Tucker Carlson says he regrets backing Donald Trump and is ‘tormented’

Tucker Carlson says he regrets backing Donald Trump and is ‘tormented’ The podcaster admits he ‘misled’ supporters as his rift with the US president deepens over the Iran war US politics live – latest updates Tucker Carlson , a Conservative podcaster, has said he is “tormented” by his support of Donald Trump , issuing in an extraordinary mea culpa that called for “a moment to wrestle with our own consciences”. Carlson delivered that comment in a conversation with Buckley Carlson, his brother and a former Trump speechwriter, on The Tucker Carlson Show on Monday that reviewed the new money takeover of the traditional conservative values in a Republican party now dominated by the president. “You know, we’ll be tormented by it for a long time – I will be,” Tucker Carlson said. “And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional, that’s all I’ll say.” Though Carlson in 1999 had referred to Trump as “the single most repulsive person on the planet”, he beat most pundits in calling for Trump to be taken seriously before he won his first presidency in 2016. Then, as Trump successfully ran for a second presidency in 2024, Carlson supported him throughout the race, speaking at a campaign event for him just five days before election night. But the podcaster has now been at odds with the president over US support for Israel and the war the two countries started in Iran in late February. Carlson called Trump’s language on Iran “vile on every level” – and said he took personal responsibility for the president’s return to power. “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,” Carlson said. “It’s not enough to say, ‘Well, I changed my mind’ – or like ‘Oh, this is bad – I’m out,’” he told his brother. 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.” Carlson’s revisionism comes soon...