Tucker Carlson told “Straight Shooter with Stephen A.” Smith that he was wrong about Donald Trump and views the war with Iran as a profound betrayal. He says Trump changed after the 2024 Butler shooting, but also admits he placed too much faith in the idea that any president could save the country.

STEPHEN A. SMITH: I’m wondering right now: You’ve stated-correct me if I’m wrong-that you voted Republican pretty much all your life. You’ve disassociated and disconnected yourself from the Republican Party, but it’s not like you’re about to vote for the Democrats either. I’m wondering how you feel right now as somebody who’s confessed to being so wrong about the president. More specifically, what I’m really wondering about is what Trump is doing. That’s not something Obama did. It’s not something George W. Bush did. This president decided to take this action. Where are you now in terms of viewing him compared to the Democrats, in light of the fact that this is not something they’ve done, but it is something he has done? TUCKER CARLSON: It’s something, to some extent, all American presidents have done since John F. Kennedy was murdered, which is follow the lead of a foreign country, Israel. George W. Bush did do it. He took us into a regime-change war against Iraq at the urging of Benjamin Netanyahu. I was there. That’s why we did that. Joe Biden funded the genocide in Gaza. By the way, to his credit, there were a lot of people in the Democratic Party who were very mad about that and attacked Biden for that. Good for them. I didn’t say a word. I was kind of not even aware it was happening, but that was happening, and they deserve credit for being honest and decent enough to oppose genocide. Every president has been bossed around by this tiny country. Bill Clinton got blackmailed by Israel over Monica Lewinsky. They had a tape of him having phone sex on Air Force One with Monica Lewinsky, and they told him they had it and were going to release it unless he took their side in the Wye River negotiations. This has been going on a long time. But Trump just did something that’s quantum levels crazier and more destructive to the United States, which is this war. How do you get out of this war? I don’t see it. No one I know, including people who work at the White House and the Pentagon-if you ask that question, How do we get out of this?-they have no idea. I’m really worried about it. I know I’m hated and called a Nazi for being against it, but it’s bad enough that it’s worth it to say it, I think. STEPHEN A. SMITH: Tucker Carlson, in 2021, you reportedly wrote that you hated Trump passionately. You later supported him in 2024. Here’s the question: Why should listeners see this latest break as principle rather than another pivot on your part? How do you answer that? TUCKER CARLSON: I’ve had many, many pivots, and I’ve already explained two of them. I was wrong. Because I’m wrong a lot. I flatter myself and say I’m not wrong a lot, but I certainly am wrong sometimes, and wrong on big things. I was wrong on Trump, and I was wrong on the Iraq War. I’m sure I’ve been wrong about a million other things. I don’t know what to say. People can judge whether I’m sincere or not. I don’t really know what I’m getting out of this. Actually, I’ve gotten really nothing out of any of it. I’m not going to whine and say I’ve lost a lot, but I’ve lost some things, including friendships. I don’t really know what my motive would be. If I can’t convince people, I can’t. But I’m just telling you: I happened to be there, and pretty close, and saw a lot of stuff that is so bad for this country. It’s such a total betrayal. I would just say quickly that, yes, I got mad at Trump in a private text message, which Fox stole from me and sent to The New York Times. That’s a whole other story. Kind of crazy. But I wrote that to one of my producers because Trump had made me mad in 2021, right after the election. I get mad at people I love. But I decided that Trump was the opposition to the Republican leadership and the Democratic leadership. He wasn’t a Republican. He was a challenge to the Republicans. He came from outside the system. This was how I thought of it. As they tried to put him in jail and shoot him and all this stuff, I was like, See? It’s totally real. It’s not a fake thing. They’re trying to put him in jail. That’s what I thought, and I still kind of think that. But somewhere along the line, after that Butler shooting in Pennsylvania in July 2024, he changed 180 degrees and started doing things that he ran against doing. You tell me what that is. I don’t know. I don’t think Trump is a great actor. I don’t think he was lying before. I think something changed him. … TUCKER CARLSON: From my perspective, I told the truth, and some people didn’t like it because it was inconvenient to them. But I would say, if you live to a certain age-and you have; I think we’re around the same age-you see people you love die. You know people who were totally fine one day, and they’re gone the next. It’s incredibly sad. It’s the saddest thing. But it’s also a reminder that we’re not in charge of our lives. We’re not in control. You think you have forever. You don’t. You have a certain amount of time. You can’t control that. Every day-this sounds like a bumper sticker, but it’s real-every day really is a gift. We don’t treat it that way. It’s just like, Oh, it’s another day. No. It’s a gift. We don’t know how many days we have left. Not one of us does. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are. Not one of us knows how many we have left. I’ve lived long enough to really believe that because I’ve seen it. Charlie Kirk was sitting at the table I’m sitting at now not long before he was killed. Then he was gone. I never thought that would happen. I still feel so sad about it, as I do for all the people I’ve lost over the years. I’m sure you feel the same way. The idea that I’m under threat-well, we’re all under threat all the time because we don’t know what the future is. Stop worrying about what you can’t control. I really believe this. Stop worrying all the time about stuff you can’t control. Instead, focus as intently as you can on loving the people around you, telling the truth and trying to do the right thing, knowing you’re going to make a ton of mistakes doing it. That’s the business of life, I think. STEPHEN A. SMITH: Tucker, the word love comes associated with hope in the eyes of a lot of people, and you’ve used that word a lot in this conversation that you and I have just had. When we think about hope, is there a light at the end of the tunnel? When I look at the Democratic Party, I look at Governor Josh Shapiro out of Pennsylvania. I look at Governor Wes Moore out of Maryland. I see Governor Gavin Newsom out of California trying to gain traction. We’ve heard about Beshear out of Kentucky. We know Rubio and Vance are in the mix with the GOP. We’ve seen Governor DeSantis and his leadership in Florida, even though I might have a couple of issues with him. Where are you in terms of candidates who exist on either side of the aisle? Is there a ray of hope anywhere that you see, based on what you’ve observed over the last 18 months or so? TUCKER CARLSON: Boy, I mean, it’s just the waltz of the pygmies. As you were reading those names-I know a lot of those guys-I had this image in my mind of The Wizard of Oz and all the dwarves, like, We represent the Lollipop Guild. It’s such a collection of mediocrities. I’m sure they’re not all bad people. I’m guessing, but I’m sure they’re not. But none of those people is going to save this country or make your life better. Let’s be real. I’m not sure there are political solutions right now. We could have better politics and people who care about us. But the truth is, our problems are really significant. That doesn’t mean our lives have to be barren or bleak because your life is not about who’s in office. That’s what I’ve learned recently. I’ve thought a lot about this recently because I was so disappointed in Trump, and I’m like, Oh, my gosh. What do we do? It’s like, I don’t know-love your wife more. Be kinder to the people who work for you. Give a 100% tip at dinner. You don’t have to wait for some savior to come and make everything perfect. Josh Shapiro or DeSantis-I mean, come on. I’m not saying they’re evil or anything. I’m sure they’re fine. But they have no freaking idea what they’re doing. They have no power. The president doesn’t have as much power as we thought. That’s another thing I learned. He can’t fix all these problems. He can’t even- STEPHEN A. SMITH: Then why the hell do you want me or somebody else to run for office? What hope would we have based on what- TUCKER CARLSON: You would have no hope, but how hilarious would that be? Stephen A. Smith, ladies and gentlemen. Go, Stephen A. Smith! You’d be like, I couldn’t get anything done. STEPHEN A. SMITH: I’d lose my damn mind dealing with them on Capitol Hill. I couldn’t get anything done. TUCKER CARLSON: But we don’t have to wait for that. I guess that’s the point. I’ve really had to brood on this recently because I convinced myself that Trump was really going to make a huge difference. By the way, it didn’t have to be this bad. Obviously, it was his fault. But he was never going to fix all the problems because that’s not how it works. The president doesn’t have the power to do that. I don’t have to wait for the perfect guy, or even a great guy, to get elected to make my own life better or make the lives of the people around me better. I shouldn’t wait. I also shouldn’t think that my happiness is dependent on who’s in the White House. That’s just not true. You can create beautiful things and a beautiful life and love other people no matter who is in office. There are happy people in North Korea. TUCKER CARLSON: I’m sorry. I’ve been there. It’s true. STEPHEN A. SMITH: Very last question. Is that something you’ve always known, or is it something you’ve learned since you departed from Fox News, since you built your own company and since you started doing what you’re doing now? TUCKER CARLSON: I’ve learned it. If you had asked me 30 years ago, Do you think any man can save humanity? No. I’ve never really believed it, but I sort of talked myself into it. You spend enough time around politics-you’ve had this experience-and you’re like, It’s so important that so-and-so win, or, more commonly, It’s so important that this person lose. Kamala Harris is going to destroy everything. I wouldn’t vote for Kamala Harris. It’s kind of a joke. But that’s not really true. She’s not going to destroy the love between me and my wife. There are some things that politics doesn’t touch and will never touch. What happens after you die-I don’t think Donald Trump is in charge of that. The tragedy of this war, and the sadness, betrayal and shock that I felt being close to it and close to Trump, was an occasion for me to think through some of these things and be honest with myself. I think I was putting a little bit too much on Trump. Did I really think that electing Trump over Kamala was going to make all the difference forever? If I thought that, I’m an idiot. It probably would be better, I guess, but if I think that’s salvation, that’s on me.

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