Tucker Carlson gave a strangely favorable but cautionary response to a U.S. military operation over the weekend where U.S. special forces captured Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, and brought them to the United States to face trial.
However, people were quick to compare his response to comments he made in an October 2025 interview, where he argued that the U.S. would only want a regime change in Venezuela to install a leader who would legalize gay marriage.
"We can safely discount democracy as a reason for effecting regime change in Venezuela. We are not going to kill Nicolás Maduro because we don't like the way he's treating his people. We may be mad that he doesn’t allow gay marriage,” Carlson said in October of 2025. "That is a distinct possibility, but no one will say that out loud. Not defending the regime, just saying. One of the most conservative countries in North or South, or Central America, only El Salvador really comes close, which is much smaller, of course. And by the way, the U.S.-backed opposition leader who would take Maduro's place if he were taken out is, of course, pretty eager to get gay marriage in Venezuela. So to those of you who thought this whole project was globo-homo, not crazy actually."
He then repeated his claim that the U.S. seeks to remove Maduro to pave the way for legalizing gay marriage in Venezuela. This comes as Carlson has praised Maduro as "socially conservative," nearly excusing the dictator's brutal oppression of his people and the socialist policies that transformed Venezuela from a first-world country into one where citizens are forced to hunt animals in the streets to survive.
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The oldest living Groyper says it’s a “distinct possibility” that Trump captured Maduro because of Maduro’s opposition to gay marriage. Wow! He also says Maduro is a genuine social conservative, and that the US action is aimed at introducing gay marriage to Venezuela! pic.twitter.com/VrVV9C1SSA
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) January 5, 2026
And yet Carlson changed his tune, following the successful operation
Rather than accusing Trump of wanting to further "Globo-homo," he portrayed the action as imperial overreach and suggested that President Trump's statements about "running" Venezuela implied indirect control through political leverage and military threats, resembling empire-like behavior.
While Carlson is still very much an isolationist, he admitted that the abduction and subsequent influence over Venezuela's interim leadership signaled U.S. dominance through coercion rather than genuine democracy promotion, in Carlson's mind, an upgrade from the policy that characterized the wars in the Middle East.
However, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who disagrees with that statement.
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