A political rift within the conservative movement has widened dramatically after former Fox News host Tucker Carlson leveled a stunning accusation against President Donald Trump.
Carlson, 57, told Vanity Fair in a new interview that Trump personally directed the suppression of government records tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The claim represents the most direct allegation yet from someone once considered part of Trump’s inner circle, and it arrives amid a broader falling-out between Carlson and the Republican Party he long championed.
According to Carlson, he confronted Trump about the Epstein files last summer as public pressure mounted over the administration’s refusal to release them.
“My position from the beginning with Trump, I said it to Trump, was, ‘I don’t understand why you would ever keep any of this stuff secret,'” Carlson said. “And I got like a bunch of different answers.”
Carlson said he told Trump he felt no obligation to shield Epstein’s reputation.
“I don’t feel any need to cover for Epstein,” he recalled saying. “So I said, ‘You shouldn’t either.’ In the end, it came from Trump directly.”
While previous reporting has described internal White House strategy sessions on the Epstein controversy, including meetings held in the Situation Room, Carlson’s account marks the first time anyone has publicly named Trump as the source of the decision to withhold the documents.
“The order to cover it up came from Trump,” Carlson stated bluntly. He said he pushed Trump for an explanation and received a lengthy, emotionally charged response.
“I asked him why. And he gave me this long, very emotional explanation that this was all a plot against him, like Russiagate,” Carlson said.
The White House addressed Carlson’s remarks without issuing a direct denial.
A spokesperson instead pointed to Trump’s legal record on the matter, stating he has been fully cleared of wrongdoing connected to Epstein and has done more for victims than any prior administration.
Carlson’s break from Trump has been building for months.
He has publicly criticized the president’s handling of the Epstein matter, the military conflict involving Iran, and what he describes as a drift away from “America First” priorities.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi has also drawn Carlson’s criticism.
He has accused her of misleading the public last year when she claimed the Epstein files were already on her desk, and he has repeatedly asked why no new charges have surfaced despite what he describes as widespread child victimization.
The fallout has taken a personal toll on Carlson, who apologized to his audience earlier this year for his earlier support of Trump.
“I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional,” Carlson said in an April podcast episode, admitting he expects to “be tormented by it for a long time.”
That apology preceded an even bigger break: Carlson announced this year that he had exited the Republican Party altogether.
His departure coincided with a private gathering at his Maine home, where several disaffected former Trump allies met to discuss the political future outside the GOP.
Guests reportedly included Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, both of whom have clashed publicly with Trump on various issues in recent months.
Sources say attendees floated the idea of launching an entirely new political party, with some suggesting Carlson himself could lead it.
No formal plans have been announced by anyone involved.
Carlson was reportedly not alone last summer in urging Trump to release the Epstein records. Vice President JD Vance also pushed for transparency during internal deliberations.
The New York Times reported that Vance argued during a Situation Room meeting that the administration should release the files voluntarily, warning that Congress could otherwise seize control of the process and force disclosure on less favorable terms.
The competing accounts from within Trump’s own political circle have intensified scrutiny of how the White House managed one of the most contentious controversies of his second term, even as the president’s former media ally now stands among his most vocal detractors.
