President Donald Trump directly ordered the suppression of Jeffrey Epstein’s government files, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in a stunning interview.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Carlson, 57, said he warned the president about the political consequences of hiding the files in the summer of 2025, when Trump faced scrutiny over his administration’s handling of the late pedophile’s files.
“My position with Trump from the very beginning, I said this to Trump, was that I don’t understand why you’re even keeping all of this a secret.” And I got a bunch of different answers,” Carlson told the publication.
“I don’t feel any need to cover for Epstein,” the pundit and podcaster said, recounting his conversation with the president. “So I said, ‘You shouldn’t either.’ After all, it came directly from Trump.”
While a flurry of reports detailed the West Wing’s response to the Epstein fallout, including Situation Room meetings on the topic, Carlson was the first to say that the gag order came from Trump.
“The order to cover this up came from Trump,” the former Fox News host said. “I asked him why. And he gave me this long, very emotional explanation that it was all a conspiracy against him, like Russiagate.
Responding to Carlson’s statements, the White House did not directly deny this version, but noted that Trump was “completely acquitted in everything related to Epstein” and that he had done more for the pedophile’s victims “than anyone before.”
The former Fox Newser podcaster reversed his support for the Republican president last year, criticizing him over the Epstein saga, the Iran war and for not being a true “America First” conservative.
“The order to cover it up came from Trump,” the former Fox News host said of the government’s cover-up of the Epstein case. “I asked him why. And he gave me this long, very emotional explanation that it was all a conspiracy against him, like Russiagate.
Carlson said he spoke directly with Trump about releasing the files in the summer of 2025.
Trump told Carlson that he believed the Epstein files saga was a conspiracy against him.
He complained that former Attorney General Pam Bondi overpromised when she said last year that she had Epstein files on her desk, and questioned why no one was charged with crimes related to the pedophile if “thousands of children were raped.”
Carlson even apologized to his viewers for supporting Trump, noting in an April podcast episode that he was “going to be tormented by this for a long time.”
“I want to apologize for misleading people. It was unintentional.”
Carlson was so rejected by Trump and Republicans that he said he left the party this year.
At a retreat at his Maine residence with other former MAGA politicians, including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Congressman Thomas Massie, participants discussed forming another political party.
Some at the summit even suggested the 57-year-old could lead a potential party, although none of Trump’s former allies shared details of the new political movement.
Carlson’s efforts to get the president to release the Epstein files last summer were not an individual effort—other prominent figures in the president’s orbit also urged him to release the documents.
Vice President J.D. Vance said at a summer 2025 situation room meeting about the debacle that the administration must release all of its files on Epstein before Congress has the momentum to force their release, the New York Times reported.