Tucker Carlson once held a vice grip on the Trump White House and its top advisors, including the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner, former Fox News and White House sources claim.
The former Fox News host and conservative podcast whisperer - once the most dominant force in cable news pulling in over 4 million nightly viewers for a time - has interviewed and gallivanted alongside world leaders.
'Tucker Carlson Tonight' - the host's old primetime Fox News show that dominated during Trump's first term and through Joe Biden's presidency, held significant sway in the White House.
When former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin first attended a meeting in the spring of 2020, she was evidently oblivious to Carlson's sway.
Griffin, once a top White House staffer, later split with the president and has been critical of his leadership, a viewpoint she often expresses during her day job as a co-host of ABC's 'The View.'
After admitting at the meeting she hadn't watched a segment from the previous evening's broadcast, the president's son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, snapped at her.
'You can't work in this White House and not watch Tucker Carlson,' he said.
The revelations come in author Jason Zengerle's book 'Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind.'
Tucker Carlson's old Fox News show was must-watch TV in the first Trump administration, according to former aides
Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly snapped at former White House communications director Alyssah Farrah Griffin for not watching Carlson's show the evening before
Former Trump aide Alyssa Farrah Griffin co-hosts ABC's 'The View'
A former Fox News producer boasted in the book: 'The show itself was effectively a senior adviser to the president.'
But during the same period, Trump was unable to get Carlson on the phone - an outrage to the president.
'Tucker was the hot girl that didn't want to f*** him,' a former White House official dished in the book.
'Trump was like what do you mean you don't want to? He was intrigued,' the official added, noting that Carlson's avoidance only made himself more alluring to the president.
Carlson has interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Hungarian President Viktor Orban and more conservative world leaders.
Since Trump has retaken the White House, Carlson has been seen around Trump's orbit.
In fact, the podcaster paid a visit this week to the White House, Punchbowl News reported.
Despite Kushner's fandom of Carlson, the host was not afraid to ridicule the presidential adviser on his show.
'The president's famously sharp instincts, the ones that won him the presidency almost four years, have been since subverted at every level by Jared Kushner,' the conservative pundit later said in June 2020.
'No one has more contempt' for Trump's agenda, Carlson added.
The host still holds major influence, too. His podcast is regularly one of the top shows on Spotify and other streaming platforms.
