Tucker Carlson, Ousted by Fox, Roars Into Milwaukee as a Top Trump Ally

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Tucker Carlson, Ousted by Fox, Roars Into Milwaukee as a Top Trump Ally

All of a sudden, Tucker Carlson has roared back to the forefront of *********** politics.

Once the top-rated anchor on Fox News — only to be abruptly ousted 15 months ago, his national platform yanked out from under his feet — Mr. Carlson has made an improbable re-emergence into America’s living rooms at this week’s *********** National Convention.

He was the first person to greet Donald J. Trump after the former president’s dramatic entrance in the convention hall on Monday, and cameras later caught them joking together in Mr. Trump’s friends and family box, just two seats apart. He is even returning to prime time: Mr. Carlson is set to deliver a televised address to the convention on Thursday in a coveted slot shortly before Mr. Trump accepts his party’s nomination.

Mr. Carlson once electrified Fox viewers with ******* grievances and flimflam *********** theories. Spurned by the network, he found mixed success with a self-produced video series on X and a subscription streaming service that ******* to generate much buzz, although a recent pivot to lengthy, Joe Roganesque podcasts has attracted more listeners.

But behind the scenes over the past year, Mr. Carlson has become more deeply allied with Mr. Trump than at any point in his long relationship with the former president, a man for whom the broadcaster once expressed deep ambivalence.

Mr. Carlson lobbied Mr. Trump to select Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, who had been a frequent guest on his Fox show, as his running mate, and he helped broker a meeting in Milwaukee between Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate.

He and a longtime producer of his shows, Justin Wells, recently visited Mar-a-Lago to pitch Mr. Trump on a fly-on-the-wall docuseries about his campaign. Mr. Trump granted access, and the series is set to be released on Mr. Carlson’s streaming platform before the election; Mr. Wells and a cameraman were filming several feet away from the former president in Pennsylvania on Saturday when he was shot by a would-be *********.

Mr. Carlson has also intensified a friendship with Donald Trump Jr., whose fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, overlapped with Mr. Carlson at Fox News (and was also forced to leave by the network). This week, the younger Mr. Trump said that Mr. Carlson would make an excellent vice president. “He’s one of the great thought leaders of the party these days,” Mr. Trump

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. “He’s an incredible part of the movement. I’m so glad we have him.”

Mr. Carlson’s newfound place at the former president’s side is all the more extraordinary given last year’s revelations that Mr. Carlson had turned on Mr. Trump toward the end of his presidency. “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” Mr. Carlson wrote in a text message in 2021 made public as part of the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case against Fox, which the network settled for $787.5 million. “I hate him passionately.”

In a short interview on Thursday morning, Mr. Carlson dismissed those past comments as merely venting frustration to a colleague.

“I got ******* at Trump. So? I get ******* at my wife,” he said. “I’m a human being.” Asked if he had cleared the air directly with Mr. Trump about those remarks, Mr. Carlson said, “I never talked to anyone about it.”

Mr. Carlson said that he has recently felt more ideologically simpatico with Mr. Trump, in particular the former president’s position on curbing immigration and the brand of economic populism that is espoused by Mr. Vance. “Joe Biden is evil,” he added. “Not wrong. Evil.”

This week in Milwaukee, Mr. Carlson has cut a gleeful and confident figure. He was greeted with cheers at a Heritage Foundation summit and schmoozing in the lobby of the Trade Hotel, where Mr. Trump’s inner circle is staying.

He has also tried to make old foes squirm.

Mr. Carlson stunned executives at Fox News by turning up unannounced at its packed studio inside the convention venue, the Fiserv Forum, on Tuesday, sporting a megawatt grin as former colleagues like Jeanine Pirro, Jesse Watters, Brit Hume and Charlie Hurt came to warmly greet him.

Crisply dressed in a blue gingham shirt and marina-ready navy blazer, Mr. Carlson looked every bit the cat who ate the canary. He had swept into the Fox green room as part of the entourage of Donald Trump Jr., who was preparing for an appearance on Sean Hannity’s show. Mr. Carlson held court chatting with Vivek Ramaswamy, the former presidential candidate, as party grandees like Newt Gingrich circled — and crew members sneaked arch glances at their ousted former colleague.

Approached inside the Fox studio by a reporter, Mr. Carlson demurred when he was asked how it felt to be back at his old stomping ground. “What do you mean?” Mr. Carlson said, adding, puckishly, “I’m too important. When you’re a world historic figure you don’t talk to The New York Times.” (He later agreed to a short interview.)

Adding to the intrigue, Rupert Murdoch, the media titan who owns Fox News, had visited the studio just minutes earlier. Mr. Carlson did, however, bump into Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News Media, earlier in the week; a person familiar with their encounter said that it had been cordial.

In the interview on Thursday, Mr. Carlson praised Mr. Murdoch — “he has 19th century manners, which I really appreciate” — and said he retained no bitterness toward his former boss. “I’ve never felt anything but gratitude to him, and I mean that,” he said. “It’s not the first time I’ve been fired and every time I get fired I thank **** for it. It forces you to confront your own weaknesses and make a change, and it’s a great, great experience.”

As for the reasons behind his ouster from Fox, Mr. Carlson said, “I honestly don’t know what it was about.”

Mr. Carlson’s path back is not unlike the journey of Mr. Trump, who secured the *********** nomination and is leading polls in the presidential contest despite two impeachments, four ********* indictments and a felony conviction.

Mr. Carlson was drummed out of Fox News in 2023 after a series of on-air flare-ups and off-air antics. His behavior had angered his superiors, the Murdochs and, ultimately, Fox’s board of directors, which was alarmed when company lawyers discovered a private message in which Mr. Carlson shared inflammatory views about ********* and race.

Technically, Mr. Carlson is still beholden to his contract with Fox, which runs through the end of this year. The contract effectively grants Fox the right to keep Mr. Carlson out of sight until 2025 but the company has not enforced the terms.

Tucker Carlson Network, the host’s streaming service, gained attention in February by securing a rare interview with President Vladimir V. ****** of Russia. But Mr. Carlson had otherwise struggled to match the influence he wielded at Fox News.

He is now shifting from formal interviews to more freewheeling conversations in the vein of Mr. Rogan; recent guests included the journalists Matt Taibbi and Catherine Herridge. As of Thursday, “The Tucker Carlson Show” was ranked No. 11 on the Apple podcast charts.

Mr. Carlson, though, is still drawn to the incendiary. Last year, he hosted the *********** theorist Alex Jones on his show, telling listeners that he “is not a crazy person.” The interview helped prompt Elon Musk to reinstate the X account of Mr. Jones, who has promoted the false claim that the 2012 ********* in 2012 at Sandy ***** Elementary School was a hoax.

Given Mr. Trump’s mercurial nature and shifting allegiances, it is not clear how his relationship with Mr. Carlson will ultimately shake out.

Around Milwaukee, Mr. Carlson has sought to shrug off his Monday night cameo in Mr. Trump’s box, suggesting that the appearance came together on the spur of the moment and that he did not have time to change out of his casual plaid shirt and loafers.

Mr. Trump downplayed it, too — although with a different spin. Speaking with people at Fox News this week, the former president said that Mr. Carlson sat in the box only because he had asked to be in the box, according to a person familiar with Mr. Trump’s remarks.

Nick Corasaniti contributed reporting from Milwaukee.

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