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Tucker Carlson says he will be “tormented” for helping elect Trump, and he’s sorry
Tucker Carlson issued a striking public apology on Monday, April 20, telling his audience on The Tucker Carlson Show that he will be personally “tormented” for his role in helping elect Donald Trump, and expressing regret for having misled people through his support of the president. The remarks, delivered in conversation with his brother Buckley Carlson, a former Trump speechwriter, came as Carlson positioned himself among a growing cohort of conservative commentators who have broken with Trump over the administration’s military involvement in Iran.
Tucker Carlson framed the situation as a matter of personal conscience, arguing that everyone who campaigned for or promoted Trump bore some responsibility for the policies now being carried out in his name. He characterised their culpability as real, however small, and said a simple declaration of changed views was insufficient, that something deeper was owed to those who had been persuaded. The episode drew more than 500,000 views, with a substantial portion of the comment section reflecting similar disillusionment among Tucker Carlson’s base.
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The Iran War was the breaking point
Tucker Carlson’s most pointed criticism centred on what he described as the Trump administration’s involvement in military operations against Iran, referred to in some reporting as “Operation Epic Fury,” which Carlson called morally reprehensible. He was not alone: the same fault line has emerged between Trump and other prominent conservative voices, including Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones, all of whom Trump publicly dismissed in a social media post, questioning their intelligence.
Tucker Carlson’s opposition to US military entanglement in the Israel-Iran war had been building since 2025, when he publicly accused Trump of being complicit in acts of war, a direct contradiction of Trump’s 2024 campaign pledge to keep America out of another global conflict. Trump responded at the time by suggesting Carlson lacked any meaningful platform through which to make his views heard.
A pattern of private doubts made public
Monday’s apology adds a new chapter to a longer story. As far back as January 6, 2021, Tucker Carlson was privately expressing alarm about Trump in communications with colleagues, even while projecting public support. And in 2023, it emerged that Carlson and other Fox News hosts had privately doubted Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud in 2020, while continuing to platform them on air, a revelation that contributed significantly to the legal and reputational pressures that ultimately led to his departure from the network.
Megyn Kelly vs Mark Levin Feud Escalates as Marjorie Taylor Greene Joins Clash Over Iran War
For many observers, Monday’s on-air mea culpa represents not a sudden reversal but the belated public expression of doubts that Carlson, by his own account, has held for some time. Whether his audience, or the broader conservative movement, receives it as genuine contrition or convenient distancing will likely define the next chapter of his career.·
