Tucker Carlson speaks during the Politicon conference in Los Angeles, October 21, 2018
Rich Polk | Getty Images
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s new Twitter show has landed one of its first advertisers.
Carlson agreed to a seven-figure advertising deal with Public Square, a shopping app that promotes itself as being the “starting point” for conservatives to battle environmental, social and governance policies, according to people familiar with the matter.
The people declined to be named in order to speak freely about an agreement that has yet to be made public. Representatives for Carlson did not return requests for comment before publication.
The move indicates that Carlson is looking to use his new program to lure conservative-friendly advertisers eager for a bigger platform. The show, which Carlson launched after Fox News parted ways with him in late April, draws millions of views, even though observers say the numbers have dropped since his first episode in June. Carlson’s show on Fox reportedly brought in $77.5 million in advertising revenue just last year.
Carlson’s departure from Fox News came after the network’s parent company settled Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million. The host figured prominently in the public battle over the suit.
Carlson has become even more outspokenly conservative on Twitter than he was on his primetime show on Fox. The show drew criticism recently when Carlson hosted social media personality Andrew Tate, who has been accused by Romanian investigators of committing human trafficking and rape. Tate and his brother have both denied wrongdoing.
Fox News sent a cease-and-desist letter to Carlson as he was ramping up his presence on Twitter after his departure from the company, according to Axios. The outlet reported that Carlson is still under contract with Fox and that the company maintains his contract keeps his content exclusive to the company through Dec. 31, 2024. Carlson’s team responded to the letter in a statement: “Tucker will not be silenced by anyone.”
Carlson’s show appears to match well with the conservative leanings of Public Square.
Michael Seifert, the CEO of Public Square, previously discussed how the company wants to help take on ESG, which has become a target for Republican lawmakers at both the state and federal levels, right-wing officials and media figures.
“So there’s really this cool parallel economy ecosystem that’s been created. And it all starts with consumer spending. We hate ESG, we hate DEI [Diversity Equity and Inclusion], we talk about these policies all the time in the news,” he said in an interview with Breitbart News. “But the only way that we are going to topple those corrupt philosophies that are destroying our economy is by shifting consumer spending. And so we’re offering the easiest directory out there to go and do that as your starting point.”
Seifert declined to comment.
The Public Square ads are expected to start appearing on Carlson’s show in late August. Public Square is set to go public on the New York Stock Exchange in the coming days through a merger with Colombier Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, according to the Daily Mail.
A February press release for the merger said the deal “is expected to provide up to $158.5 million in cash” to Public Square. Colombier Acquisition Corp. is led by Wall Street veteran Omeed Malik.
The release said the company’s expected new board of directors, once it goes public, will include Seifert, Malik; Nick Ayers, who was an aide to then-Vice President Mike Pence; and former Arizona Senate GOP candidate and Peter Thiel ally Blake Masters. Ayers was initially involved with the Thiel-backed “anti-woke” bank GloriFi, but did not have a managerial role, according to The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper reported in November that the startup was shutting down.
Malik’s investment firm, 1789 Capital, is planning to be one of the early investors into Carlson’s new media company, the people said. It will be an eight-figure investment, and it will happen by the end of the summer, these people explained. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Carlson and longtime ally Neil Patel are looking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the company.
Patel did not return a request for comment.
Malik, meanwhile, has started fundraising for two candidates for president: Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr