New Book Details How Tucker Carlson’s Show Once Acted as ‘Effectively a Senior Adviser’ to Trump

(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

Once upon a time, Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program was “effectively a senior adviser” to President Donald Trump.

That’s according to a former producer for the cable news channel who was quoted in Jason Zengerle’s new book, Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind.

The View co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin backed up what the producer said too. Griffin — who worked for the first Trump administration from 2017 to 2020 — told Zengerle that Carlson’s show was required viewing for those who worked for the president back then.

Jared Kushner once barked at her “You can’t work in this White House and not watch Tucker Carlson” after she admitted she hadn’t watched part of the previous night’s show, according to the book.

The Daily Mail published those revelations and a few others on Wednesday. Something else that stood out from Zengerle’s book: Trump was livid that he couldn’t get Carlson on the phone.

“Tucker was the hot girl that didn’t want to f*ck him,” an ex-White House official said.

Carlson playing hard-to-get apparently “intrigued” Trump, the official added, and made him more “alluring” as The Daily Mail put it.

Trump wasn’t the only one watching Tucker Carlson Tonight religiously at the time.The show set a cable news record when it averaged 5.36 million viewers in October 2020, and it routinely averaged more than 4 million viewers per month. Carlson was later booted from his show in April 2023.

Fox News took a big ratings hit right after his exit, but things turned around pretty quickly and the channel remained the top dog in cable news. And in related news, Mediaite reported on Wednesday that Fox News averaged 34% more primetime viewers than CNN and MS NOW combined in February — thanks largely to Carlson’s replacement Jesse Watters.

The Trump-Carlson relationship appears to have turned around since then too. Carlson has been spotted at the White House a number of times since Trump returned last year, but the president is reportedly not thrilled with Carlson’s Israel fixation. The Free Press reporter Eli Lake wrote last Sunday that Trump “has privately urged the popular podcast host to end his battle with prominent pro-Israel MAGA influencers,” believing it is wrecking the GOP’s chances of winning the 2026 midterms.

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