Weekend Update: Tucker Carlson on Liberal Politics and the 2026 Oscars - SNL

So, Mr President, what an honor. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you for sitting down with me today.

I think we'll get into some personal stuff, some fun stuff, and um yeah, it's it's a it's an honor. We're here at a factory uh doing a rally. It's my first rally, and it's actually my first show on this podcast, so you're going to be my first and last.

That's good. Well, we're gonna have to get good ratings. We got to get some good ratings.

You you were flying in on Air Force One, right? Is it true that you watched the Joshua fight on Air Force One? I watched it.

I watched you and I thought you were very brave. He's a pretty big guy, you know. He's good and he's legit.

Look, he's a legitimate fighter and uh I thought you were great. You did yourself no harm. No, other than your chin, maybe.

Other than the jaw, which is which is healing. How big is the TV on Air Force One? That was It's good.

It's good. The best you can have, I'll tell you. you know, they they view it as cost is no object, right?

But it was it was good. I got to see that. I really watched it.

We had a whole plane full of people watching you and uh you know, if size mattered. Yeah. Then I said he's going to be in trouble and they say it matters.

I got into the ring with him and um I realized he was much bigger than I than I thought. You didn't see that like at the weigh in or anything? No, not at the weighin, not out at the press confer.

And then I got into the ring, I just saw his size and I was just like, "Okay, this is going to be a tough night. " So, who do you fight next? It's a good question.

I think Franc Would you ever fight him again? No. No, I don't think so.

I I think I need to go stay at my weight class. I think so. Right.

Um maybe doing some MMA. We're promoting fights now on Netflix. We got Ronda Rousey versus Gina Caranu.

Uh maybe Usyk in MMA. Uh Francisanu, Ryan Garcia, maybe Tommy Fury. There's a lot of Who would you want to see me fight?

Well, I I probably Kabib. How about Kabib? I'm down.

You know, uh I think he's been just great. When they say who was the best of those, I mean, I've had a lot of fights. I've had Mike Tyson in a lot of them.

That was great. Have you ever been in a fight? I heard a rumor about you like helping Kobe one time at a game.

Is that a true story? A long time ago, right? That was Is this a true story?

Well, it wasn't a fight. I was breaking up a fight. Okay.

Okay. which sometimes is more dangerous than being in a fight, right? But now I like Kobe.

Kobe was having a a hard time with somebody and it worked out fine. But but uh yeah, I broke it up. Probably not a smart thing to do.

Historically, it's never good to break up fights. Yeah, I I try to deescalate situations a lot, but you're going to be at UFC 250. I will be.

It's going to be amazing at the White House. And Dana is a great guy. He's a good fan of yours, you know.

Yes. But Dana, Dana is a good guy. The best.

I mean, there's nobody like him. And he had the idea of doing staging it right at the front door of the White House. We'll be right in the front door of the White House.

And uh he's got a tremendous card. I don't even know if it's filled out, but I I just saw it and looks like it's going to be, you know, all top all top guys. They all want to fight at the White House.

So, it's going to be in honor of the 250th year. So, it'll be great. No, I'm excited.

I'm excited to see Shawn Ali. He's the homie. Oh yeah.

Um he's a he's a great great great fighter. And I that's what I wanted to ask. You went from boxing promotion, apprentice, TV shows, and then eventually, you know, obviously real estate and then eventually was like, okay, I'm going to go into politics.

How did that transition happen? Because like I see myself wanting to get more into this world. I believe it's the biggest way to create impact and change.

Ever run for office? I think so. That's that's what I'm asking for some advice like how did you make that transition and was it hard?

Oh yeah, I don't know. I had to do it. You know, it's hard.

A lot of people talk about it. You had to do it. And I had one shot left because you get to a certain age.

You have a few years left. You got about 40 years to make the decision. But I had one shot, you know, the timing was good, but if I waited longer, it wouldn't have been good because of the clock.

You know, the famous clock. Yeah. Father time.

Yeah. And so I had to make a decision. Do I do it?

And I made it. But I've been I was thinking about it for years. I used to talk about it because I was well known.

I was very well known. I was successful, did well, loved real estate. Then we had The Apprentice.

Mark Bernett was great. And we did, you know, I did lots of number one bestsellers. My books were all bestsellers.

And I see we have magazines. I was on this magazine so much. I'm looking at that picture.

