Tucker Carlson’s exit from Fox News catches Trump and his supporters by surprise
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Tucker Carlson (left) and former President Donald Trump at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, in 2022.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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NEW YORK - The announcement on Monday that Fox News was parting ways with its top-rated prime-time host, Mr Tucker Carlson,
The former president himself was surprised by the news, according to a person with direct knowledge, and his eldest son, Mr Donald Trump Jr, who is a close friend of Mr Carlson’s, described the network’s decision as “mind-blowing”.
“I think it changes things permanently,” Mr Donald Trump Jr said on The Charlie Kirk Show, adding that Mr Carlson was “an actual thought leader in conservatism” and a “once-in-a-generation type talent”.
The casual news observer would be forgiven for thinking that Trump and his family no longer had a relationship with Mr Carlson, given recent disclosures of the Fox host’s scathing private text messages, which emerged as part of the conservative network’s legal battle against Dominion Voting Systems.
Fox Corp and Fox News last week settled a defamation lawsuit by Dominion, averting a high-profile trial putting one of the world’s top media companies in the crosshairs over its coverage of false vote-rigging claims in the 2020 United States election.
In early 2021, as Trump desperately tried to overturn the 2020 election, Mr Carlson texted a confidant that he hated Trump “passionately”.
He also described Trump as a “demonic force”.
When the texts were released in March, Trump was wounded and called Mr Carlson to talk about them, according to a person familiar with the outreach.
But the two men patched it up quickly. Since then, they have talked regularly, exchanged text messages and appeared to have a closer relationship than at any time before, according to two people close to Trump who are familiar with their relationship and who did not want to be identified to discuss their private interactions.
Mr Carlson did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2022, some of Trump’s advisers had worried that Mr Carlson seemed poised to support the potential presidential candidacy of Trump’s top rival, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida.
Mr Carlson had given Mr DeSantis plenty of airtime and praised his policies. But over the past six weeks, as Trump and Mr Carlson spoke more often, the Trump team felt increasingly confident that Mr Carlson would not be weighing in for Mr DeSantis, who has been heavily promoted by Mr Rupert Murdoch’s media properties including Fox News.
The Trump team liked their odds even more when they learned that Mr Carlson was disgusted with Mr DeSantis’ decision, in late March, to call President Vladimir Putin of Russia a “war criminal”.
Senator J. D. Vance, a close ally of both Trump and Mr Carlson, described the Fox News host’s ousting as a shock.
“Tucker is a giant, and the most powerful voice against idiotic wars and an economy that placed plutocrats over workers,” Mr Vance said in a text message.
“This is a huge loss for a conservative movement that hopes to be worthy of its own voters. I assume he’ll land on his feet and continue to have a powerful voice. If he doesn’t, it will be terrible for the country.”
Still, one close ally of Trump said he was happy that Mr Carlson would not be able to give rocket fuel to any other candidate on Fox’s airwaves.
A Trump adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the sense in Trump’s world was that any pro-Trump host at Fox News had something of a target on their back after the Dominion lawsuit.
Trump’s longest-serving adviser, Mr Roger Stone, who is also an old friend of Mr Carlson’s, said in an interview that Fox News had “essentially cancelled the single most influential conservative commentator in the country, at the same time killing a cash cow for the network”.
He predicted that Mr Carlson would take his “massive audience” wherever he ends up next. NYTIMES
