Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson are closer than ever; report says: While text messages revealed that the former Fox host once said he “passionately” hates the former president, Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump have become increasingly close. This complicates Trump’s fraught relationship with Fox News.
Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump: Now Friends?
After Fox News and other Rupert Murdoch-owned media properties appeared late last year to have all but excommunicated Donald Trump, relations appeared to thaw earlier this year, with Trump agreeing to appear on air for interviews with both Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.
But now that the network has fired Carlson, that rapprochement has become complicated, according to a new report.
According to The Hill, Carlson’s firing was not viewed well by the Trump family.
“That’s one of the few voices in the Republican Party that would call out the nonsense from GOP senators, governors and otherwise,” Donald Trump, Jr., said this week. “You know, an actual thought leader in conservatism.”
The younger Trump went on to rip his father’s likely future opponent, Gov. Ron DeSantis, for his “silence” on the firing of Carlson from Fox.
Despite the text messages released as part of the Dominion lawsuit against Fox before it was settled, Trump and Carlson have repaired their relationship.
“Trump and Tucker have never been closer,” one source told The Hill. “Over the last year and a half they’ve become much closer than they were in 2020.”
Since Carlson’s firing, Fox has seen a big drop in viewership, similar to the one in late 2020 and early 2021, after Fox was more reluctant to go along with Trump’s election conspiracy theories than rivals Newsmax and One America News. Carlson’s cryptic Twitter video last week received many multiples of times more views than is old 8 pm show on Fox. However, it’s not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison between a two-minute online video and a 60-minute TV show.
Fox is also scheduled to host the first Republican presidential debate this August, although Trump has not committed to participate in the debate.
Brian Kilmeade, who has been filling in on Carlson’s former time slot, reacted to criticism of Fox from former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. Fox is going with a rotation of 8 p.m. hosts before a permanent replacement is announced.
“We’re strong as ever. For Steve Bannon to come out and criticize Fox … really? These are a bunch of people who think they can run this network and they can’t,” Kilmeade said in a radio interview, as cited by The Hill.
“I don’t think we have to curtail our format to make Steve Bannon happy.”
Could Tucker Carlson Run For President?
A newly shored-up Trump/Carlson alliance would seem to foreclose the possibility of something else rumored since Carlson’s Fox ouster: That the former TV host could run for president in 2024.
A possible Carlson political campaign had occasionally been rumored for at least a couple of years, but Carlson doesn’t appear to have taken any steps towards doing so, nor has he made any moves to raise money, and it’s hard to imagine someone getting started with that at this late date.
Former GOP staffer Rick Wilson, one of the founders of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project, said in an interview this week that Carlson would be a threat to Trump if he ran in 2024.
“What if he runs? He’s rich enough. He’d instantly have an online fundraising juggernaut second only to Trump, and perhaps surpassing him,” Wilson said on Twitter, per Business Insider. Carlson would also be the “only Republican who presents a material danger to Donald Trump in a primary.”
Carlson and Trump’s current closeness would seem to indicate that no such run is happening this year, but with Trump lacking a clear successor as leader of the GOP, Carlson, who is still a young man, may very well emerge as a candidate once Trump has left the scene.
MORE: Kamala Harris Is a Disaster
MORE: Joe Biden – Headed For Impeachment?
Expertise and Experience
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
