Tucker Carlson's stunning claim that order to cover up Epstein files came from Trump 'directly'

Sign up HERE to our DC Insider newsletter - your guide to what's rocking Washington, rattling the White House and setting tongues wagging on the Hill See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 10:41 EDT, 16 September 2026 | Updated: 10:42 EDT, 16 September 2026 President Donald Trump directly ordered the cover-up of the government's Jeffrey Epstein files, ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed in a stunning interview. Speaking with Vanity Fair, Carlson, 57, said that he warned the president about the political ramifications of withholding the files in the summer of 2025 when Trump was facing overwhelming scrutiny for his administration's handling of the late pedophile's files. 'My position from the beginning with Trump, I said it to Trump, was, 'I don't understand why you would ever keep any of this stuff secret.' And I got like a bunch of different answers,' Carlson told the outlet. '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.' In the end, it came from Trump directly.'Though a deluge of reports has detailed the West Wing's reaction to the Epstein fallout, including meetings on the topic in the Situation Room, Carlson is the first to claim the order to throttle the release of the files came from Trump. 'The order to cover it up came from Trump,' the former Fox News host said. 'I asked him why. And he gave me this long, very emotional explanation that this was all a plot against him, like Russiagate.'Responding to Carlson's claims, the White House did not directly deny the account, but noted how Trump has 'been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein' and that he has done more for the pedophile's victims 'than anyone before.'The ex-Fox Newser-turned-podcaster has done a complete U-turn on his support for the Republican president in the last year, bashing him for 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 Epstein file cover up. 'I asked him why. And he gave me this long, very emotional explanation that this was all a plot against him, like Russiagate' Carlson said that he spoke with Trump directly about releasing the files in the summer of 2025 Trump told Carlson that he believed the Epstein files saga was a plot against him He has complained that former Attorney General Pam Bondi overpromised when she claimed last year to have had the Epstein files on her desk, and he's questioned why no one has been charged with crimes related to the pedophile if 'thousands of children got raped.'Carlson has even gone on to apologize for supporting Trump to his viewers, noting in an April podcast episode how he will 'be tormented by it for a long time.' 'I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional.' Carlson has been so jilted by Trump and the Republicans that he claimed to have left the party this year. At a retreat at his Maine residence alongside other former MAGA politicians, including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Congressman Thomas Massie, attendees discussed the creation of another political party.Some at the summit even suggested that the 57-year-old should lead the potential party, though none of the ex-Trump allies have shared details of the new political movement.Carlson's quest to get the president to release the Epstein files last summer was not an individual effort - other notable figures in the president's orbit also urged him to go public with the documents. Vice President JD Vance argued in a summer 2025 Situation Room meeting on the debacle that the administration should release all its files on Epstein before Congress had the momentum to force their publication, the New York Times reported.