Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American television host, conservative political commentator and writer who has hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News since 2016. Carlson began his media career in the 1990s, writing for The Weekly Standard and other publications. He was a CNN commentator from 2000 to 2005 and a co-host of the network's prime-time news debate program Crossfire from 2001 to 2005. From 2005 to 2008, he hosted the nightly program Tucker on MSNBC. He has been a political analyst for Fox News since 2009, appearing as guest or guest host on various programs before the launch of his current show. In 2010, Carlson co-founded and served as the initial editor-in-chief of the right-wing news and opinion website The Daily Caller, until selling his ownership stake and leaving in 2020. He has written three books: Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites (2003), Ship of Fools (2018), and The Long Slide (2021). An advocate of former U.S. president Donald Trump, Carlson was described by Politico as "perhaps the highest-profile proponent of 'Trumpism'" and as willing to criticize Trump when he believed that the former president was straying from that ideology. He was said to have influenced some of Trump's decisions as president, including the cancellation of a military strike against Iran in 2019, the firing of John Bolton, and the commutation of Roger Stone's prison sentence in 2020. Carlson has been described as a leading voice of white grievance politics. He is known for circulating far-right ideas into mainstream politics and discourse. His remarks on race, immigration, and womenincluding slurs he said on air between 2006 and 2011 (which resurfaced in 2019)have at times been described as racist and sexist, and have provoked advertiser boycotts of Tucker Carlson Tonight. It is one of the most watched cable news shows in the United States. Carlson is a vocal opponent of progressivism and critic of immigration, and has been described as a nationalist. Formerly an economic libertarian, he now supports protectionism. In 2004, he renounced his initial support for the Iraq War, and has since been skeptical of U.S. foreign interventions. Carlson has promoted conspiracy theories on topics such as demographic "replacement", COVID-19, and the January 6 United States Capitol attack; and has been noted for false and misleading statements about those topics and a number of others. Early life and education Carlson