The anger phase of the Donald Trump–Tucker Carlson breakup continued in full swing Monday, as the longtime right-wing pundit and former Trump ally issued an apology for his role in misleading people and helping to get him elected.
Carlson, who first rebuked Trump following the president’s widely panned Easter morning social media post threatening the annihilation of Iran, escalated his criticism on Monday’s episode of The Tucker Carlson Show. Speaking with his younger brother, Buckley Carlson — a Republican operative and former Trump speechwriter — the host struck a tone of personal reckoning.
“You wrote speeches for him. I campaigned for him. I mean, we’re implicated in this, for sure,” Carlson said. “It’s not enough to say, ‘Well, I changed my mind,’ or, like, ‘Oh, this is bad, I’m out.’”
“In very small ways, but in real ways, you and me and millions of people like us are the reason this is happening right now,” he continued. “So I do think it’s a moment to wrestle with our own consciences. We’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be, and I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people — it was not intentional.”
The conversation, which at times resembles a postmortem on Trump’s political rise, revisits his early appeal. Buckley Carlson recalled being drawn to Trump in 2015 because “he never bent,” prompting him to connect with the campaign through mutual contacts and eventually write speeches for the outsider candidate.
From there, the brothers trace Trump’s ascent, lamenting what they describe as the erosion of traditional conservative values in favor of MAGA populism. Carlson was an early and influential supporter, helping legitimize Trump’s first presidential run and later campaigning for him during the 2024 election.
The discussion also revisits the 2020 election, which the Carlsons continue to characterize as stolen — a claim that has been widely debunked — while criticizing Trump’s response at the time.
“He just kept repeating silly talking points that weren’t that compelling and made him look crazy,” Buckley Carlson said. “But he failed to use the power at his hand, and then, of course, it was taken away from him.”
Carlson’s break with Trump has sharpened in recent months, particularly over foreign policy. He has criticized the president’s full-throated support for Israel’s actions against Iran and previously called Trump’s rhetoric on the country “vile.”
Trump fired back in a Truth Social post, blasting Carlson as “a low IQ person — always easy to beat, and highly overrated!!!” and extending his attacks to other right-wing figures, including Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly and Alex Jones.
Still, Carlson framed his criticism on Monday as both political and personal.
“Clearly, there were signs of low character. We knew that,” he said of Trump. “But there are tons of people of low character who outperform it. I’ve outperformed my character at times. I don’t have particularly high character — but you try your best.”
