A Vaudeville Clown’s Last Act: How Tucker Carlson’s Lies About DeSantis Expose His Own Fraud

Lying About DeSantis While Shilling for the Donor Class

There is something almost pitiable about watching Tucker Carlson these days, like an aging vaudevillian clown who refuses to leave the stage even as the audience dwindles and his makeup runs. Desperate for relevance, he clings to the one thing that has always kept him afloat: saying things that his gullible audience wants to believe, regardless of whether they are true.

His latest dishonest broadside, delivered on Piers Morgan Uncensored (an appropriately titled venue for a man who has never been burdened by the constraints of truth), is yet another tired attempt to smear Ron DeSantis as a puppet of the “donor class.” The supposed evidence? DeSantis’s stance on Ukraine—a stance that has been consistent from the very beginning, which, of course, renders Carlson’s claim completely nonsensical. But as we’ve come to learn, Tucker doesn’t care whether his claims are true, only that they generate enough clicks to keep the grift running a little longer.

DeSantis and Ukraine: A Case Study in Realist Conservatism

Let’s begin with reality, a concept Tucker Carlson has long abandoned. Ron DeSantis has never wavered on Ukraine in fact Carlson knows that because he’s said it directly to him. From the outset, his position has been crystal clear: Russia’s invasion is indefensible, but Ukraine’s fate is not a vital U.S. interest requiring limitless aid or military entanglement. This is the precise realist approach that every serious conservative foreign policy thinker would recognize as prudent.

It is, in fact, a position that should be uncontroversial among actual conservatives. But in the fever swamps of Tucker’s world, where any deviation from his illiterate, bumper-sticker brand of populism is treated as heresy, DeSantis’s stance must be deliberately distorted. And so, Tucker claims that DeSantis somehow “shifted” his position on Ukraine because of donor influence—specifically, from billionaire Ken Griffin.

Here’s the problem: DeSantis lost donors for not taking a pro-Ukraine interventionist stance. He also lost donors for not softening or abandoning his position on his pro-life agenda to make the argument about supporting a culture of life. Many of his biggest donors walked away precisely because he refuses to pander to the corporatists, the lobbyists, hawks and every other special interests. If DeSantis were truly in the pocket of the donor class, he would have taken their money and adjusted his rhetoric accordingly. Instead, he stood firm, and they left. That is the opposite of what a bought-and-paid-for politician does.

Tucker’s entire claim falls apart on even the most cursory inspection. But, of course, Tucker relies on his audience not inspecting anything too closely.

The “Hate Speech Law” That Isn’t a Hate Speech Law

Tucker goes deeper into his other feigned outrage about Florida’s laws targeting antisemitic harassment, which he dishonestly frames as some kind of Orwellian crackdown on free speech. The man who has spent years subtly (and not-so-subtly) amplifying antisemitic narratives now wants his audience to believe that Ron DeSantis has imposed some kind of totalitarian “hate speech” regime in Florida.

Once again, the truth is both simpler and completely devastating to Tucker’s claim. Florida’s laws do not criminalize speech. They do not target opinions. They do not make it illegal to say anything. What they do is enhance penalties for existing crimes—just as the law already does in cases of aggravated assault, domestic violence, or crimes targeting children and elderly victims. If someone defaces a synagogue or harasses Jewish Floridians with targeted threats, these laws make it easier to prosecute them. This isn’t just about Jewish people, it’s targeted crimes of any kind based on race, religion or ethnicity. The state has a compelling interest in ensuring that targeted crimes on groups and classes are handled with stiffer penalties to act as a deterrent and prevent repeats.

And yet, here we have Tucker Carlson, self-styled warrior for the common man, suddenly pretending not to understand the difference between criminal behavior and protected speech.

This isn’t ignorance. This is calculated dishonesty. Tucker knows exactly what he’s doing. He is once again running cover for antisemitic elements in his audience—those who have long seen him as an ally because, let’s face it, he is one because that’s where the online clicks are. He’s playing the same game he’s always played: throwing red meat to the worst people imaginable and then pretending to be shocked when anyone calls him out on it.

It is, frankly, pathetic, but so is Tucker.

Article continues after the paywall. To read the rest of the article I’ve provided more detail and tear apart Tucker for my paid followers as an added thank you.

The grifters, the populists, and the weak-kneed opportunists have spent years corrupting conservatism, turning it into a circus of cheap outrage and empty slogans. They have money, platforms, and influence—what they lack is truth. That’s where we come in.

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DeSantis: The Donor Class’s Worst Nightmare

If one were truly interested in identifying a Republican who has declared open war on the donor class, one would not have to look much further than