How Tucker Carlson Could Steal Crown From Trump | The Daily Beast Podcast

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Joanna Coles speaks with Jason Zengerle, author of "Hated By All the Right People," about how Tucker Carlson went from dodging Donald Trump’s phone calls to becoming one of the most powerful forces shaping Trumpworld. Drawing from Zengerle’s new book, they unpack Tucker’s unusual method of influencing Trump through television, his spectacular fallout with Fox News, and why being fired may have supercharged his relevance. The conversation traces Tucker’s early skepticism of Trump, his carefully managed realignment to Trump, his role in boosting JD Vance, and how he helped mainstream Viktor Orbán’s authoritarian playbook while flirting with Putin apologism. Coles and Zengerle also explore the deeply personal roots of Tucker’s worldview, including his fraught relationship with his mother, who left when he was a child and later cut him out of her fortune—an abandonment that may help explain his hunger for control, audience, and power. Is Tucker a cynical opportunist, a true believer, or something more unsettling—a movement leader with ambitions that stretch well beyond media? 00:00 - Tucker Carlson’s Real Power 04:32 - How Tucker Played Trump From Afar 09:03 - The Texts That Exposed Tucker 13:32 - Fired by Fox, Reborn With Trump 18:02 - Grifter or True Believer? 22:29 - The Performance Behind the Politics 26:35 - Hungary: Tucker’s Authoritarian Crush 31:05 - Smuggling Extremes Into the Mainstream 35:42 - The Putin Interview That Changed Everything 40:20 - Is Tucker Bigger Than Trump? 45:10 - Why Tucker Is the Endgame #podcast #trump #news 📖 Title: How Tucker Carlson Could Steal Crown From Trump 👂 Podcast: The Daily Beast Podcast 📺 Episode: 648 🎧 Format: Full Podcast 📅 Date: February 4, 2026 👨‍💼 Guest: Jason Zengerle 🎙️ Host: Joanna Coles Subscribe to our new YouTube channel Obsessed: https://youtube.com/@TheObsessedChannel?sub_confirmation=1 Click here to become an official member of the Daily Beast's YouTube community: https://youtube.com/@thedailybeast/join Have a question or comment for us? Send us an email: [email protected] Subscribe to Obsessed: The Podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://pod.link/1456474041 Subscribe to The Daily Beast Podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://pod.link/1508202790 Subscribe to Inside Trump's Head wherever you get your podcasts: https://pod.link/1767675909 The Daily Beast is committed to accurate, fair, independent, fast, and accountable journalism. We seek the truth and report it honestly, without fear or favor. We ground robust and provocative opinions in fact. Subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@TheDailyBeast?sub_confirmation=1 Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedailybeast Share this video on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/thedailybeast.bsky.social Share this video on X: https://twitter.com/thedailybeast Share this video on Facebook: https://facebook.com/thedailybeast Visit our new Beauty website The Looker: https://thelooker.thedailybeast.com/