AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Tucker Carlson, the American conservative political commentator, acknowledged that his previous positions on Islam and Muslims were mistaken. A recent shift in his intellectual and political path that occurred after distancing himself from Donald Trump, the U.S. President, and increasing his criticism of the Zionist regime. An issue that Newsweek magazine addressed in a report.
In an interview with Sky News, Carlson said, "For years, I repeated on my television programs that the problem is Islam, the problem is Muslims, they all want to kill us." He added, "I was hysterical and I believed it. Now I know that this is not true and none of those statements are accurate, but at the time I believed them."
This shift in stance was not limited to Islam, and his view on the Zionist regime has also undergone change. Carlson said about this regime, "The Israel I visited decades ago is not like the Israel of today. Israel has completely changed, and I am sorry about that."
Carlson's Political Transformations
According to Newsweek, these remarks are the latest in a series of Tucker Carlson's political changes in 2026. Changes that occurred after he announced the end of his support for Trump, apologized for misleading Americans in his past support for Trump, and also announced his departure from the Republican Party.
The report notes that Carlson's past record includes numerous statements that were considered by critics to be anti-Islamic. During his time at Fox News, he had invited political activist Ihan Harsy Ali, criticized the Biden administration's relationship with American Muslims, and defended Trump's decision to impose a travel ban on certain countries, although he claimed the decision was not against Muslims.
In recent years, a number of human rights organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), had called for Tucker Carlson's removal, accusing him of promoting anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant views aligned with white supremacy.
But Carlson's tone changed from late 2025. He described attacks on American Muslims as disgusting and said that fear of Islam is exaggerated by the Zionist regime's government and its supporters in America.
In response, Tucker Carlson's increased criticism of the Zionist regime led some to accuse him of anti-Semitism, an accusation that Carlson strongly rejects. Newsweek wrote that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused him of promoting anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, especially after he hosted white nationalist activist Nick Fuentes, who had denied the Holocaust.
Carlson has responded that his position on the Zionist regime has nothing to do with the religion or ethnicity of the Zionists, but rather relates to the policies of that regime's government, which he says harm American interests.
Change in American Public Opinion
This report considers Carlson's shifting positions as part of broader changes in American public opinion. According to the National Islamophobia Index, the acceptance of negative stereotypes about Muslims in America increased between 2022 and 2025. However, the partisan divide remains clear, with 82 percent of American Democrats holding a positive view of Muslims, while this figure among Republicans is 43 percent.
At the same time, public support for the Zionist regime has also decreased significantly. According to a Pew Research Center poll in March 2026, 60 percent of Americans hold a negative view of the Zionist regime.
Also, Gallup data shows that for the first time since 2001, Americans' sympathy for Zionists is no longer greater than their sympathy for Palestinians. A sign that may indicate a significant change in the American public space.
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