What are you doing to me? Show me that picture. This is the coolest uh magazine cover of all time.

Yeah. Well, it's like Did it Was it like hot on your ear? Could you feel the bullet?

You had that throbbing feeling. You knew you knew there was something. It was a bloody mess.

What happens is Well, you know this better than anybody. The ear bleeds more because I said, "Why is there so much blood? " And the ear is a big bleeder having to do with cartilage.

I didn't want to go into it too much, but uh it was bloody as hell. So, when I checked, I I put my hand up. I said, you know, I brought it down and it was loaded up.

So, I said, that's either the biggest mosquito bite in history or I just got shot. And uh it was not a pleasant experience. Yeah.

My like adrenaline was pumping. I'm sure your adrenaline was pumping. Like when my jaw was broken, I just couldn't really feel it.

Oh, so you knew that you had it broke and you No, no. My brother told me he I was talking to him and my teeth were like in the center of my mouth and he was like, "Yo, I think your jaw is broken. " And then I like grabbed it and but when he was hitting you, you didn't feel the It was the last punch.

It was the last punch. Yeah. The very last punch of the fight that did it.

So Oh. That's when I like went to the floor and was like, "Whoa. " Was that hard to recover from?

Yeah. It's still healing. It's still healing.

Yeah. I'm not I'm not able to fight till later this year. Will that heal perfectly though?

Eventually. Hopefully it won't be it won't have lasting impact, right? I hope.

No, I I think it'll be able to grow grow back stronger. Hopefully. So, it's amazing because, you know, I've known a lot about fights.

I had a lot of I've hosted a lot of fights over the years and it was amazing when you started doing this. I said it's not possible for I call it a civilian for a civilian to beat a professional boxer because I've even if they were much older because you know they've been the best fighters and all and I just and at first I said well is this really happening because you know you were beating guys where UFC guys who weren't retired that long. Yeah.

And I just didn't think it was possible and then I realized you know you really are the real deal. The other I mean the one problem is this last guy was so big and talented didn't he win the Olympics too and stuff like that gold medalist you didn't need this no I know people people said I was crazy would you have done it again knowing what how it worked out yeah I don't have any regrets on it and I love a challenge and it it motivated me to get better and the experience of being in the ring with someone that good and someone that big I think moving forward the next people I fight it's going to be like a little bit a lot easier actually Um, so I think it was it was good experience, but I think that's defying the odds, which is like what you've done as well when everyone says you can't do it. What like do you have advice for younger people for going against the tide, going against the wind and just Well, the biggest victories are when you go against the wind.

Yeah. Right. Go against what everyone thinks like can't be done.

Those are the biggest victories. They're usually the most lucrative, too. Even in business, you know, when you when you hit it, it's a bigger hit.

But like I just said, I'm going to do it. I was thinking about it for so long. And sometimes people would say like you're to do it or don't talk about it.

My wife actually said do it or don't talk about it. I'd watch these guys and like at debates. I say I could kill him.

I mean that guy's nothing like you. That guy's nothing. Yeah.

And I said, "I I could there's no way he could beat me in a debate. " And she said, "All right, so do it or don't do it, but don't talk about it. " Yeah.

And I actually said that was I wasn't sure if I like that too much, but she would actually say, "Our first lady is now a movie star. " Okay. So on top of everything else, she's now first lady at a movie star.

Movie is the number one movie. Can you believe it? But she'd say, "Do it or don't do it.

It's okay. " but don't talk about it. And if you do it, you're going to win.

You know that, don't you? I said, "No, if you do it, you're going to win. But do it or don't do it.

It's okay. Either way is okay. " Yeah.

So, you have to get you have to do it. And like you said, you have that little bug. And it is a bug.

You know, being a politician, it is a bug. I think there was nothing like in in history when I won the first time, you know, it was uh that was the most unbelievable thing. And then coming back, some people would say it was bigger than the first time.

I got cheated and the second I did great. It's like somebody cheating in a fight and it's coming out. All that stuff is coming out now.

But in a way it made the second victory bigger, much bigger. It was just, you know, it's a great it's a great feeling. Winning is a good thing.

You know, winning and whether it's in politics, whether it's in fighting, whe there's no feeling like winning. And most people don't think they can win. Most people I I actually think some people don't want to win.

