• President says people must decide for themselves after Carlson interviewed white nationalist commentator
• Fuentes thanks Trump on social media after remarks defending interview freedom
• Republican divide deepens as Cruz calls colleagues frightened to denounce Carlson

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (TDR) — President Donald Trump on Sunday defended conservative commentator Tucker Carlson‘s controversial interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes, stating “you can’t tell him who to interview” and intensifying divisions within the Republican Party over tolerance of extremist rhetoric.

“We’ve had some great interviews with Tucker Carlson, but you can’t tell him who to interview,” Trump remarked Sunday after being asked about what role the former Fox News host should play in the conservative movement. “I mean, if he wants to interview Nick Fuentes, I don’t know much about him, but if he wants to do it, get the word out. Let him — you know, people have to decide. Ultimately, people have to decide.”

Thank you Mr. President!
pic.twitter.com/WKKbNFg5YB

— Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) November 17, 2025

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After a reporter followed up by asking the same question, but about Fuentes, he acknowledged that he had dinner with Fuentes back in 2022 and professed not to have known “Nick at the time.” “Meeting people, talking to people for — like somebody like Tucker, that’s what they do,” he mused. “You know, people are controversial. Some are, some aren’t.”

Fuentes expresses gratitude

Fuentes was apparently pleased with the answers. In a post on X that included video of the exchange, he wrote, “Thank you Mr. President!”

The 27-year-old commentator has espoused Holocaust denial and white nationalist ideology, gaining notoriety after attending the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Fuentes hosts America First, a livestream promoting Christian nationalism, antisemitism, and opposition to immigration and LGBTQ rights.

Republican condemnation and division

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Carlson’s late October interview with Fuentes has triggered backlash from prominent Republicans. Texas Senator Ted Cruz called Carlson a “coward” and “complicit in evil” for conducting a friendly interview without challenging Fuentes’s claims.

“If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool, and that their mission is to combat and defeat global Jewry, and you say nothing, then you are a coward and you are complicit in that evil,” Cruz said during remarks at the Republican Jewish Coalition summit.

At the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention on Friday, Cruz escalated his criticism, saying his Republican colleagues “almost to a person, think what is happening is horrible, but a great many of them are frightened, because he has one hell of a big megaphone.” “It’s easy right now to denounce Fuentes,” Cruz said. “Are you willing to say Tucker’s name?”

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro also condemned Carlson, posting on X: “No to the groypers. No to cowards like Tucker Carlson, who normalize their trash.”

Heritage Foundation controversy

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts initially defended Carlson, saying Carlson “will always be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation.” Roberts later apologized and condemned Fuentes’s “vicious antisemitic ideology” after facing intense criticism, including from Heritage staff members.

The controversy has exposed broader ideological tensions within the Republican Party over whether to distance the GOP from extremist rhetoric. Cruz warned that antisemitism has become a “poison” in the conservative movement, while Trump’s defense of Carlson suggests a more permissive approach to controversial interviews and platforming divisive figures.

Should political leaders draw clear boundaries when media figures platform individuals with extremist views?

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