President Donald Trump publicly defended Tucker Carlson on Sunday, November 16, following backlash over the podcaster’s recent interview with far-right figure Nick Fuentes. The interview, which aired on October 28, 2025, sparked tension within the Republican Party due to Fuentes’ widely known antisemitic views.Speaking to Fox News, POTUS offered support for Carlson, highlighting the positive coverage he had received from the former Fox News host in the past.He emphasized that Carlson has consistently praised him and conducted high-impact interviews.“Well, I found him to be good. I mean, he said good things about me over the years. I think he’s good. We’ve had some good interviews. I did an interview with him. We were at 300 million hits,” the president said.POTUS further argued that Carlson should retain editorial independence when selecting his guests, even if they are controversial.“We’ve had some great interviews with Tucker Carlson, but you can’t tell him who to interview,” he added.According to an AP News report dated November 17, POTUS acknowledged the divisive nature of Fuentes, whose followers reportedly view themselves as guardians of America’s white, Christian identity.Instead, he suggested that Carlson’s audience should make their own judgments, stating that if Carlson wanted to engage with Fuentes, “people have to decide.”As per the report, Fuentes himself reacted positively to POTUS's comments. He posted a message reading “Thank you, Mr. President!” along with a clip of his interaction with reporters.Nick Fuentes talks about supporting Donald Trump on Tucker Carlson’s podcastFrom L to R: Nick Fuentes and Trump (Image via Getty Images)Nick Fuentes discussed his political transformation during his appearance on The Tucker Carlson Show on October 28, 2025. In the wide-ranging interview, the controversial political commentator reflected on how he shifted from traditional libertarian and conservative beliefs to fervently supporting Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election.Fuentes acknowledged that, at the beginning of the 2016 primary season, he aligned himself with politicians like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, driven by his libertarian and constitutionalist ideals.However, as he watched POTUS steadily dominate the primaries, his perception began to change.Initially, Fuentes felt negatively about POTUS, but as the campaign progressed, he underwent what he described as an “ideological awakening.”“I remember the media was furious that he was winning one after the other. And I remember thinking to myself like structurally, if I’m a libertarian or a conservative and we want to change the country, we have to win elections,” Nick Fuentes said.As he continued to follow the race, Fuentes began to believe that traditional conservatives’ reliance on media approval was ultimately futile. He claimed that “the media was really standing in the way” and that past conservatives “were afraid to take on the media.”He went on to praise POTUS for breaking that mold, describing his confrontational approach to the press as refreshing and necessary.“Though I disagreed with Trump’s ideology at first, I admired his willingness to destroy the liberal media and challenge their monopoly on thought and opinion,” he said.Nick Fuentes described this realization as a major turning point in his political journey, seeing POTUS not just as a candidate, but as “a winner” who could “win for our side.”He explained that, unlike Cruz or Paul, POTUS sought to “beat the media” and “build the wall,” which Fuentes saw as essential steps toward restoring constitutional values and setting the country straight.He also reflected on Trump’s impact on young voters during the 2016 election, calling them “the first generation” shaped by POTUS's political dominance. “He was like the savior of Western civilization… like he was unstoppable, unflappable. Nobody could score points on him. He just seemed like, you know, they said you can’t stump the Trump, like he could not be stumped. And so he just had this aura of inevitability, invincibility. I loved that,” Nick Fuentes said.Apart from the aforementioned comments, Trump didn’t criticize either Tucker Carlson or Nick Fuentes directly.Nick Fuentes, on the other hand, is busy with his America First podcast, available on Rumble and Cozy.tv.