The Escalating Feud Between Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes: A Deep Dive into Right-Wing Infighting
In the volatile landscape of American conservative media, where ideological purity tests and personal grudges fuel public spectacle, the feud between Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes has emerged as a defining clash of 2025. Carlson, the former Fox News titan who now commands a massive audience through his independent podcast and X platform presence, represents a polished, populist strain of anti-establishment conservatism.
Fuentes, a 26-year-old far-right provocateur and self-styled leader of the "Groyper" movement, thrives on raw, unfiltered rhetoric that embraces white nationalism, Christian integralism, and conspiratorial attacks on mainstream conservatives.
Their escalating war of words—marked by Carlson branding Fuentes a "weird little gay kid in his basement" and Fuentes accusing Carlson of lying about his father's CIA ties—has exposed deep rifts within the MAGA ecosystem, revealing tensions over authenticity, influence, and the direction of the right.
The Roots of the Conflict
The feud’s origins lie in ideological and strategic differences. Fuentes, known for his America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) and relentless criticism of establishment Republicans, has long viewed Carlson as a "gatekeeper" who sanitizes conservative talking points to appeal to a broader audience.
Fuentes argues that Carlson avoids taboo topics like race, Jewish influence, and explicit anti-immigration stances, which Fuentes champions unapologetically. He has accused Carlson of being a latecomer to anti-neocon and anti-Israel positions, adopting them only as they gained traction post-Trump. Carlson, meanwhile, has distanced himself from Fuentes’ extremism, viewing it as divisive and counterproductive to building a broader populist coalition.
The spark that ignited this public feud came in July 2025, during Fuentes’ appearance on Candace Owens’ podcast. Owens, a fellow far-right figure known for her conspiracy-laden commentary, pressed Fuentes on his self-proclaimed incel identity and urged him to marry and start a family as a remedy for societal decline.
Fuentes, who has called women in politics “gaslighters” and rejected traditional relationships, felt ambushed. He unpublished the interview and later posted a video rant on X, calling it a “FAILED Hit Job” orchestrated to undermine his credibility on gender and family issues. This set off a chain reaction that drew Carlson into the fray.
Carlson’s Attack: “Weird Little Gay Kid in His Basement”
On August 1, 2025, Carlson invited Owens onto his podcast to discuss the fallout. Owens described Fuentes’ reaction as “entirely fraudulent,” claiming the interview was cordial until Fuentes erupted post-filming, calling her a “b*tch who set him up.”Carlson seized the moment to launch a blistering attack on Fuentes, accusing him of being part of a coordinated effort—possibly a “super PAC” or even a federal psyop—to sabotage “sincere, non-crazy” conservative voices like himself and Owens. He pointed to Fuentes’ vocal opposition to Joe Kent, a Trump-appointed conspiracy theorist tapped to lead the National Counterterrorism Center, as evidence of his disruptive agenda.
Carlson didn’t stop at policy critiques. He went personal, mocking Fuentes as “this child, this weird little gay kid in his basement in Chicago” who’s “participating in a super PAC to bump off Joe Kent.” The homophobic jab, implying Fuentes’ insecurity or hidden motives (despite Fuentes not identifying as gay), was coupled with a more explosive accusation: that Fuentes might be a federal informant, a “Fed” working to fracture the right.
“I’ve been around this my whole life. I know what this is,” Carlson declared, hinting at his familiarity with intelligence operations. The comments went viral, with some X users crowing that “Tucker Carlson just ended @NickJFuentes’ career,” while others criticized Carlson’s low blow.
Fuentes’ Counteroffensive: Carlson’s CIA Lies
Fuentes responded with a vengeance, using his livestreams and X posts to challenge Carlson to a debate and dismantle his credibility. On August 2, 2025, Fuentes zeroed in on Carlson’s claim, made during the Owens interview, that he only recently learned of his father Richard “Dick” Carlson’s CIA involvement after Fuentes raised it earlier in 2025. Carlson said he discovered the truth through documents after his father’s death in March 2025, initially dismissing Fuentes’ accusations as false. Fuentes, however, produced damning evidence to the contrary.
In a June 2024 interview on the Shawn Ryan Show, Carlson casually mentioned applying to the CIA after college, noting he was rejected partly because “my dad was in the CIA.” Another clip from a 2024 Patrick Bet-David podcast showed Carlson acknowledging his father’s agency role. Fuentes pounced: “Tucker blatantly lied about knowing that his dad was CIA... and framed him as a Fed based on those lies.” He argued that Carlson’s deception was a deliberate attempt to deflect scrutiny from his own elite, establishment roots.
Fuentes doubled down, painting Carlson as a privileged fraud born into the Swanson frozen food fortune, far removed from the working-class Americans he claims to represent. “You were born to the Swanson family fortune, your daddy ran the CIA... I’M America. Chicago is America. My story is an American story,” Fuentes declared in a clip that racked up over 250,000 views on X.
He mocked Carlson’s “basement” insult as classist, noting that Carlson himself has championed “weird kids in basements” as the heart of his audience, only to weaponize the trope against Fuentes. In a three-hour livestream dubbed a “master class” by supporters, Fuentes demanded Carlson address his father’s role in Voice of America during the Iran-Contra era and his own alleged CIA application, even suggesting Carlson might be an “intelligence asset” himself.
The Broader Fallout
The feud has split the conservative commentariat. Supporters like Jean-François Gariépy hailed Fuentes’ takedown: “Tucker getting demolished by Nick Fuentes live right now... A brazen lie demonstrating bad faith.”Glenn Greenwald, a frequent Carlson ally, called Fuentes “very impressive” in the dispute, praising his rhetorical skill.
Meanwhile, centrists and liberals reveled in the chaos. The Bulwark described it as “the far right eating itself,” while Reddit’s r/Destiny subreddit called both parties “messy bitches,” with one user joking, “In 2025 ‘Tucker Carlson calls Nick Fuentes gay’ is the kind of breaking news they’ll bring 4 experts onto Piers Morgan to debate.”