Tucker Carlson Received Call from Elon Musk on Day Fox News Fired Him
It must have been a crushing blow for Tucker Carlson when he was called into the Fox News executive offices last April and informed he was fired, effective immediately.
But it also must have been encouraging for Carlson to see how many people jumped to his defense, publicly criticizing Fox for the move and offering encouragement and support.
Especially when one of those well-wishers was one of the richest and most influential people in the world: Elon Musk.
During a recent visit with comedian and podcaster Theo Von on “This Past Weekend,” Carlson told the host about a phone call he received from Musk on the day he got the boot from Fox.
The wide-ranging interview stretched across 2 1/2 hours, covering “life after Fox News, his new show on X, how to find truth in journalism, the struggle for power in America, sobriety stories, the debate around RFK Jr., wild Greyhound bus trips, smoking cigs with teachers, and much more,” according to the show notes.
Von broached the subject of his abrupt exit from Fox by congratulating Carlson on getting “out of the system” and onto Twitter.
Carlson quickly corrected him. “I was expelled from the system,” he reminded the host, with his characteristic chuckle. They bantered a bit about “cutbacks” and “downsizing” before Carlson got a little more serious, recalling the details of that day.
“I was thrown out, and Elon called me the day that my show was canceled … and I was grateful that he did,” Carlson told Von.
“He called you, huh?” the host repeated, sounding impressed. “Had you spoken to him before?”
Carlson said he had, “And I really liked him, and I’m not a technology person, to put it mildly — like, at all.”
“All [Elon] said was, I’m going to keep the platform open, you know, and people with differing views, whether [I] agree with them or not, are welcome on the platform.
“And that’s the guarantee that I wanted and needed, and so I’ve been super grateful,” Carlson said, emphasizing that he is not employed by Musk for his show, “Tucker on X.”
“I mean that’s all I’ve ever wanted, by the way, is to … I have made some money, but never got crazy rich, but I never wanted to. That wasn’t my goal at all.”
The discussion then veered into the topics of wealth, greed and capitalism.
“I mean, I guess I would like to be richer,” Carlson said. “I don’t know what I would do with it, exactly.”
Von interjected that desire for wealth “almost looks like a sickness.”
Carlson picked up on that line of reasoning.
“The money acquisition thing?” he asked. “There was a name for that, actually, historically, it was called ‘greed,’ and then, somewhere along the line, we, like, decided you weren’t allowed to complain about greed … because you’re against capitalism.
Carlson warmed up to that subject.
“First of all, there is no capitalism in the United States,” he said. “There’s no free market, OK? The government controls everything. You can’t have a business without intersecting with government, and the government is used by businesses to create monopolies.
“So there’s no free market, so let’s stop lying about that. Second, I am not against capitalism — I’m for competition. I wish capitalism would return to the United States.”
Carlson returned again to the topic of wealth but said he wouldn’t want to be a billionaire.
“I don’t want a billion dollars,” he told Von. “Not that I’m in danger of getting it, but if I was, I’d be, like, ‘I don’t want that, because then you spend your whole life worrying about losing it and your existence becomes about preserving money, when your existence should be about loving the people around you and creating something beautiful.
“Those are your jobs as a person, in my opinion.”
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