You understand that? Yeah. They want to be victimized and feel bad.

this weird thing going on. I would rather lose. That that was what I was saying with Joshua is I'd rather lose and get embarrassed, but the chance of me winning it could be the greatest upset.

Yeah, but you weren't embarrassed because Yeah. First of all, he was so much bigger. Look, one thing I've seen in fighting, if somebody's like four pounds heavier, it's a different weight class.

Yeah. And it's hard to beat somebody that's even a little bit heavier. And you've with a guy that was like 60 70 pounds heavier, right?

At least. No. Exactly.

So, it's you you did I'm proud of you. Thank you, man. This this is my brand, which is all about winning.

So, it's funny you're saying that. Made in the USA. Um I know you're all about bringing jobs back to America.

I don't know. That's good looking, though. Thank you, man.

W Go by it, Mega. That's good. Yeah, we're in Walmarts and really hitting like the heart of America, but made in the USA.

And I know you want to bring more jobs and I think uh my generation I think is in a weird place with like going to school getting jobs. AI is coming. Give any advice to my generation of people of where to go, where to look, what jobs, manufacturing, how can they get more active and get more opportunities in front of them.

So you know this better than anybody. I because I get this question a lot. What do you do?

Yeah. You always have to find something you love doing. Like I tell people their father wants them to go into business and he hates the business and you know the father's successful.

They're pushing the son. You've got to do something you like or you're just not going to be successful at it if you don't. With that being said, try and like something that's where there's a future.

Like the hot thing right now is AI. Yeah. If you know the AI thing, you're going to get an unbelievable crazy job at ridiculous numbers.

Numbers you never thought of. That could call off. Maybe it's going to cool off, but right now, so if you like computers and all of that, uh, it's not a bad thing.

Go into an indust there are some industries. Retailing is always tough there. There are some industries that are tough.

If you love it, do it. But if you can love something where it where it's got a lot of potential, uh, you're much better off doing that. I have friends that are really smart.

They went into businesses that are very, very tough and they lost. I mean, they just they work. They're smarter than other people I know, but they're in the wrong industry.

Yeah. If they were in the right industry, they'd do much better. So, try picking something that's got potential.

And you have to love what you do. Yeah. That's what I've always told people is like turn your hobby into your job.

I mean, I me and my brother were filming videos uh and look at, you know, where it's gotten to today and just When did you know you were going to be a fighter, though? Wasn't that later? It was later.

I didn't start fighting till I was like 21. Basically, these other YouTube kids started talking smack and sort of like you with the debates, I was like, I can beat this kid up. And so, I just started training overnight to become a a fighter and I fell in love with it and it actually became my top priority.

But did you build up or were you always like a very strong guy? I was a strong guy. I had athletic background, Ohio, division one football, division one wrestling, uh, played sports growing up.

So, I definitely had the athletic prowess. Uh, but at the time, I was like on Disney Channel, so I hadn't been training for a long time. So, it definitely took me a little bit to get back into So, your brother's a great guy, too.

And it's sort of similar. I mean, it's very unusual. And he's a good fighter.

Yeah. Who's a better fighter, you or him? I I am, sir.

I am. Sorry. He knows that, too.

But he's a better He's a better WWE wrestler. But I think that Oh, is that true? He's a better Really?

Yeah. He's a He's incredible at WWE. Wow.

That's great. I He's my favorite. I think they need to make him the champion one day.

That's great. Yeah, but if we fought, I think uh he knows what would happen. I love you, Logan.

But do you ever do you ever fight him? I People want us to. I just don't think we really want to.

But I think it would probably It's hard to smash your brother. Exactly. I just love Typically, it's not It hasn't worked out.

There have been some cases like that. Has it worked out? Yeah.

I think it would be one of the biggest the biggest fights out there. So, what is this show all about? Tell me.

And I'm doing this out of respect for you because I'm the president of the United States and I'm sitting here with Jake and I'm saying, "You think Joe Biden would do this interview? " I don't think so. He wouldn't know where the hell he is.

No, but I'm the president of the And I'm doing this show. Yeah. And I'm only doing it for one reason because I respect you.

It's very interesting. Right. No.

And and I think that's such a big reason why you connected with the youth in the last election was going out there. you know, your team hasn't even told me what to say or any limits talk about anything. And so, see, that's because and that's respect.

That's really I could say they're not doing their job. But I think, you know, that was a massive reason on you you connecting with the with the youth and I think I'm I'm open to talking to anyone, you know, and I don't think the other side is really open to it. I I don't know what the the issue is.

