Sheikh Tucker's Apology Tour
This isn’t “America First.” It’s America Last. And if conservatives don’t snap out of it soon, they’ll wake up one day realizing they’ve spent so much time hating the West that they forgot to save it
It started in Moscow.
There was Tucker Carlson, once the loudest “America First” voice in conservative media, beaming as he marveled at Vladimir Putin’s supposed wisdom. A man who spent years railing against the deep state and unchecked power had suddenly found himself starstruck by a guy who jails journalists and poisons his enemies.
Strange.
But not that strange. A fringe segment of the right has long flirted with the idea that Russia—land of strongmen, Orthodox cathedrals, and affordable apartments—is some lost utopia for traditional Christian values. Never mind the gulags, the kleptocracy, or the war crimes.
At first, I chalked it up to that. But then Carlson kept going.
In January 2025, Carlson traveled to Saudi Arabia to attend the Real Estate Future Forum 2025 in Riyadh. During his visit to the country, he found time to speak with British television host Piers Morgan. In a notable exchange, Carlson launched into a bizarre diatribe against Winston Churchill—yes, that Churchill—the man who quite literally saved Western civilization. Carlson scoffed that Churchill hadn’t done enough to protect the West. Which, coming from a guy who’s been cozying up to regimes that would love to see the West burn, is rich.
And then there was Qatar.
On March 7th, sitting across from Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Carlson again played the role of passive observer as the Qatari leader downplayed his country’s ties to Hamas, praised the Iranian regime, and portrayed Qatar as an essential U.S. ally. Never mind that Qatar has spent decades bankrolling Islamist propaganda through Al Jazeera, funneling billions into American universities to push anti-Western narratives, hobnobbing with the Taliban, and—oh yeah—telling the Hamas terrorist organization to KEEP the Israeli hostages in captivity.
If you want a list of just SOME of the nefarious and subversive Islamist, Jihadist, anti-Western, anti-American, and antisemitic efforts Qatar is engaged in, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
And yet Carlson spent the entire time just nodding along and fawning over the Qatari official’s propaganda—no pushback, no skepticism, just a slack-jawed fascination with an oppresive regime.
At this point, the question isn’t what’s going on. It’s why.
The Conspiracy Pipeline
Carlson isn’t just becoming more anti-American. He’s doing so in a way that follows a predictable pattern: the descent into conspiracism.
Here’s how it works:
You correctly identify that America’s institutions—its media, intelligence agencies, and bureaucracies—are corrupt and dishonest.
Instead of pushing for reform and accountability, you assume the entire system is beyond redemption. And not just the system itself, but the worldview that created it as well.
You start looking elsewhere for truth—outside the mainstream, then outside the West entirely.
You become so desperate for an alternative narrative that you fall for propaganda from literal dictators.
This is exactly where Carlson has landed. The man who built his career exposing government lies has now swung so far in the other direction that he’s peddling the lies of America’s enemies.
This is, of course, assuming (and we have no proof in either direction) that Tucker isn’t just spiraling down this rabbit hole for money and influence, which he already has.
And it’s not just him.
Joe Rogan, once the voice of free thinkers—albeit occasioanlly quriky and out-of-the-box ones, has started down the same road. He now platforms people like Ian Carrol, whose entire shtick is holding Jews responsible for 9/11 and arguing that Jeffry Epstein was a Mossad agent. He is also about to air an episode with Darryl Cooper—whom Tucker also hosted—who claims that Churchill is “the chief villain of the Second World War,” and is on record promoting Holocaust denial.
Throughout their interviews with these conspiracists, Rogan and Carlson allow their guests to ramble on about the supposed evils of (((America))) and spread historical revisionism without offering a single challenge.
This isn’t skepticism. It’s self-loathing wrapped in an “alternative” narrative.
The Go-To Scapegoat
The final step in this pipeline is always the same: you need a grand unifying villain. And, historically speaking, when conspiracy theorists reach this stage, they all end up in the same place.
Enter the Jews.
It’s the simplest, laziest, most time-tested explanation for everything wrong in the world. Just say “Jew,” and the conspiracy theorist will fill in the rest.
Carlson has been inching toward this territory for a while. After Hamas butchered 1,200 people on October 7—including dozens of Americans—he was annoyed that people were so upset. That’s a strange reaction for someone who once built his brand on calling out Islamic extremism.
Meanwhile, when Christians in the Congo were massacred and beheaded by ISIS-linked terrorists, Carlson said nothing. I’m not kidding. But when Syria’s new Islamist government slaughtered Christians and Alawites, he immediately jumped in to attack Bari Weiss and John Bolton as sinister “neocons”—also a fan-favorite antisemitic trope of the woke right.
At a certain point, the pattern is undeniable.
The Conservative Double Standard
The irony in all of this is that Carlson’s America-bashing world tour looks an awful lot like Barack Obama’s infamous “apology tour.” But whereas conservatives rightly slammed Obama for groveling before dictators and undermining American exceptionalism, many are now cheering as Carlson does the exact same thing.
Where’s the outrage?
Where are the conservative influencers calling this out? The ones who built their entire brands on fighting for Western values?
Instead of rejecting Carlson’s growing embrace of anti-Western narratives, many on the right are following his lead—trading real patriotism for grievance, skepticism for nihilism, and reason for conspiracy.
This isn’t “America First.” It’s America Last. And if conservatives don’t snap out of it soon, they’ll wake up one day and realize they’ve spent so much time hating the West that they forgot to save it.
Eitan Fischberger is an analyst, writer, and OSINT investigator focusing on the Middle East and US-Israel relations. His work has been featured in Fox News, Wall Street Journal, Tablet Magazine, and other outlets.