AMAC Exclusive – By Aaron Flanigan
Tucker Carlson broke the internet once again last week with a viral video interview with a man who alleges he had an affair and did hard drugs with Barack Obama while the former president was still a state legislator in Illinois. The clip has amassed some 35 million views as of Sunday evening, marking the latest example of how Carlson’s star power has been supercharged since moving from his old Fox News slot to becoming an independent broadcaster on X (Twitter).
In early May, following his controversial ouster from Fox, Carlson took to Twitter to announce that he would be launching a new show following a similar format as his primetime cable program with both monologues and extensive interviews.
But one major difference was that Carlson would be unrestrained by the restrictions previously imposed on him by Fox executives. “You can’t have a free society if people aren’t allowed to say what they think is true,” Carlson said in the video announcement.
“Amazingly… there aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech,” he continued, before hailing Twitter (now X) as the last remaining sanctuary for free speech and “the place where our national conversation incubates and develops” before going on to deride national news organizations as “thinly disguised propaganda outlets.”
If the first several months of his new endeavor have served as any indication, Tucker on X has been a massive success – even more so than his Tucker Carlson Tonight tenure.
The 54-year-old’s first episode garnered a jaw-dropping 120 million views. Although Twitter views aren’t measured by the same metrics as Nielsen TV ratings, it seems safe to say that Carlson is far exceeded the 3-6 million nightly viewers he averaged at Fox.
While viewership has dropped off somewhat since then, Carlson still easily laps the most popular cable news shows, a reflection of how his reach has increased since setting off on his own.
Meanwhile, Fox has struggled. In May, the network lost a whopping 32 percent of its primetime viewership, although ratings have somewhat rebounded in subsequent months.
Carlson’s greatest success on X thus far came in August, when he interviewed former president and 2024 frontrunner Donald Trump on the same night as Fox News hosted a debate with the other GOP hopefuls. To date, the Trump-Tucker interview has received upwards of 260 million views, making it the single most-watched interview on record.
Meanwhile, the Fox News debate saw just over 15 million viewers.
Carlson’s other notable guests have included Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and ex-Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer.
But despite the show’s unprecedented success, it has not been without controversy. Carlson has received harsh criticism from fellow conservatives for platforming pornographer and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate on his show. He has also been criticized for interviewing Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, who has come under fire by some on the right for his personal behavior.
Nonetheless, Tucker on X has been a hit—and could very well be a preview for the future of conservative media. As AMAC Newsline’s Shane Harris previously observed, “platforms like podcasts, YouTube, and especially X under the leadership of Elon Musk have far more reach and influence than the mainstream media ever even dreamed of having”—a phenomenon that has “fundamentally altered the way most Americans get their information and what information they receive.”
But above all, Carlson’s success on X demonstrates that his power in the conservative movement is not going anywhere anytime soon. Just days before he was terminated by Fox, Carlson delivered a riveting speech at the Heritage Foundation’s 50th anniversary gala in Washington, D.C. “What you’re watching is not a political movement. It’s evil,” he said in his remarks, referring to the left’s efforts to undermine traditional American values and tear down key American institutions.
“The second you decide to tell the truth about something, you are filled with this… power from somewhere else,” he continued. “Try it. Tell the truth about something. You feel it every day. The more you tell the truth, the stronger you become. That’s completely real. It’s measurable in the way that you feel.”
As most conservatives know, Carlson has built his reputation largely from his fearless truth telling and asking the questions that everyone else is afraid to ask. Even in the face of relentless smears from the left, the establishment right, and the corporate media, Carlson has stood strong in his views, and—along with figures like Donald Trump—has helped to remold the conservative movement into an entity that fights for its values and works to advance the will of the American people.
Whether he’s on Fox, X, or on any other platform, it seems clear that Tucker Carlson will not be silenced from speaking his mind and telling the truth—and for that, the conservative movement can be grateful.
Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.