I think my brother tried to interview Camala and you as well and they just I think are scared of actually sitting down and they not me. No, you your brother was great. Yeah, you crushed it.

Joe Rogan was a great interview. He did 300 million people. Yeah.

And then she didn't want to do it, which I guess she should have. I don't know. You know, it's funny.

It was It was I did him and I did some other guys who were really great guys. Baron, my son Baron, I have a very tall son. Yeah.

kid and he's a smart guy and he's a good kid, but he listens to you. First time I ever heard your name was through my son and he knew a lot of the I don't know if you call them podcasters or influencers or whatever you want to call them, but he'd give me some names that were that I never heard of and they were very important to you know because I won with youth. I did great with youth.

Republicans for whatever reason don't do great with youth and I did unbelievably and did unbelievably in Tik Tok and then Baron said Dad you got to do Joe Rogan and we wanted to do it we were talking about it for a long time about not even this about other things not politics even before politics for me but we had a great talk it lasted for three and a half hours and you call that long form right that was and it was like a nice conversation with a great guy. He's like a great guy and she should have done it, I guess, but she didn't do it. And we had a great election.

This was a great election. And the country is doing unbelievably well. This country, I mean, we did this excursion.

We had to do it. Wipe out evil. Sometimes you have evil.

And for 47 years, they've been killing people, you know, in the most violent way. The roadside bombs all over the place. That was 95% of them are are from Iran, Salamani, that was the one.

We took him out. We did a lot of things to beat two bombers. And all of this whole thing that we're doing now is people have waited for 47 years for it to happen.

So, we have to do it right. But our military has been unbelievable. No.

And I commend you for your your bravery. And um I think so many Iranians do as well. And I was a bit shocked too, like everyone else in the world was like, "This is the greatest thing.

" And I I think what you're doing is phenomenal. And I was shocked that so many activists like in America didn't like it. But meanwhile, they're like, "Oh, well, we support women.

We want women to have all these rights. Meanwhile, you're liberating the women of Iran. " And then they have an issue with it.

I I thought that was very confusing. We support gays, but they throw gays off the buildings. Okay, we support this.

I mean, the things they do and they're fighting, but I think I have tremendous support on this. This is something that's been incredible. I have my the best poll numbers I've ever had now.

Yeah. And it's not because of this. I think we've just, you know, the economy is great.

It's an a little bit of a we take a little winding road for a little while, but we have to wipe out the evil. It's an evil curse. They're evil people.

And uh hey, we wiped out their navy. We wiped out their air force. We wiped out everything there is to wipe out.

We wiped out their leadership twice. The second time they were meeting to pick which one of them would be the leader. They got wiped out.

Now they're looking for a third time. I don't know. People say the sun, but nobody knows where the sun is.

Uh the military has been unbelievable. You know, I built the mil. I had a great first term and I built the military.

We had the best economy in history in my first term. We built the military in the first term. I didn't know I'd use it so much, but you look at Venezuela, which has worked out incredibly well.

That was a great military attack. Was it strategic to go after Maduro first and secure the Venezuelan oil and then go after Iran? So, it No, it wasn't.

Time-wise, it wasn't. It was with Iran. We knew we had to do something because they were going to be attacking us.

If we didn't attack Because a nuclear weapon, they have a nuclear weapon, bad things, they would have wiped Israel off the face of the planet. Our timing on that was incredible. If we didn't do the B2 attack, the B2 is the attack of the nuclear.

uh they would have had a nuclear weapon. If they had a nuclear weapon, they would have used it in the Middle East against Israel and other countries. And you saw that recently when they're shooting all these missiles.

We didn't know what was happening because we're saying, "Wait a minute. We're going after them. " And they're shooting Saudi Arabia and they're shooting Qatar and they're shooting UAE and they're shooting all these other countries and nobody knew what was going on.

You saw that. Yeah. They're just wreaking havoc.

No, they made it. Well, they they were trying to frighten them, but they they didn't get frightened. It was the opposite.

They fought back. Yeah. And they were on our side, but our military has done a great job.

Yeah. No, it's it's been incredible to watch. Um I I have another question.

They're wanting us to wrap up here, but I always ask people this question. I think it's super interesting. If you could come back in history and reincarnate and like be able to experience someone else's life, who would you come back in history as?

