In the first interview after his Fox News departure, Tucker Carlson said he “loves” Donald Trump, despite the fact Carlson previously wrote of the former president: “I hate him passionately.”
The anchor’s departure from the network in April shocked those plugged into the media world. While Carlson alienated many with controversial comments on the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the network has struggled to replicate the ratings Carlson was drawing with his brand of populism.
Speaking to Russell Brand in a Friday interview, Carlson argued that in ten years, “we’re going to see Trump’s emergence as the most significant thing to happen in American politics in 100 years because he reoriented the Republican Party against the wishes of Republican leaders.”
The anchor also argued the former president is right about Ukraine. Trump has refused to say whether he wants the country Russia illegally invaded to prevail and has claimed he can end the conflict in 24 hours, though he has not explained how.
Carlson’s Friday comments conflict with text messages he wrote that came out during the discovery process in a suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems. The anchor also made disparaging comments about management.
“What he’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong,” Carlson wrote of Trump.
Just two nights before the attack on the Capitol on January 6, Carlson said: “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait.”
However, on Friday, Carlson wrote that he perhaps wants Trump, as well as John F. Kennedy Jr. on the Democratic side, to prevail in their respective primaries. “I want them to be heard,” Carlson said, noting that they both espouse populist ideas.
Carlson also addressed his departure from the network, where he is reportedly involved in ongoing litigation. The anchor has started a show on Twitter that Fox says is in breach of his contract.
“I don’t know why I was fired, I really don’t,” said Carlson. “I’m not angry about it.”
Some reports claimed that the decision to end Carlson’s hosting job came straight from Rupert Murdoch and had to do with the anchor’s January 6 coverage as well as a lawsuit filed by a former Carlson producer, who claimed she was subjected to bullying and antisemitic comments.
“I was surprised,” Carlson said at another point in the interview. “I didn’t, you know, expect to get fired that morning at all in April. So, I was shocked, but I wasn’t really shocked. And I wasn’t mad. It’s not my company. And when you work for someone else, that person reserves the right and, in fact, has inherently the right to decide whether you work there or not.”