How Tucker Carlson Became the Prophet of MAGA

Summary

Podcast Summary: “How Tucker Carlson Became the Prophet of MAGA”

The New Yorker Radio Hour
Host: David Remnick
Guest: Jason Zengerly, author of Hated by All the Right People
Date: January 23, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode profiles Tucker Carlson, exploring his trajectory from promising conservative journalist to leading media figure of the MAGA movement. David Remnick interviews journalist and author Jason Zengerly, whose biography of Carlson delves deep into Carlson’s ideological evolution, influence on right-wing politics, and shifting relationship with the American media landscape. The conversation traces Carlson’s early career, pivotal transformative moments, his role in the rise of partisan media, and his current standing as both a media provocateur and political operator.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Tucker Carlson’s Beginnings and Early Reputation

• Early Connections: Zengerly first met Carlson as an intern at the New Republic, when Carlson was already a rising star at The Weekly Standard.
  • “He was extremely affable, extremely funny… someone we all looked up to. And admired.” – Jason Zengerly [01:45]
• Admiration for Craft: Carlson was respected for his willingness to “take on sacred cows” in conservative circles, including a critical early profile of George W. Bush.
  • “He was a really talented writer and a pretty brave reporter.” – Jason Zengerly [02:49]

2. Shrewd Media Instincts and Career Moves

• Print to Television: Carlson was prescient in leaving print journalism for cable news, recognizing TV’s greater reach and impact long before his peers.
  • “He kind of skates to where the puck is going to be…” – Jason Zengerly [03:46]
• Mainstream Integration: Initially, Carlson was a full “member of the Washington political and media establishment,” socializing with major anchors and politicians and hosting on CNN and PBS.
  • “He was absolutely part of mainstream media…” – Jason Zengerly [05:08]

3. The Jon Stewart Crossfire Incident (2004)

• Television Humiliation: Stewart’s on-air critique not only embarrassed Carlson but catalyzed a shift in his attitude toward mainstream media.
  • Memorable moment: “What you do is partisan hackery.” – Jon Stewart [06:36]
  • “That was such a humiliating experience… the resentment that he feels today towards legacy media or corporate media, I think a lot of it starts right there.” – Jason Zengerly [07:37]
• Aftermath: CNN canceled Crossfire and let Carlson’s contract expire, reinforcing his alienation from the establishment.

4. Founding the Daily Caller and the Shift to Extremism

• Initial Intent: Carlson’s vision for The Daily Caller was to offer fact-based conservative journalism, modeling after outlets like the Huffington Post.
  • “He was trying to… rededicat[e] himself to serious journalism, facts, things like that.” – Jason Zengerly [09:29]
• Pivot to Provocation: Realized “there was no audience” for restrained conservatism and shifted to a more sensationalist, ideologically hard-right approach—mirroring Breitbart’s success.
  • “The discovery is that extremism sells.” – David Remnick [14:21]
  • “He’s looking at the metrics, and he’s recognizing that what the conservative base wants is racism, sexism, nativism…” – Jason Zengerly [14:24]

5. The Fox News Era: Rise to Cultural Power

• Tucker Carlson Tonight (2016-): Launched days after Trump’s election, the show’s theme was “hold the powerful accountable”—but functionally fixated on targeting liberal guests and stoking outrage.
  • “He did a fantastic job of holding those people to account because those were the guests he had on and those were the people that he barbecued… he was punching down and he was punching left.” – Jason Zengerly [15:40]
• Relationship with Trump: Complex and sometimes wary—in contrast to other Fox hosts, Carlson was careful not to get “too close,” but he leaned into and sometimes went further than MAGA ideology, particularly on immigration and culture war topics.
  • “If he had issues with Trump, it was… Trump was maybe just too casual of a racist. He didn’t really believe it.” – Jason Zengerly [17:38]

6. Firing from Fox and Post-Fox Unleashing

• Mysterious Exit: Neither Zengerly nor Carlson definitively know the reason for his firing—though Carlson suspects it was part of Fox’s settlement with Dominion after the 2020 election lawsuits.
  • “His theory is that he was offered up to Dominion as part of the Dominion settlement.” – Jason Zengerly [18:18]
• No More Guardrails: Post-Fox, Carlson operates without network constraints, using outrage and extremism to build an even larger online following.
  • “There’s just no one there anymore to tell him no… he needs to do things that generate outrage…” – Jason Zengerly [19:12]

7. Platforming Extremism

• Nick Fuentes Interview (YouTube): Carlson hosted Fuentes, a notorious white supremacist, arguably as both outreach to Fuentes’ followers and a way to maintain relevance among the far right.
  • “He had Fuentes on because I think he recognized that he couldn’t afford to alienate Fuentes’s audience. So he kind of extended this olive branch…” – Jason Zengerly [22:01]
• Calculation of Outrage: Even anti-Semitism and overt racism are now among the tools Carlson uses to maintain attention and influence.
  • “So anti-Semitism is good business.” – David Remnick
    “I think he’s made that calculation.” – Jason Zengerly [20:07]

8. Current Influence and Potential Ambitions

• Influencer and Operator: Carlson’s influence extends deeply into current Republican politics, enjoying close relationships with figures in—and orbiting—the Trump campaign and administration.
  • “He’s a talented enough communicator and a smart enough guy that he can explain [extreme ideas] in ways that they maybe don’t seem quite as awful…” – Jason Zengerly [22:57]
• Potential for Political Office: Zengerly asserts Carlson is now as much a movement leader as a media figure, and could plausibly run for office himself in the future.
  • “I think it is [possible]. I mean, I think that in a lot of ways, Trump has completely upended what it means to be in politics these days…” – Jason Zengerly [25:35]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Carlson’s early promise:
  “He was the hot young writer in Washington… someone we all looked up to and admired.” – Jason Zengerly [01:45]
• On Crossfire humiliation:
  “That was such a humiliating experience for him… it created in him kind of a bitterness and a resentment.” – Jason Zengerly [07:37]
• On the Daily Caller turn:
  “What the conservative base wants is racism, sexism, nativism…” – Jason Zengerly [14:24]
• On post-Fox unchained Carlson:
  “There’s just no one there anymore to tell him no… he needs to do things that generate outrage…” – Jason Zengerly [19:12]
• On Carlson’s ambitions:
  “I think he wants to be at the head of that movement, whether it’s in government or out of government… if Tucker concludes that J.D. Vance can’t get elected… then maybe he has to do it himself.” – Jason Zengerly [25:35]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:45] – Zengerly recounts first meeting Carlson and early reputation
• [03:46] – Carlson’s transition from print to television
• [06:06] – Jon Stewart’s takedown on Crossfire
• [08:37] – Carlson’s CPAC 2009 rebuke of conservative media
• [13:05] – Founding and drift of the Daily Caller
• [15:24] – Launch of Tucker Carlson Tonight at Fox
• [17:38] – Carlson’s relationship and differences with Trump/MAGA
• [18:12] – Reasons for Carlson’s firing from Fox News
• [20:36] – Hosting and rationale for Nick Fuentes interview
• [22:57] – Carlson’s current status and mainstreaming extremism
• [25:35] – Speculation on Tucker Carlson running for office

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Conclusion

The episode paints Tucker Carlson as a uniquely adaptive—and cynical—media figure whose sense of alienation from the establishment and hunger for influence has placed him at the center of American right-wing radicalization. As Zengerly points out, Carlson’s career marks both the evolution of partisan media and the increasingly blurred line between media figures and political leaders in a fractured media environment.

“He wants to be at the head of that movement, whether it’s in government or out.” – Jason Zengerly [24:50]

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[End of Summary]

Transcript

[Announcer]

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker.

[Host]

Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour.

[David Remnick]

I'm David Remnick.

[Host]

When Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News in 2023, he had the largest program on cable news by far. Carlson could draw around 3 million viewers on a given night, way, way ahead of MSNBC and CNN. After Fox, Carlson brought a new show to YouTube and his reach has grown. Some of his shows have as many as 7 million views. Carlson has been a standard bearer for the right. Many of us know about the racist conspiracy theory known as the Great Replacement only because of Tucker Carlson. He's quite sympathetic to Vladimir Putin, too. He also celebrated Trump's threats to seize Greenland by force, not because he cares about Greenland or but because that would have wrecked the NATO alliance. And yet Carlson doesn't always stick to the MAGA party line. He called the shooting of Renee Goode by an ICE agent in Minneapolis a tragedy. And he pointed out that the way people in MAGA were making light of it, that was exactly what they had condemned after the shooting of Charlie Kirk. Few people have thought more about Tucker Carlson in recent years than Jason Zengerly, who recently joined the New Yorker as a staff writer. Zengerly's new book is called Hated by All the Right People. And when Zengerly was first coming up as a political journalist, Tucker Carlson was someone he kind of admired.

[David Remnick]

Let's start at the beginning. How did you first meet Tucker Carlson? What was your relationship, and what was he like then as opposed to now?

[Jason Zengerly]

So I first met Tucker Carlson when I was an intern at the New Republic, and Tucker was working at the Weekly Standard, which was kind of the conservative analog to the New Republic. These are two small circulation political magazines in Washington that I would say punched above their weight in terms of influence. And Tucker was only a few years older than me, but he was already light years ahead of my own career, extremely well established. He was the hot young writer in Washington. So this was in the late 1990s, I think, 1997. And Tucker would come to have lunch with another hotshot young writer in town who worked at the New Republic named Steve Glass. And while he waited sometimes for Steve to come out of his office, he would entertain the interns. And he was extremely affable, extremely funny. He would tell great stories, kind of give us a peek of the stuff that was going on that we suspected was going on in Capitol Hill, but we didn't know ourselves. And he was someone we all looked up to. And Admired. I think we respected his work.

[David Remnick]

Why did you guys admire him?

[Jason Zengerly]

I admired his journalism. I thought he was a really talented writer and a pretty brave reporter. He was willing to take on sacred cows in the conservative movement. I mean, he wrote a profile of George W. Bush when Bush was still governor of Texas, was the presumed front runner in the presidential race. And Tucker wrote this subtly kind of devastating profile that showed Bush to be callow and. And kind of stupid and stubborn and all these things that if you paid attention, would have revealed Bush, all the things that made him kind of a bad president.

[David Remnick]

Jason, this is a book about Tucker Carlson. It's also about the rise of partisan media, which has become such a powerful presence in our lives. And it seems that in your view, Tucker Carlson predicted some changes in the media before his peers did. Tell me about that a little bit.

[Jason Zengerly]

Tucker's always been very good about seeing where things are going. He kind of skates to where the puck is going to be. And I think that he first did that when he left print journalism. I think he recognized, maybe before some other people like myself, that if he wanted to attain the fame and fortune and power that he clearly did, he was not going to be able to do that in print. So he left his job as a pretty promising young magazine writer and moved into cable news.

[David Remnick]

And Tucker Carlson cut his teeth, really, as a journalist at the Weekly Standard, which was a conservative magazine. Where did he stand on that staff? In other words, was he particularly conservative? Were there signs of what he became early on?

[Jason Zengerly]

Not really. He was actually kind of one of the more non ideological members of the staff. He was more of a journalist of a reporter than an ideologue. I mean, it was a real powerhouse staff. I mean, you had Bill Kristol, David Brooks, Charles Krauthammer, and Tucker was the guy who was kind of more interested in storytelling.

[David Remnick]

So in 2000, he at one point was the youngest anchor in CNN's history with a program that was then called the Spin Room. From your perspective, does it seem like he thought of himself as part of mainstream media at this time, or was he starting to kind of separate himself out into some other realm?

[Jason Zengerly]

No, he was absolutely part of mainstream media and absolutely a member of the, you know, Washington political and media establishment. You know, one of its youngest members, but certainly a member. He was. He was friends with all of the various anchors and swells. He was good buddies with the people on the Hill. He was, you know, he considered himself kind of a key cog in that ecosystem. I mean, Tucker actually Had a show on PBS for two years, Tucker Carlson, Unfiltered. So he was. He was. He was not at all like the person he is today.

[David Remnick]

So a really formative event in the reputation of Tucker Carlson and probably in his own psyche, Although God knows I'm no shrink, and even as a biographer, you aren't either. But in 2004, on Crossfire, Jon Stewart joined the show as a guest, creating one of the first really viral video moments ever. Let's take a listen.

[Jon Stewart]

I think you're a good comedian. I think your lectures are boring. Let me ask you a question on the news now. This is theater.

[David Remnick]

It's.

[Jon Stewart]

It's obvious.

[David Remnick]

How old are you?

[Jason Zengerly]

35.

[David Remnick]

And you wear a bow tie.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah, I do.

[Jason Zengerly]

I do.

[Jon Stewart]

So.

[David Remnick]

So this is.

[Jason Zengerly]

I know.

[Tucker Carlson]

I know.

[Jon Stewart]

You're right.

[Jason Zengerly]

Let me just go now. Come on.

[Jon Stewart]

And listen, I'm not.

[David Remnick]

I'm not suggesting that you're not.

[Jon Stewart]

You're not a smart guy, because those are not easy to tie. But the difficult that this. You're doing theater when you should be.

[David Remnick]

Doing debate, which would be great. It's not honest.

[Jon Stewart]

What you do is. I'm honest. What you do is partisan hackery.

[David Remnick]

What impact did that have on Tucker Carlson, that moment? Cause I remember it pretty well.

[Jason Zengerly]

Yeah, I don't know if Tucker Carlson is the person he is today without that moment. I mean, that was such a humiliating experience for him. He was completely blindsided by it. He thought he was friendly with Stewart because I think Jon Stewart used to go on Larry King at the CNN studios when Tucker was waiting around to do the Spin Room, and he would take smoke breaks outside and Tucker would join him, and he thought they were buddies. And I think everybody at crossf thought that it was going to be a fun episode. They thought Stuart was in on the joke, basically, that it was all going to be kind of pretend theater, and it wasn't serious. And it's really funny when you watch that episode. Paul Begala, who was the chair on the left, he just kind of shuts up and just lets Stuart go. And Tucker's the only one kind of engaging him, and that's why Stuart went after him that way.

[David Remnick]

So what was the impact on Carlson?

[Jason Zengerly]

Well, a few months later, a new president of CNN took over and canceled Crossfire altogether and let Tucker's contract expire and basically explained to the New York Times at the time that I agree with Jon Stewart. I think he was right, and it was a humiliation for Tucker, and I think that it created at him kind of a bitterness And a resentment, because I think a lot of the people that he considered his friends and supporters, people in that kind of D.C. political media establishment, they didn't come to his defense. I mean, maybe privately they did, but publicly they didn't. And I think the resentment that he feels today towards what he calls legacy media or corporate media, I think a lot of it starts right there.

[David Remnick]

Something else happened really interesting that seems formative to me. In 2009, he went to CPAC, which is the big conservative gathering of the year, and he rebuked them. Let's listen to that.

[Tucker Carlson]

If you create a news organization whose primary objective is not to deliver accurate news, you will fail. You will fail. The New York Times is a liberal paper, but it's also, and it is, to its core, a liberal paper. It's also a paper that cares about whether they spell people's names.

[Host]

Right?

[Tucker Carlson]

By and large, it's a paper that actually cares about accuracy. Conservatives need to build institutions that mirror those institutions that are. That's the truth. You don't believe me, The New York Times. You don't think, why isn't there a pub? Is what. But I'm not saying they're not. I'm merely saying that at the core of their news gathering operation is gathering news. No, no. And conservatives need to do the same. Yes, they are.

[David Remnick]

So what is he foretelling there?

[Jason Zengerly]

So at the time he gave that speech, he was already. He had just been fired from msnbc, and he was plotting to launch a website that eventually was called the Daily Caller. And his original vision for the Daily Caller was kind of a conservative analog to the Huffington Post. I mean, maybe the Huffington Post more than the New York Times, but if you remember, at the time, the Huffington Post was the hot website. And Tucker thought that there was a space for this on the right. And. And he was working at that time to sort of gin up money for it, but also interest. And I think he was looking for sort of young conservative writers and reporters who were not just kind of pundits or talking heads or ideologues, but who had a dedication to finding out facts. And that was like he went to give that speech at cpac. I mean, he knew what he was going to get there. He knew he was going to get booed. But he thought that the negative reaction would appeal to these serious young conservatives and young conservative journalists and also appeal to sort of the DC media elite, who. He was still a member in good standing in that group. But I think he was trying to almost sort of say, look, I went into the wilderness on TV for a little while. I'm coming back as a prodigal son. I'm rededicating myself to serious journalism, facts, things like that. And here I am. And he got a fantastic reception. I mean, that's, I think it's hard to imagine now, but the, the people in Washington, the people he now attacks, I mean, they, they embraced him and they supported him and he got all sorts of help and advice from, you know, people at Politico and people at CNN and all these other institutions that wanted him to succeed.

[Host]

I'm speaking with Jason Zengerly, author of Hated by All the Right People, Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind. We'll continue in just a moment. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour.

[Announcer]

Money shapes everything. Our relationships, the choices we make, how we see ourselves. I'm Marie Mej Reyes and on this is Uncomfortable we navigate the practical and emotional side of money. Whether you're doing quiet math about how to support your family or bracing for a hard financial conversation with a partner, or staring down a bill you didn't see coming, we share the kind of stories that help you feel a little less alone in those moments. Be sure to listen to this is Uncomfortable every Thursday on your favorite podcast app.

[Host]

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour.

[David Remnick]

I'm David Remnick.

[Host]

Few people have played a bigger role in America's turn to the far right than Tucker Carlson. He was and remains a chief proponent of the so called great replacement idea, the notion that evil forces are conspiring to replace white Christians with racial and religious minorities, thus transforming the United States. I've been speaking today with Jason Zengerly whose new book about Tucker Carlson is called Hated by All the Right People. Zengerly traces Carlson's path from being a puckish right leaning contrarian. He spent time hosting on CNN and even MSNBC and then move toward the far right. After he lost his show on msnbc. Carlson saw an opportunity to start something online where he could do a brand of journalism that was unconstrained by editors and bosses. It was a news and opinion website called the Daily Caller.

[David Remnick]

So he goes and co founds the Daily Caller. But that begins to take an extremist drift, at least to my ear. There were pieces that you refer to in your book that were published in the wake of Trayvon Martin's murder. What happened there?

[Jason Zengerly]

Well, Tucker I think very quickly realized that this vision he had for this fact based conservative publication was not going to get any traffic and there was no audience for it. So he very quickly pivoted, and most of the original reporters he hired left, and he brought in a new crop of reporters. And these men and women were really pretty far out there ideologically. And, you know, at the same time that this is going on, Breitbart is kind of coming onto the scene. And Breitbart's having a lot of success with this really kind of inflammatory, you know, pretty much racist coverage of, you know, black on white crime. That was kind of this obsession that Breitbart had, and the Daily Caller mimicked that. And the Trayvon Martin shooting. The Daily Caller really went all in on trying to besmirch Martin's reputation, basically, and portray him as, you know, a thug or a hothead or violent.

[David Remnick]

So the discovery is that extremism sells.

[Jason Zengerly]

Yes. He is looking at the web traffic, he's looking at the metrics, and he's recognizing that what the conservative base wants is racism, sexism, nativism, all these things that, you know, the Republican establishment hasn't really figured out yet. But Tucker's figuring it out while he's running the caller.

[David Remnick]

In November 2016, the program Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox premieres. Here's a promo clip for the show.

[Jon Stewart]

What's the show going to be about? You can judge for yourself. But here's the basic theme of it. People in power tend to lie not because they want to, but because they can't help themselves. That's human nature. The more power people have, the bigger the temptation to misuse it. The press is supposed to be the watchdog against all of this. And it worked fine for for a couple of centuries. Then the press decided they had more in common with certain politicians than with readers or viewers. And that's when it fell apart. We're going to get back to basics here. We're going to hold the powerful accountable. Pierce pomposity, translate doublespeak, mock smugness, and barbecue nonsense every night.

[Jason Zengerly]

Hope you watch.

[David Remnick]

Now, of course, this is just days. In the wake of the election of Donald Trump, to what extent did Tucker Carlson hold power and the President of the United States to account?

[Jason Zengerly]

I don't think he held power in the President of the United States to account. I mean, if you considered power at the time fairly obscure, liberal academics or activists or journalists. He did a fantastic job of holding those people to account because those were the guests he had on and those were the people that he barbecued. And in the early days of the Trump administration, the first Trump administration, Tucker really made kind of a name for himself. And got viewers by just humiliating his guests. I mean, he would find these debate partners who just couldn't sort of hold a candle to him and he would put them in these studios. They weren't in the studio with him, so they were kind of, their face was framed against him in these two boxes. And he could control the debate. It wasn't like Jon Stewart. Jon Stewart was there. He could sort of call Tucker a dick and they couldn't do anything about it. If anyone tried to call Tucker a dick in this instance, they would just cut the feed. So it was a completely unfair fight. And those were the people he was punching. He was punching down and he was punching left.

[David Remnick]

And what was his relationship with Trump about?

[Jason Zengerly]

He had a complicated relationship with Trump. He was unlike a lot of the other Fox anchors. He was wary of Trump personally and he was keeping his distance. He was, he was, I think, alarmed that Trump watched his show and watched so much cable television. You know, when Trump would call him after his show aired, I think Tucker was, you know, just kind of shocked that the leader of the free world was, was watching this much cable news and calling to give notes. And he, he thought maybe Trump would have a better use of his time. So I think initially he was a little, a little taken aback by that. I mean, I think he found Trump entertaining. I think he sort of, you know, thought he was kind of a charming rogue, which were the kind of people he used to write about. But I don't think he thought was necessarily equipped to be president.

[David Remnick]

Now, Jason, where did Carlson actively disagree with Trump or the MAGA party line?

[Jason Zengerly]

Not in many places. I think it wasn't so much a sense of disagreement as much as he actually sort of believed it, maybe more than Trump did. I mean, I think he was more committed to the anti immigration stuff, the anti crime things, kind of those issues that. Than Trump was himself. And if he had issues with Trump, it was. Trump was maybe just too casual of a racist. He didn't really believe it.

[David Remnick]

Why was Tucker Carlson fired by Fox?

[Jason Zengerly]

I wish I knew the answer to that. I was not able to get to the bottom of that.

[David Remnick]

Does Tucker Carlson know?

[Jason Zengerly]

No, I don't think he does. I mean, he has a theory as far as I can tell, as I understand his theory. He didn't tell this to me, but I think he's told this to other people. His theory is that he was offered up to Dominion as part of the Dominion settlement. The Dominion case was a lawsuit filed by a company that counts votes after the 2020 election. Dominion became the center of a number of conspiracy theories that alleged that the vote, the election been stolen from Trump. Those conspiracy theories were given a lot of air on Fox News. Not by Tucker Carlson, it should be said, but by other hosts. And Dominion sued. And Dominion wanted a billion dollars from Rupert Murdoch. Rupert Murdoch wasn't going to go to a billion, so he offered less than a billion in Tucker Carlson's scalp.

[David Remnick]

Did losing his job at Fox intensify his ideology?

[Jason Zengerly]

I don't think it intensified his ideology. I think it basically just took the guardrails off. I think people talk about how Trump 2.0 is you, no guardrails. He's unrestrained. I think Tucker Post Fox is similar. There's just no one there anymore to tell him no. I mean, when he was at Fox, there was nominal corporate supervision. It was a publicly traded company. I mean, he was always testing that and he was always crossing lines that other anchors there couldn't and they would let him get away with it. But at the end of the day, I think he still kind of felt a little bit restrained or constrained. He does not feel that anymore. And I think he also, in addition to not having those guardrails, I think he understands that without the Fox platform, he needs to do things that generate outrage, enough outrage that get him attention. And so while I think he does believe what he says, I think there's another thing going on where he knows he needs to get people to keep on tuning into him and coming back to him.

[David Remnick]

So anti Semitism is good business.

[Jason Zengerly]

I think he's made that calculation. Yeah.

[David Remnick]

Well, in recent years, Carlson has taken to overtly putting on extremists on his YouTube channel. One of the most infamous, of course, is Nick Fuentes, who's a white supremacist who's praised Hitler, who jokes about it, he shoves it in your face. And of course, he dined with Trump and Kanye west at Mar? A Lago Fuentes in October, was on Carlson's show. Let's listen to a clip from that.

[Jason Zengerly]

So I realized that the conservative movement was completely bankrupt in that way.

[David Remnick]

Yeah.

[Jason Zengerly]

And I became very radical.

[Nick Fuentes]

Well, it you became, I mean, let me just say I'm so familiar with, you know, I was much older when it happened to me and much more, much more insulated. I was not a college student.

[Jason Zengerly]

I was like 45.

[Nick Fuentes]

So, you know, and I was in a much better place to withstand the pressure. But I do think one, and I want to, this is my main question to you is when you get attacked, when people call you names, like they always call me racist. And I would always think to myself, I'm actually not. I would tell you if I was racist. I'm a little sexist, but I'm not racist. And I never understood why they did that. And then I thought maybe the point is to make me racist. Where you just get to, you get to a point where you're like, well, if you're going to slander me, then I'll just become the thing you're calling me. I do think that's a feature of human nature, don't you? And if you stare too intently at the accusers, at the, you know, whatever Ben Shapiro's or Mark Levins or Ted Cruz or whoever it is calling you names, it like distorts you and you actually change and become what they say you are. Have you thought that ever? Do you worry that that happened to you? No, I don't think it ever did.

[Jason Zengerly]

Because I, I know who I am.

[David Remnick]

This is a moment of self searching almost from Tucker Carlson.

[Jason Zengerly]

Very introspective. Yeah, I mean, the Fuentes interview was fascinating because I think the reason he had Fuentes on his show was because he was, he was worried that Fuentes was, was getting his audience in some ways, you know, they had, they had had this kind of little feud going on where Tucker had said a lot of derogatory things about Fuentes. He accused him of being a fed, he thought he was a psyop operation. And Fuentes fired back on his show. And it seemed, and you know, there was this feud going on online and it seemed like Tucker was losing. I mean, all of Fuentes fans were, you know, just attacking Tucker on X and pillorying him. And he had Fuentes on because I think he recognized that he couldn't afford to alienate Fuentes's audience. So he kind of extended this olive branch and, you know, made nice with him.

[David Remnick]

How influential is Tucker Carlson now?

[Jason Zengerly]

I think he's very influential. I think he's influential in a couple ways. I mean, I think he's very influential inside the Trump administration. When Trump was president first time around and Tucker was on Fox, he did not talk to Trump that much personally. He kind of avoided it. That is not the case this time around. I mean, I think one reason is the first time around, he knew Trump would watch his show on Fox. He could talk to him through the tv. He does not think that Donald Trump's going to listen to a two hour podcast now. So he has to talk to him directly. He's very close to J.D. vance. He has a number of allies in the administration. Bobby Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard, all the way down to sub cabinet positions. He's friends with those people. So there's just that matter of his influence in government. But beyond that, people listen to his show. He's able to smuggle ideas that were considered just out of bounds. He's able to smuggle them into the mainstream now because he gives them voice on his show, and he's. He's a talented enough communicator and a smart enough guy that he can explain them in ways that they maybe don't seem quite as awful as they are when they're presented in their kind of raw form. And the fracturing of the media landscape being what it is. In some ways, getting fired from Fox was almost like a blessing for him because he got a head start on figuring out this new media landscape. I mean, cable news is kind of a dying medium. And just thinking about the people out there today who are influential voices on the right, you don't really hear about Sean Hannity that much. You don't hear about Jesse Waters or Laura Ingram. You hear a lot about Tucker. You hear a lot about Nick Fuentes. You hear a lot. Before Charlie Kirk was killed, you heard a lot about Charlie Kirk. That's where the energy is, and that's where I think younger conservatives are looking for their arguments and ideas.

[David Remnick]

What does Tucker Carlson want?

[Jason Zengerly]

That's a fantastic question. And that's a question that I think is occupying the minds of a lot of people in Republican politics and in the conservative movement, because I think his critics and his enemies hope that he just wants to be a podcaster and sell his tobacco pouches and whatever else, and that he'll stop at that. He just wants to be wealthy. I don't think that's. I don't think that's where he wants to stop, though. I think he's as much a political operator these days as he is as a media figure, and I think he considers himself a movement leader, and I think he wants to be at the head of that movement, whether it's in government or out of government. I don't think he's been able to figure that out yet.

[David Remnick]

So you think it's possible that he would run for office?

[Jason Zengerly]

Yeah, I think it is. I mean, I think that in a lot of ways, Trump has completely upended what it means to be in politics these days. And so much of politics now is just being a media figure and being an entertainer, and Tucker does those things very well. Plus, he has some pretty core ideological beliefs, and I think he wants to see those beliefs take root in the country and be executed. And I think the question for him is, what's the best vehicle for that? I mean, right now, J.D. vance is saying all the things that Tucker believes. And I think maybe if Tucker has his druthers, JD Vance can be the person who, who becomes president and does all these things, and Tucker will be whispering in his ear. But at the same time, JD Vance isn't that talented a politician. And I think if Tucker Carlson concludes that J.D. vance can't get elected, can't become president, well, then maybe he has to do it himself. And I think our politics are at a place where that really doesn't seem as outrageous as it would have even just a couple years ago.

[David Remnick]

Jason Zangerly, thank you. Thank you so much.

[Jason Zengerly]

Thanks a lot.

[Host]

Hated by all the Right People is the title of Jason Zengerly's new biography of Tucker Carlson. Zangerle has just joined the New Yorker as a staff writer.

[David Remnick]

I'm David Remnick and this is the.

[Host]

New Yorker Radio Hour. See you next time.

[Announcer]

The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker. Our theme music was composed and performed by Meryl Garbus of Tune Yards, with additional music by Louis Mitchell. This episode was produced by Max Balton, Adam Howard, David Krasnow, Mike Kutchman, Jeffrey Masters, Louis Mitchell, Jared Paul and Ursula Sommer. With guidance from Emily Botin and assistants from Michael May, David Gable, Alex Parish, Victor Guan, and Alejandra Deckett. The New Yorker Radio Hour is supported in part by the Truman Endowment Fund. Hi, I'm Rebecca Ford, senior awards correspondent at Vanity Fair and co host of Little Gold Men. Oscar season is upon us. Little Gold Men takes you behind the scenes of the race for the biggest prize in Hollywood.

[David Remnick]

There's 100 wrestlers in the room, but.

[Jason Zengerly]

Only wine can be Oscar nominated.

[Announcer]

Whether you're a movie lover or an industry buff, Little Gold Men from Vanity Fair has everything you need to know about this year's Oscar race. Follow and listen to Little Gold Men wherever you get your podcasts.