Trump, 'kooky' Tucker Carlson and why friend breakups are so messy
How did we get here? Well, to paraphrase an expert on breakups named Taylor Swift, we have "seen this film before."
Friendship experts previously told USA TODAY that public fallouts like these are important to pay attention to, as they shed light on messy aspects of friendship breakups that play out in all our lives. Shasta Nelson, a social relationships expert and the author of "The Business of Friendship: Making the Most of Our Relationships Where We Spend Most of Our Time," previously told USA TODAY that, when friends fall out in an unhealthy manner, it's especially easy for what could have been a peaceful split to spiral into a toxic feud.
What health & wellness means for you: Sign up for USA TODAY's Keeping It Together newsletter
"These public relationships are a mirror to what happens so often," Nelson said, adding that when two former friends get into an online feud, it's usually because they're "trying to get from the public what they ultimately need from each other, which is feeling seen in safe and satisfying ways."
How friendship breakups impact our mental health
Up until recently, Carlson seemed to be one of Trump's biggest fans, endorsing him in the 2024 election and giving a headline-making speech at his Madison Square Garden rally in New York in the leadup to November.
That's partly why his recent attacks on Trump have sparked such conversation online. And it's not just Trump whom Carlson has fought with online recently either. An interview he did with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz recently went viral on X, in which the two clashed over U.S. involvement in the Middle East.
What shouldn't be underestimated about a friendship breakup? The mental health toll. That's because, as Nelson previously told USA TODAY, our society doesn't have proper etiquette when it comes to friends parting ways. Without a clear roadmap, friendship breakups often feel ambiguous or sometimes lead to unnecessary hurt.
More: Elon Musk says Trump 'would have lost the election': When friendships implode
When that hurt gets magnified online, it tends to rise to the level of a feud.
"I can easily say that friendship breakups can sometimes be more complicated than romantic relationships, because, with romantic relationships, we have a lot more ritual around it, and we usually have more conversation," Nelson said. "In our friendships and our platonic relationships, it can be so complicated. We expect it to go easy. Our expectations are different, and then the grief can be a lot more, and the anger can be a lot more."
How to cope with a hostile friendship breakup
Still, if a friendship breakup does take a hostile turn - and then that hostility gets taken online - there are ways to deescalate the situation and reconcile.
Nelson recommends both friends laying down their swords and starting a respectful, ideally private, dialogue.
"The best approach is always to sit down and practice vulnerability with each other and practice taking responsibility for our own things," she previously told USA TODAY. "It's finding the place where we can apologize. It's finding a way to try to understand the other person. It's trying to use language where we say, 'Help me understand this.' "
In case you missed: Tucker Carlson is back in the spotlight, again. What message does that send?
If you find the other person is not amenable to that approach, psychotherapist Stephanie Sarkis advises ignoring the online slings and arrows. Responding tends to only add fuel to the fire.
"When people use social media to attack one another, it generally never goes well," she previously told USA TODAY. "No one ever said, 'Well, I'm really glad that I resolved that issue that way.'"
Could Trump and Carlson take this route? It's possible. According to a transcript provided to USA TODAY by a White House representative, the president hinted that he and Carlson may be ready to make up, while speaking to reporters at an afternoon press briefing on June 18.
"Tucker is a nice guy," the president said. "He called and apologized the other day because he thought he said things that were a little bit too strong, and I appreciated that."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
32 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump planning UFC fight at White House for US 250th anniversary
DES MOINES, July 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he is planning to bring an Ultimate Fighting Championship event to the White House next year to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country's declaration of independence. Known in the mixed martial arts world as the "Combatant in Chief," Trump counts UFC President Dana White as a close friend and considers fans of the sport part of his political base. Trump made the announcement during a winding speech that ricocheted from topic to topic at the Iowa state fairgrounds. The fairgrounds event served as a prelude to July 4 Independence Day celebrations on Friday. "We're going to have a UFC fight, think of this, on the grounds of the White House," Trump said. "We have a lot of land there. We are going to build a little - we are not, Dana (White) is going to do it ... we are going to have a UFC fight, championship fight, full fight, like 20-25,000 people, and we are going to do that as part of 250 also," he said, referring to the country's anniversary of independence. Trump has been a regular attendee at UFC fights, most recently attending one in New Jersey in June. UFC and its parent company TKO Group Holdings (TKO.N), opens new tab did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NBC News
2 hours ago
- NBC News
'I hate them': Trump criticizes Democrats in Iowa remarks
President Trump criticized Democrats for not voting for the "Big, Beautiful Bill" during remarks in Des Moines, Iowa, saying he "cannot stand them" and he believes they "hate our country."
