. Carlson was let go by Fox News in April 2023 — when his viewership was miles ahead of the competition. The separation turned out to be liberation. His prime-time show on Fox had drawn 3.5 million viewers nightly. The day after his exit, the slot had 20% fewer viewers; no show on American cable news has matched him since. Mr. Carlson launched his independent show on X in June 2023 — the debut episode was viewed approximately 120 million times. His interviews and programmes have continued to command massive audiences that no American commentator or public figure, save Mr. Trump himself, can dream of.
A worldview shaped by faith
Mr. Carlson says his worldview is shaped by his Christian faith — which is against violence, war, collective punishment, racism and discrimination. This interpretation of faith makes him a firm opponent of abortion, same-sex marriage and affirmative action — because he regards the latter as discrimination against white men. He argues that mass migration is remaking the demographic composition of western societies, and opposes it. He calls for large families. His hybrid views rile champions of liberal internationalism, global trade, Zionism and corporate capitalism. He has so disoriented the neat pretensions and classifications of the Western public discourse that he gets labelled a white nationalist and an Islamist sympathiser at the same time.
Other labels attached to him include racist, misogynist, regressive, antisemite and neo-Nazi. These stamps are applied by his opponents; in his own words, his positions and arguments are about moral clarity, disagreeable as they may well be to many people. Muslims in America must have the same rights as Christians, Mr. Carlson told a gathering of Christian conservatives last December. His humanist position sits uneasily with the textbook definition of any nationalism.
Mr. Carlson’s critique of capitalism and corporate greed on the one hand, and his assertion of cultural and religious heritage on the other, is a combination that draws public support in many parts of the world. This politics defies the familiar definitions of left, right or centre.
Mr. Carlson had an unsentimental view of Mr. Trump. “Happy countries don’t elect Donald Trump President. Desperate ones do. In retrospect, the lesson seemed obvious: ignore voters for long enough and you get Donald Trump,” he wrote in his 2018 book Ship of Fools. Mr. Carlson believes common people have been taken for a ride by the ruling class for a long time.
Would he himself run for the presidency? Mr. Carlson, whose name now appears among Republican probables for the 2028 election, was recently asked. He referred to his refusal to compromise on issues and his tendency to say things that others remain silent about as impediments to a political career, but did not rule out the possibility of taking an electoral turn. He went further, saying he would be happy to debate Ted Cruz — the Senator he questioned in an interview now viewed 39 million times — on a public platform at any time. Charges of antisemitism, Islamophobia and race supremacism against him rest primarily on Mr. Carlson’s willingness to host people of all opinions. Nick Fuentes, an avowed white nationalist, appeared on Mr. Carlson’s show. While finding common ground with Mr. Fuentes on the U.S. relationship with Israel, Mr. Carlson disagreed with any equation of the Israeli state with Jews, because, he said, it goes “against my Christian faith”.
Born in 1969, in San Francisco, Mr. Carlson was raised by his father Dick Carlson, a reporter who became director of Voice of America and president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. His mother, Lisa McNear, was an artist. His parents divorced when he was a child; he reportedly said he had not known his mother at all when she died. He had a wild side through school and college. After four years at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, he failed to graduate. He then tried to join the CIA; his application was denied. He turned to journalism. His biographer — whose view of him screams in the title Hated by All the Right People — writes that Mr. Carlson was an “abysmal student” who “charmed his way into a succession of small conservative media outlets and a few national magazines”.
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The Israel factor
Mr. Carlson has framed a politics that many Americans across the spectrum find reasonable. In his own words: “Any economic system that weakens and destroys families is not worth having. A system like that is the enemy of a healthy society”; “Market capitalism is not a religion,” and Republicans, he had argued, were “controlled by the banks”.
What works him into real anger is the centrepiece of American foreign policy — unconditional support for Israel. “My real rage, what I am actually upset about, is directed toward my people, Protestant Christian, evangelical pastors who have made deals with the Israeli government, or have theology so deranged that they think their Christian faith requires them to support the murder of children, including Christian children.” Conservatives are taking note. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation — the influential conservative think tank in Washington, DC — said “Christians can critique the state of Israel without being antisemitic”, coming out in public support of Mr. Carlson. The debate has only just begun, and the spotlight is firmly on Mr. Carlson.
Published – March 22, 2026 01:15 am IST
