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- Tucker Carlson called Donald Trump the "most repulsive person on the planet" in 1999.
- Carlson acknowledged that Trump was more "interesting" than many others in politics.
- "Horrible as he is (or perhaps because he is so horrible), Trump is interesting," he wrote.
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Fox News host Tucker Carlson called former President Donald Trump, then a real-estate mogul toying with a presidential bid, the "most repulsive person on the planet" and "so horrible" in a 1999 post on the website Slate.
Carlson, then an early-career conservative writer and commentator, made the judgment in an exchange with fellow Slate blogger, Evan Smith, who first labelled Trump a "repulsive" character.
"I'd love to add something even meaner to your description of Donald Trump – he's the sort of person I want to keep kicking once he's down-but I don't think I can," Carlson wrote in his exchange with Smith. "You've said it all: He is the single most repulsive person on the planet."
But Carlson acknowledged that Trump, who was considering a 2000 run as a Reform Party candidate, was more "interesting" than many others in politics.
"That said, I still plan to write about him some time. I don't think I'll be able to help it. Horrible as he is (or perhaps because he is so horrible), Trump is interesting, or at least more so than most candidates," he wrote, adding that the Trump and the Reform Party lacked any political "ideology" and were "just a bunch of wackos with a Web site and federal matching funds."
The Washington Post resurfaced Carlson's comments in an investigative piece published Wednesday exploring his history of pushing white grievance politics and opposing efforts to promote diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism.
Carlson, who later became a key Trump ally, couldn't have predicted in the 90s that his career as a right-wing TV personality would thrive under a Trump presidency. His Fox News primetime show, "Tucker Carlson Tonight," debuted shortly after Trump's election in 2016 and has become the most-watched cable news show in the country.
Fox News spokespeople didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.