Political Pistachio

By Douglas V. Gibbs

I used to be a big fan of Tucker Carlson.  Watched him just about every night when he was on Fox News.  I remember when he was the odd-ball on CNN.  And I remember when he was let go from Fox for daring to suggest that the voting machines may have been a factor in the alleged fraud that Trump was claiming may have killed his chances in the 2020 Presidential Election.

Then, he went places I couldn’t go.  Said things I couldn’t support.  And somewhere along the way, Tucker Carlson went from a favorite of mine, to a confusing oddity that no longer seemed to make the kind of sense he used to.

Tucker Carlson’s fall from grace as a mainstream conservative favorite to whatever he is now was not just a sudden shift.  It seems that it was a culmination of a long journey that took him from a standard cable news pundit to a figure who now finds himself on the outs with the very movement he helped energize.

Carlson began leading his audience from a form of American conservatism to a reactionary political position that seemed to buy into things that most Americans won’t touch with a ten-foot poll.  His broadcasts became more tribal than intellectual.  He began to ask good questions, but then came to faulty conclusions.

I lost interest, and stop looking for videos of his podcast.

I pretty much forgot about him, until suddenly he’s gone even crazier than before.  And, unfortunately, he’s on my radar again.  He disagrees with MAGA over foreign policy – specifically Iran. Carlson’s view is being called staunch isolationism.  I don’t know.  Maybe.  Whatever it is, it has become very extreme and all over the place.  Sometimes, he sounds “anti-anti-Putin,” and then he swings to an almost “pro-Putin” stance.  When the U.S. and Israel launched “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran, Carlson declared unequivocally, “This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States’ war.”  Yes, it is being carried out with Israel, but Trump is not the kind of guy that would let another country or leader to lead him around by the nose.  Tucker’s position is a symptom of the anti-Israel rhetoric spread by sources that jump to conclusions and chase theories for the sake of searching for conspiracies.  And for President Trump, Tucker has gone a little too far.

In a March 2026 interview, Trump didn’t just disagree; he excommunicated him, declaring that both Carlson and Megyn Kelly, who also criticized the Iran policy, “aren’t MAGA.”  Trump even went as far as to call Carlson “not smart enough” for his position.

It’s a sad thing.  Tucker, if you remember, is a friend of J.D. Vance’s.  Carlson was instrumental in boosting Vance in 2022, but today they stand on opposite sides of this critical MAGA fault line. While Carlson was condemning Operation Epic Fury, Vance was caught in the middle. He went radio silent during the strikes and then appeared on Jessie Watter’s show to perform a delicate balancing act, trying to explain Trump’s actions without alienating the anti-interventionist wing of the base that Carlson still commands.  As Eli Lake claims, in the eyes of some people the second Iran war is tearing the MAGA coalition apart, and it put Vance in a bind, caught between Trump and Carlson.

Carlson’s trajectory has taken him far from the mainstream. He’s gone from being a powerful voice on Fox News to someone whose own book about his exit from the network sold a dismal 3,000 copies in its first week.  He’s now described not just as a conservative, but as a “paleoconservative,” a “right-wing extremist,” and “far-right”.  I suppose those labels aren’t too alarming.  The Democrats have been calling him these types of names for a while.  But now, even his former colleagues have labeled him as such.  His visits to the White House sparked fury from within the MAGA movement itself, with influencers like Laura Loomer warning that “every time Tucker Carlson visits the White House, JD Vance gets less support for 2028.”

So, how far has Tucker gone? He’s gone from being a kingmaker within the MAGA movement to an outlier who, while still commanding a loyal following, is actively at odds with its leader, its standard-bearers, and its key policy positions. He’s no longer shaping the MAGA world from the inside; he’s leading a faction that’s in open rebellion against it.  By the time it is all over, I’m afraid he’ll wind up largely alone, and selling 3,000 books will become an accomplishment, rather than a disappointment.

— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary