‘My perspective changes constantly’: Tucker Carlson on trust in media and the Iran war

Tucker Carlson is a journalist who often ends up becoming the news – perhaps most famously when Fox News fired him from his successful show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, in 2023. His views on everything from climate change (not a threat) to Israel (he believes that the country has dragged the US into an unnecessary war) have also kept his name in the headlines. Today he runs The Tucker Carlson Show, available on the likes of Youtube and X, where he has interviewed white nationalist Nick Fuentes and Vladimir Putin. 

While it’s easy to see Carlson as just a right-wing protagonist and fire-starter, he no longer supports Donald Trump, is opposed to the Iran war and recently spoke out in support of left-wing Democratic Senate contender Abdul el-Sayed. 

Monocle caught up with Carlson at the Livex Liveability and Investment Exhibition in Abu Dhabi to discuss the mid-terms, Trump, threats of war and being a media owner.

You’ve come out to the Gulf quite a lot. What is it about the Gulf, the UAE, that attracts you?
I’ve been coming here regularly for 25 years and have seen it become one of the most vibrant places in the world. I’m fascinated by the governance of it. How is it that these countries have leaders at the ministerial level who are young, patriotic and totally committed to the country but also open-minded, international in their outlook and nationalist at the same time? 

We last saw you at the World Government Summit in Dubai, and then, of course, the world changed in the weeks after that. You’ve made lots of statements lately about your critique of the war with Iran and why America shouldn’t have become involved. Is that a conversation that you’ve come here to continue in person?Nobody here wants to have that conversation because they’re exposed and they’re living the consequences. It’s a conversation that I have with people in my country and in Europe, where I have family and where I spend a lot of time. Europe is going to be the main victim of this. I don’t think that Europeans understand that quite yet. 

I’m worried that the most beautiful, open-minded and productive countries in the world are at risk of being destroyed through self-harm. These are wars that the world didn’t need, that Western leaders have insisted on. It’s a form of suicide. I don’t understand why it’s happening but I’m determined to do whatever I can with the limited power that I have – which is really no power at all – to stop it.

But Tucker, those are the connecting themes between those two wars. You believe that both are unnecessary wars, that peace could be found even at this moment?
They’re not only unnecessary. They’re both deranged. We’re watching harm come to the best countries in the world, both in the Gulf region and, especially, to Western Europe. I think that this will all become obvious in the next six months. 

More than 100 years after the First World War, people who are interested in history are still debating why it happened. It destroyed the UK’s leadership class – and the country has never recovered. It’s the most unbelievable thing that has ever happened in history: Europe’s self-destruction from 1914 to 1918, which could never happen again. But we’re seeing something similar happen right now. I’m determined to make that point again and again, and I have never been warmly received for making it. No one good is going to win from this.

We’re a few weeks out from the midterms. You say that you have a small amount of influence today but what’s fascinating is that, especially in the US, the media world has fractured in a huge way. The power of the Foxes and the CNNs to guide people through elections has completely changed. How do you see the media world that you’re in playing a part in the debates around the midterms? 
It became clear to me that I have no power at all. I marshalled every resource that I had to try and stop the current war and I failed. But CNN and Fox have even less power and they frittered away their influence by lying on behalf of various administrations. The media’s currency is trust between the broadcaster and the audience – and they’ve squandered theirs. They’ll be gone in my lifetime and I won’t miss them. I worked at CNN for 10 years and at Fox for 15 but they have no credibility left at all. They’re despised and rightly so. Will they be replaced by something better? I sure hope so.

You have a committed audience. People come to you for a certain take on the world and they like to be challenged by your perspective. How important is trust in the work that you do? 
It’s all we have. I don’t command an army. I don’t have government agencies. I’ve got 50 employees, as opposed to the US government’s five million, so I have no real power. The only thing that anyone in the media has is the trust of their audience, which can evaporate instantly if you’re caught lying. 

My perspective changes constantly as the evidence comes in. A lot of the ideas that I had 10 years ago turned out to be absurd. I was wrong – not just wrong, but probably wrong. I advocated for things that were disasters, including the Iraq War, so the only recourse that I have is honesty. In fact, I think it increases your credibility when you admit that you have limits to your insight and that you’re an absurd person, because we’re all absurd on some basic level. We’re not gods.

Do you think that the outcome of the midterms will nudge the administration in one way or the other? 
I think that the president acts with unrestrained authority, in violation of our constitution, on foreign policy but that’s a long-standing tradition in the US. The president can do whatever he wants abroad without Congress reining him in. Once the Republicans lose the midterms in November, the only things that the president can achieve are in foreign policy. Because of that, I worry that the US will accelerate its conflict with Iran – and by accelerate, I mean using weapons of mass destruction. I think that it will be the most dangerous moment of our lifetimes. I hope that I’m wrong. I’ve been wrong many times.

Do you think that there are forces within this current administration, or among the US’s current political leaders, who have the ability to somehow check that possibility?
I don’t. I see the people who drove the US to war with Iran on Israel’s and who are driving the US into war with Russia at the expense of Europe, specifically the UK. I think that the UK is the most imperilled that it has been since 1066 and I don’t think that your average Brit understands that at all. The frustration that Brits feel about the failure of their government to raise their standard of living has been successfully siphoned off into hate against Putin, as if he has anything to do with this, which he doesn’t. The failures of the British government are the failures of the British government.

I think that the UK has gone insane, as the US has gone insane, and insane countries don’t thrive. They tend to be destroyed. So it’s time to wake up and realise that the Anglo-American alliance doesn’t control the world by itself any longer, that it’s going to have to share its power with emerging nations. I would like it if the Brits and the Americans still ran the world and did a good job of it but that’s not the reality that we’re facing.

Do you enjoy being a media owner?
No. Honestly, I enjoy not working for anybody. I’ve been fired many times. In fact, I’ve been fired from every job I’ve ever had and every time it has been such a blessing. But unfortunately I can’t be fired anymore.