Tucker Carlson Says He’ll Be Tormented After Apologizing for Trump Support

Tucker Carlson said he would be “tormented” for a long time after helping get Donald Trump elected, describing himself and other Republicans as “implicated” in what he called “Operation Epic Fury.”

“Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson expressed regret for helping elect President Donald Trump and apologized for “misleading” his followers”

AL

On “The Tucker Carlson Show,” Carlson told his brother, Buckley Carlson, “You and I and everyone else who supported him, you wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him, I mean we’re implicated in this for sure,” and added, “It’s not enough to say, 'I changed my mind.' Or like, 'Oh this is bad, I’m out.'”

AL

Carlson, 56, said “We’ll be tormented by it for a long time,” and then apologized: “I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional. That’s all I’ll say.”

USA TODAY reported that Carlson called the Iran war “absolutely disgusting and evil” and cited Trump’s “signs of low character,” while the same outlet said the White House pointed to Trump’s April 9 Truth Social post criticizing Carlson and other conservative commentators who have broken with him over the war.

In that Truth Social post, Trump said they have “Low IQs” and are “stupid people,” according to USA TODAY.

The Independent and NBC News also described Carlson’s apology as a “mea culpa” delivered during a Monday episode in which he framed his regret as a “moment to wrestle with our own consciences.”

NBC News quoted Carlson saying, “I do think it’s like a moment to wrestle with our own consciences,” and repeated his line that “we’re implicated in this for sure.”

Carlson’s apology was tied directly to his break with Trump over the Iran war, with multiple outlets describing how the conservative commentator had become increasingly critical of the president’s handling of the conflict.

USA TODAY said Carlson had “become increasingly critical of President Donald Trump in recent years, especially regarding the Trump administration's war in Iran,” and it reported that Carlson most notably broke with Trump in 2025 when he and other MAGA figures pressed for the U.S. military to stay out of Israel's conflict with Iran, citing his 2024 White House campaign promise to “prevent World War III.”

BuzzFeed

The Guardian similarly linked Carlson’s new remarks to “US support for Israel and the war the two countries started in Iran in late February,” and it quoted Carlson saying, “You and I and everyone else who supported him – you wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him – I mean, we’re implicated in this for sure.”

In the same Guardian account, Carlson said his own shift was not just a change of mind but a reckoning: “It’s not enough to say, ‘Well, I changed my mind’ – or like, ‘Oh, this is bad – I’m out,’” and he added, “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.”

The Hill described Carlson’s reasoning as a question about whether the war was planned, quoting him asking, “you don’t want to be a conspiracy nut, but like, clearly, there were signs of low character, we knew that.”

The Independent and AL both reported Carlson’s framing that the Iran war was launched to please donors, with AL quoting him: “What is this? Was this always the plan? You don’t want to be a conspiracy nut, but clearly there were signs of low character.”

AL also included Buckley Carlson’s comments about investigations being “stymied -- fact,” and it quoted Buckley saying, “The enormous amount of money he got from Miriam Adelson now seems suspect to a lot of people.”

Carlson’s apology immediately met skepticism on “The View,” where hosts challenged whether his regret was genuine and tied their reaction to his past support for Trump.

“"The View" stars collectively condemned Carlson after he said, "I'm sorry for misleading people" with his support for Trump”

Entertainment Weekly

The Independent reported that after a clip of Carlson’s mea culpa played during Tuesday morning’s broadcast, Joy Behar said, “Oh, please,” before Sunny Hostin responded, “Whatever. I don't believe him. He's not getting a bear hug from me,” and Hostin added, “The world's on fire, and you can't just say, ‘Oopsies!’”

The same Independent account said Behar shared her belief that Carlson has “what they call liar's remorse,” and she argued, “He's lied about everything, so he needs to make a list of all the things he got wrong — not just, ‘Sorry!'”

Sara Haines said Carlson would “say anything” for “clicks and money,” while former Trump staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin said, “I don't think this is a true about-face.”

USA TODAY’s account of the episode also described how viewers cited the war and other issues as breaking points, but The View’s panelists focused on the credibility of Carlson’s apology itself.

Entertainment Weekly quoted Whoopi Goldberg asking the audience, “Do you know who just lost one of his biggest supporters over the ongoing war in Iran?” and it reported that Goldberg said, “Far-right commentator Tucker Carlson says he regrets ever helping put you-know-who in the White House.”

Entertainment Weekly also quoted Hostin saying, “Whatever. I don't believe him. He's not getting a bear hug from me. The world's on fire, and you can't just say, 'Oopsies!'” and it repeated Behar’s “Oh, please!” quip.

Trump responded to Carlson’s criticism with public attacks that framed Carlson as intellectually deficient, and the White House response to Carlson’s apology was anchored in Trump’s own social media language.

USA TODAY reported that in response to a request for comment, the White House pointed to Trump’s April 9 Truth Social post that criticized Carlson and other conservative commentators who have broken with him over the war, saying they have “Low IQs” and are “stupid people.”

The Daily Beast

USA TODAY also said Carlson told his brother that the current situation was “a moment to wrestle with our own consciences,” while Trump hit back at Carlson while fielding questions from reporters, saying, “I don't know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen,” according to the same report.

The Guardian described Trump’s threats and posted language as part of the pressure campaign, quoting that Trump published a social media post calling Carlson “a Low IQ person – Always easy to beat, and highly overrated!!!” and that the president threatened to produce “a list of good, bad, and somewhere in the middle” Maga supporters.

BuzzFeed’s account added that Trump’s attacks included a claim that Carlson “couldn’t even finish College,” and it quoted Trump’s rant: “Not Hand Flailing Fools like Tucker Carlson, who couldn’t even finish College, he was a broken man when he got fired from Fox, and he’s never been the same — Perhaps he should see a good psychiatrist!”

The Daily Beast and Us Weekly both described The View’s rejection of Carlson’s remorse, but they also placed Carlson’s apology within a broader conflict in which Trump and Carlson were “at odds” over the war in Iran.

NBC News tied the apology to the “war in Iran” and said Trump’s Truth Social post accused Carlson and other allies-turned-critics of having “Low IQs,” while also noting that Carlson had criticized Trump’s handling of Iran earlier this month.

Across the coverage, Carlson’s apology was portrayed as part of an ongoing split on the right, with outlets linking his regret to a wider debate over the Iran war and U.S. policy.

“The View panel has no sympathy or time for Tucker Carlson’s regrets”

The Daily Beast

NBC News said Carlson’s remarks came “amid a growing public splinter on the right over Trump's handling of the war in Iran,” and it reported that Trump’s job approval was at a low point in his second term, while disapproval of his handling of inflation and the cost of living remained a top voter issue.

The Guardian

The Guardian placed Carlson’s revisionism in the context of his “extraordinary mea culpa” and said his comments came “soon after Trump issued a stinging attack on him as well as other rightwing media personalities” including Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Alex Jones and others.

The Guardian also described how Carlson’s break from Trump had been developing for years, including that in 1999 he referred to Trump as “the single most repulsive person on the planet,” and that by 2020 he was extolling Trump’s “America first” agenda, before he later echoed claims that the election was “rigged” for Joe Biden.

It further reported that in 2023, during the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit discovery phase, Carlson privately disparaged the first Trump presidency as a “disaster” in a text to a colleague, writing, “I hate him passionately … I can’t handle much more of this.”

The Guardian said Carlson’s latest statements repeated his criticisms of the war in Iran, quoting that Trump “clearly had no plan for [it], wasn’t enthusiastic about [it], was fully aware of the risks, fully aware that it was a betrayal of his explicit promises for 10 years not to do this – he did it and did it against his will.”

Meanwhile, USA TODAY reported that Carlson’s episode drew comments from viewers and that the episode had “over 500,000 views,” while also noting that the White House response referenced Trump’s April 9 Truth Social post.