That's a very interesting question. Maybe Donald Trump right now. I think Donald Trump right now.

My life is very exciting. I have to be honest. I'm thinking about other lives.

I think I think my life is maybe more exciting. I don't know. Look, I've had a great time.

I just, you know, I started off with the phrase, make America great again. Our country was in trouble. We were doing badly.

2015, we had the open border. Nothing like it was under Biden. But it was bad.

A lot of people coming and bad people from jails, from mental institutions, gang members, murderers. We had 11,888 murderers come into our country. Got them out.

We're getting most of them out. We're getting We're trying to get all of them out. They should have never been allowed in.

We had a bad border when I first came in. I I won on the border twice. I won the first time and other things and business and other things, but I won the first time on the border.

Fixed it almost immediately. Built almost a thousand miles of wall. Then the second time I say the border is back.

I'm going to win on the border a second time. But the second time, because we had a great border the first, you know, after I got it going. And then the second time now we had we've had nobody come into our country in the last nine months.

I mean like literally nobody. And that's given out by Democrats. That's not by We had millions of people pour into our you know the story.

And they came in from jails. They get these are the the from all over the all countries all over the world. The Congo.

They came in from all over South America. So, and are you guys targeting the the bad actors specifically? Because I believe there's so many amazing people who have come to the country that are awesome immigrants and it's like, how are you guys, you know, deciphering between we're really looking for the bad ones more than anything else.

We got to get the bad ones out. We have I told you 11,888 murderers came. More than 50% murdered more than one person.

And we have them uh either they're gone, some are so bad, we don't want to bring them back to a country. Yeah. You know, they came in from other countries, rough countries, and we put them in jail because we don't want them to come back.

We don't want them ever back here. They're really dangerous. Washington DC was a very dangerous place.

Now it's the safest city. It's as safe as any city in the country. We took it from two to three murders a week.

Yeah. to no murders a week. You know, we have we did a good job.

Our military did it. We put the military there. They did a great job.

The National Guard. No, done because literally a year and a half ago, we had a country that was laughed at all over the world. You know that they were laughing.

Yeah. We were just not respected. Nobody respected.

No one respected the leadership. We had a country that was laughed at. The king of Saudi Arabia told me, he said, "You know, a year and a half ago, your country was dead, and now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world.

" And we do. And it's guys like you that make it hot. Thank you.

guys like you and it's presidents like me that have interviews with guys like you. But I think you're great and congratulations to your fiance, I think. Right.

Yes, fiance. She's the best. She just won a gold medal, I tell you.

And I watched her win that gold medal and nobody had a chance. They didn't have a chance. That wasn't even fair, right?

No, she's she's a legend. I'm so proud of her. It was the greatest thing I've ever witnessed in person.

Yeah. To be a part of it. She's a great great person.

Beautiful. You're not allowed to say beautiful. It's the end of your political career, but you know what?

She's beautiful. Is beautiful as well. Yes, she is.

She's doing great. She's doing a good job. Look at us complimenting.

Yeah. It's nice. It's nice.

Nice when you can do that, right? Exactly. Exactly.

I just want to congratulate you. Great job. Thank you, man.

You're a young guy, but you have done some incredible job. Thank you. And so different.

Yeah, man. I feel like I'm just hitting stride. I'm 29 and I look up to you and your American, you know, story, the American dream.

And that's what I want to do is inspire other kids, kids who are watching this right now to chase their American dream because it's possible. I'm, you know, from a couple hours away from here, you know, coming back to Ohio to do this interview is just a dream come true. Well, I love Ohio.

It's been good to me. We won in a landslide. Yeah, we won everything practically in a landslide.

Florida crushed it. It's good. Texas, all of them.

It's been it's been a great time. I've had a great time. And it's been a real experience, but much more important is to just take this country and bring it back.

And it's really back. It's really back. Yeah, I feel it.

No. And I think everyone else feels it as well. And I think the momentum's growing.

And we really appreciate you. They have to respect our country, right? And to do that, they have to respect your leader.

Yep. So, I appreciate it. You just take care.

Say hello to your brother. Okay, I will. Thank you, man.

Thank you, man. Thank you for sitting down. Great honor.

Thank you, man. Want to just do a pick and then Cool. That was a very good interview.

Oh, yeah. The Thank you, man. You know, for a guy.

See, I I only had a day and a half to prepare, so that's great.