Tucker Carlson Olivier Touron/AFP/Getty Images Former Fox News host and MAGA-sphere podcaster Tucker Carlson’s disillusionment with Donald Trump appears to have expanded into a broader frustration with Republicans, and he now says he no longer supports the party.
Carlson is now a titan of the podcasting world. Still, for years, his primetime Fox News opinion show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, was among Fox News’ biggest audience drivers, up until 2023, when he was ousted from the network following the fallout from Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit, which exposed private messages from several Fox personalities. His program regularly delivered some of the strongest ratings in cable news. During his time at Fox News, Carlson was one of Trump’s most vocal media allies and a staunch supporter of the GOP — a stance that, until recently, remained sustained as he developed an independent company around his podcast.
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“I’m not going to support the Democratic party,” Carlson said during an appearance on this week’s episode of the podcast Can’t Be Censored, hosted by Travis Dhanraj and Karman Wong. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Carlson has increasingly positioned himself as an independent thinker and drew attention earlier this year when he broke with Trump over U.S. involvement in the conflict with Iran during a lengthy episode of his podcast. The pundit accused the president of being influenced by Israeli leaders in his decision-making surrounding the military campaign.
“They are making decisions on the basis of other criteria — what’s best for this company, what’s best for Israel, what’s best for our donors,” Carlson said on Can’t Be Censored while criticizing GOP leaders. “That’s not just being headed in the wrong direction. That is unacceptable. That’s treasonous. It’s immoral. It can’t continue.”
Carlson continues to wield significant influence within the MAGA movement. On average, about 1.9 million listeners download or stream new episodes of his podcast, and Carlson’s YouTube channel has nearly 5.7 million subscribers. The show regularly lands among the top 10 podcasts on YouTube’s weekly charts.
His podcast launched in 2024 and quickly amassed a sizable audience. It became Spotify’s No. 1 podcast in July 2024.
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