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Murdochs urged Tucker Carlson to run against Trump — after they fired him, ex-Fox host claims
After a week of casting himself as the MAGAverse's main character, Tucker Carlson seemed determined to keep his name in headlines this week when he shockingly asserted that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch asked him to run for president against Donald Trump after firing him from Fox News.
Carlson, who was abruptly fired without explanation by Fox News in April 2023, has largely held his fire over the years against his former employer despite the obvious bad blood over his sudden termination.
While the ex-primetime star has floated various theories about what led to his demise at the right-wing network, bouncing between the Dominion lawsuit and his outspoken views on the Ukraine war, it's been speculated that it was just because he 'got too big for his boots' and alienated 'large swaths' of the company.
Still, Carlson has generally stayed fairly complimentary (if a bit trollish) towards the Murdochs since his exit from Fox – until now. Since leading the MAGA isolationist charge against Trump over his Iran saber-rattling, Carlson has not only torn into his former colleagues for being 'warmongers' but also the Fox ownership for firehosing 'propaganda' to their elderly viewing base.
During his latest podcast broadcast, Carlson – who started his own media outlet after departing Fox – brought on former Fox News host Clayton Morris, who has had his own checkered history since leaving the conservative cable giant.
'This is really the first time I've attacked them,' Carlson asserted, noting that 'they canned me over two years ago.' He said it was important to take the Murdochs to task now, though, because he feels that Fox News' purpose is 'to scare old people into obedience.'
While he continued to blast ultra-hawkish hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin for pushing the administration to join Israel's war against Iran, Carlson also shared that his former bosses offered to support him if he threw his name into the 2024 GOP presidential race.
'The Murdochs really hate Trump. Like, there's no one who hates Trump more than the Murdochs,' Carlson declared, referencing the on-again/off-again friendship between Rupert Murdoch and the president.
'I got fired in April of 2023. In May of 2023, they asked me to run for president against Trump and said they would back me,' he continued. Prior to Trump running away with the Republican nomination, the Murdochs had attempted to boost the campaigns of Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.
'Obviously I'm not gonna be running for any office. You know, I would never get elected anyway, plus I like Trump!' Carlson exclaimed.
After Morris interjected, wanting to know if Carlson was actually claiming they asked him to run for president against Trump, the former primetime Fox star confirmed that was indeed the case.
'Yeah, yeah, yeah! Lachlan Murdoch said, 'You should run, we'll back you, the whole thing,'' Carlson insisted, adding that the Murdochs offered to put not only the 'whole Fox News apparatus' behind him but also the rest of their media empire.
'And not just Fox but, you know, the Wall Street Journal,' he said. 'We'll back you.'
'And that came right from Lachlan?' Morris wondered, prompting Carlson to assert that the offer was made.
'I was already gone; they'd already canceled my show. I was still under contract, but they canceled my show. 'You should run, we support you, you should run,'' Carlson concluded..
Conservatives, meanwhile, have been floating Carlson's name for president going back as far as 2020. There was even a short-lived effort to convince him to run following his termination from Fox News, though Carlson ended up fully backing Trump and finding his way into the president's inner circle during the heat of the presidential race.
Before sparking Trump's anger in recent days with his criticism of the president's handling of Iran, Carlson was seen as a close adviser. In fact, he is largely credited with convincing Trump to choose JD Vance as running mate, and he had a prime speaking slot at last year's Republican National Convention.
