WASHINGTON — Conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson apologized for misleading people by backing Donald Trump in the 2024 U.S. presidential election and said he would be "tormented" for a long time by that support. Carlson identified the war in Iran, Trump's return to foreign entanglements, and the influence of Israel as his breaking point with the president.

Carlson said Trump had been unduly influenced by Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump ordered military action in Iran. Carlson's non-interventionist views were influenced by the Iraq War.

Carlson's posture toward Trump shifted repeatedly over more than two decades. In 1999, when Trump was considering a Reform Party presidential run, Carlson described Trump as "the single most repulsive person on the planet." Carlson supported Trump in the 2016 election but told an acquaintance that year that Trump was "not evil" but "mentally ill."

By the summer of 2020, Carlson was publicly criticizing Trump. In 2021, he said of Trump, "I hate him passionately."

After leaving his cable news channel, where his program had been the highest-rated cable news show, Carlson began a podcast and again publicly supported Trump. In March 2024, he said, "There are times I get annoyed with Trump, right now definitely included, but I'll always love him no matter what he says about me." At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee later that year, he said, "Trump is a wonderful person. I know him well."

Author Jason Zengerle described Carlson's latest turn as ideological rather than personal. "He's leaving Trump because he feels that Trump has not stayed true to the ideology he was ascribing to him," Zengerle said.

Zengerle said Carlson had moved beyond commentary into organizing. "He's not really a media figure at this point. He's a movement leader. He thinks he's leading a political movement and he thinks that movement has been betrayed by Donald Trump and so he's trying to move it in a different direction away from Trump while keeping it consistent with his ideological beliefs," he said. Zengerle added that Carlson was "positioning himself and his movement to pick up the pieces of what he thinks has been broken by Trump, positioning himself as the true heir – this person who has stayed true while everybody else has betrayed the faith."

Zengerle also addressed the durability of the Make America Great Again coalition. "This is a great test of that. Is Maga a cult of personality or is it actually an ideological movement? I think it's a cult of personality: most people who are Maga supporters will support whatever Donald Trump does," he said.