Buckley Carlson has left his post as Vice President JD Vance’s deputy press secretary, becoming the most tangible casualty yet of the escalating rupture between his father Tucker Carlson and President Donald Trump. He is now launching his own political consulting firm. A Vance aide confirmed to Politico that Buckley “first informed the VP’s office of his intention to depart in December,” but remained on through the transition. The clean, professional framing does little to obscure the turbulence behind it.

Tucker Carlson has spent the past several weeks waging an increasingly vicious public campaign against Trump, centered on the joint US-Israeli military operation against Iran, Operation Epic Fury, that struck and killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in late February. Carlson called the operation “absolutely disgusting and evil” in an interview days after it launched, and has since escalated dramatically, calling Trump a “slave to Israel” on Newsmax and suggesting in a BBC interview that while the president isn’t simply under Netanyahu’s control, “you wouldn’t be totally inaccurate” to say something close to that. The comments are not fringe: Carlson has one of the most-followed conservative media platforms in the country, and his attacks are being broadcast to an audience of millions who helped elect Trump in 2024.

Trump has hit back hard. He called Carlson “low IQ,” lumped him with Megyn Kelly and others as “NUT JOBS,” and branded him a “LOSER” on Truth Social. The brawl has roots in a deeper ideological split. Carlson lobbied against the Iran campaign directly, meeting with Trump multiple times ahead of the strikes, outlining what he called the risks to US personnel, energy markets, and Arab allies, but was ultimately ignored. His resentment has since spilled out in ways that are now impossible to contain. In his newsletter, Carlson accused the White House of scripting Trump’s remarks to echo “Israeli talking points,” and described daily presidential briefings with Netanyahu as an employee reporting to a manager. It is antisemitic framing dressed as geopolitical critique, and the administration has made clear it views it that way.

Carlson was instrumental in getting Vance onto the ticket in 2024. He commands an audience that overlaps significantly with the MAGA coalition, and the Iran war has created genuine fractures within that coalition. A CNN poll showed 28 percent of Trump’s own 2024 voters disapprove of how he handled Iran, with nearly half expressing frustration over rising gas prices tied to the conflict. Ben Shapiro, who has his own long-running conflict with Carlson, publicly warned that Vance must stop “honoring garbage” from Carlson before it costs Republicans in the 2026 midterms and beyond. Buckley’s quiet departure is, in that context, a signal: the Vance operation cannot afford the association, regardless of when the decision was made.