Former president Trump said he was surprised to hear Monday that Fox News had ousted one of its largest stars in Tucker Carlson.
“I was shocked. I’m surprised. He’s a very good person a very good man and very talented and he had very high ratings,” Trump said during an interview on Newsmax that aired late Monday. “He’s been terrific especially over the last year or so he’s been terrific to me.”
Fox sent shockwaves through the media and political ecosystem on Monday morning when it announced it had parted ways with Carlson, one of the most widely watched and influential figures in cable television.
The network gave no further details on Carlson’s departure beyond a statement that thanked him for his work for the company and said his last show was Friday.
Carlson’s ouster comes less than a week after Fox agreed to pay $787 million in settlement money to Dominion Voting Systems as part of a defamation suit brought by the company in connection with Trump’s claims about the 2020 election and its software.
Trump, who has grown increasingly critical of Fox in recent months, had urged Rupert Murdoch, the owner and chairman of Fox Corp. who was set to testify in a trial in the case, to embrace his theories about voter fraud in a bid to win in court.
“I was surprised they made a settlement in that case,” Trump said on Monday. “I thought that was a case that should easily be won … again the Tucker situation you don’t know if it was a firing, maybe he left because he wasn’t being given his free rein, he wants his free rein maybe but I was surprised by it.”