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Trump says he ‘didn't make any progress' with Putin after call
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a phone call earlier in the day with Vladimir Putin resulted in no progress at all on efforts to end the war in Ukraine, while a Kremlin aide said the Russian president reiterated that Moscow would keep pushing to solve the conflict's 'root causes.' The two leaders did not discuss a recent pause in some US weapons shipments to Kyiv during the nearly hour-long conversation, according to a readout provided by Putin aide Yuri Ushakov. US attempts to end Russia's war in Ukraine through diplomacy have largely stalled, and Trump has come under increased pressure – including from some Republicans – to increase pressure on Putin to negotiate in earnest. 'I didn't make any progress with him at all,' Trump told reporters in brief comments at an airbase outside Washington, before departing for a campaign-style event in Iowa. Putin, for his part, has continued to assert he will stop his invasion only if the conflict's 'root causes' have been addressed – Russian shorthand for the issue of Nato enlargement and western support for Ukraine. Within hours of the call's conclusion, an apparent Russian drone attack sparked a fire in an apartment building in a northern suburb of Kyiv. In Kyiv itself, witnesses reported explosions and sustained heavy fire overnight as air defence units battled drones over the capital, while Russian shelling killed five in the eastern part of the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in Denmark earlier in the day that he hopes to speak to Trump as soon as Friday about the ongoing pause in some weapons shipments, which was first disclosed earlier this week. The diplomatic back-and-forth comes as the US has paused shipments of certain critical weapons to Ukraine due to low stockpiles, just as Ukraine faces a Russian summer offensive and increasingly frequent attacks on civilian targets. A senior commander meanwhile warned that the death of an experienced Ukrainian F-16 fighter pilot in battle against Russian drones showed the high-risk tactics Kyiv will increasingly adopt if it is unable to obtain critical new air defences. Dozens of people have been killed during intensifying Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, a trend officials have said will worsen if Kyiv's allies do not step up supplies of critical munitions. At the funeral for fighter pilot Maksym Ustymenkoin, Oleh Zakharchuk, deputy commander of Ukraine's western air command said: 'Everyone must understand that there is no such thing as enough weapons. If we cannot use the missiles because we do not get them, then it will be very difficult.' Russia killed two people in an airstrike on the central Ukrainian city of Poltava on Thursday and damaged a military draft office there in what Kyiv said was a concerted campaign to disrupt recruitment for its war effort. The strike on Poltava, which also injured 47 people and caused a fire at the city's main draft office, followed a drone attack on Monday near a recruitment centre in Kryvyi Rih. Both cities are regional capitals. 'We understand that their [Russia's] goal is to disrupt the mobilisation process,' Vitaliy Sarantsev, a spokesperson for Ukraine's ground forces, told Ukraine's public broadcaster. The Russian military said Thursday it had captured the village of Milove in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, opening a new front on their shared border. Ukraine did not immediately comment on Russia's claim. Milove lies on a section of the border that Moscow's forces had not penetrated since their offensive began in 2022, and was home to several hundred people before the conflict. The US company Techmet is likely to bid in the first pilot project of the Ukraine-US joint Reconstruction Investment Fund on a lithium mine in the centre of the country, Ukraine's first deputy prime minister said on Thursday. Yulia Svyrydenko, writing on Facebook, reported on a meeting between Zelenskyy and US businesses, with much of the focus on the fund, meant to exploit Ukrainian minerals and rare earths. Svyrydenko said Ukraine hoped to have three pilot projects up and running in the first 18 months of operation, including the lithium mine in Kirovohrad region. A deputy commander of the Russian navy who had previously led one of the military's most notorious brigades was killed near the frontline with Ukraine, Moscow confirmed. Maj Gen Mikhail Gudkov, who was responsible for Russia's marine units, was killed on Wednesday in a Ukrainian missile attack on a field headquarters in the Kursk region, amid reports the position had been revealed by poor security. An explosion Thursday killed a former official in the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, local Moscow-installed authorities said. There have been a series of assassinations in occupied Ukraine and inside Russia during Moscow's full-scale offensive that have been linked to – or claimed by – Kyiv's security services. 'Today, as a result of a vile attack in the centre of Luhansk, the former head of the administration of our regional capital, Manolis Pilavov, was killed,' the Russian-backed head of the region, Leonid Pasechnik, said on Telegram.
