Donald Trump’s prerecorded sit-down with Tucker Carlson isn’t just a way to draw attention from the inaugural Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday night. The interview, reportedly filmed last week and set to debut on X, a.k.a Twitter, at 9 p.m. ET, also appears to be an underhanded middle finger to Fox News, which is hosting the debate. But according to a Washington Post report, Trump’s counterprogramming event of the summer almost didn’t happen. And even now, Vanity Fair has noticed, hours before it’s set to air, promotion of the event has been very low-key.
“SPARKS WILL FLY,” Trump wrote Wednesday in a Truth Social post teasing the interview, which will reportedly air on X right as the debate is set to begin. Still, attention around the event has seemed muted; Trump confirmed the show will air at 9 p.m., but without mentioning the platform it will stream on. Meanwhile, Carlson promoted his upcoming interview with Hungarian president Viktor Orban in a Tuesday post, but as of 2 p.m. Wednesday, had yet to share anything about the Trump interview.
According to the Post, part of the early silence around this interview was by design; Trump wanted to keep a will-he-or-won’t-he air of mystery around the GOP debate, and didn’t inform Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel that he wouldn’t be attending until Sunday. Plus, organizing Carlson’s interview with Trump, filmed at Trump’s property in Bedminster, New Jersey, was mired in scheduling conflicts, the Post reported. Trump also took issue with the interview airing on X, given that it is a rival to Truth Social, the platform Trump helped launch following his suspension on Twitter (X owner Elon Musk has since welcomed Trump back on the platform, though the ex-president hasn’t taken him up on the offer). In the end, Carlson’s team successfully argued that Truth Social lacks the reach for such a high-profile interview, per the Post. These talks have been going on for months, as Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman first reported in July.
It’s fairly clear why Carlson and Trump would be at least interested in participating in anything that could pull viewers away from the Fox News debate. For one, Trump, the heavy favorite in the Republican presidential field, has little to gain by participating in a debate where he’d likely face tough questions about his mounting legal problems. He said as much in June, telling Fox’s Bret Baier that he does not want to waste an evening taking blows from candidates who are polling at “1 or 2% and 0%.” What’s more, his participation would give a free ratings boost to a network that he feels has turned against him in favor of other candidates. “Maybe they should have been loyal,” Trump has privately said of his decision to snub Fox, according to Rolling Stone. (Trump also lamented in a Truth Social post last week that Fox intentionally shows “the absolutely worst pictures of me, especially the big ‘orange’ one with my chin pulled way back. They think they are getting away with something, they’re not…And then they want me to debate!”). Carlson, meanwhile, will also have a prime opportunity to spite his old employer’s ratings and draw new viewers to his independent online show. Carlson, who lost his Fox News show in April, has been in a fight with Fox for months in an effort to get released from his network contract.
Still, Carlson and Trump have had a rocky year in light of a series of Carlson’s text messages from January 2021 that were released as part of the lawsuit between Fox and Dominion Voting Systems. In the texts, the ex-Fox host privately disclosed that he hated Trump “passionately” and longed for a future when he could “ignore Trump most nights.” Trump seemed to brush off those texts in March, after Carlson aired a special that falsely described the “overwhelming majority” of January 6 rioters as confused “sightseers” and “not insurrectionists”—coverage Trump praised on Truth Social, writing of Carlson, “He doesn’t hate me, or at least, not anymore!’”
Per the Daily Beast, Trump and Tucker’s conversation is expected to last two hours and be largely centered around foreign policy and Ukraine. Eight candidates are scheduled to participate in the Fox News debate: Florida governor Ron DeSantis, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former vice president Mike Pence, South Carolina senator Tim Scott, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum (though Burgum’s appearance is reportedly uncertain due to a serious basketball injury). Fox News “looks forward to hosting the first debate of the Republican presidential primary season, offering viewers an unmatched opportunity to learn more about the candidates’ positions on a variety of issues, which is essential to the electoral process,” a network spokesperson told the Post.
Caleb Ecarma
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