Rod Dreher claims JD Vance, Tucker Carlson cut him off over Nick Fuentes
Eastern Orthodox author and commentator Rod Dreher criticized Vice President JD Vance and Tucker Carlson in a recent interview, claiming they cut off their friendships with him after he complained to them about the influence of far-right Gen Z podcaster Nick Fuentes.
During a nearly two-hour conversation on "The Jeremy Boreing Show" that aired Monday and focused on his forthcoming book Weimar America, Dreher also claimed Carlson rebuffed his attempts to secure the aid of exorcists after Carlson's alleged demonic attack in 2023, which he suggested could have been influenced by dark forces in the woods around Carlson's home.
Reiterating claims he wrote in Bari Weiss' The Free Press last fall that "30 to 40 percent" of Gen Z congressional and Trump administration staffers are followers of Fuentes, Dreher told Boreing that "every young man I met in their 20s" in Washington, D.C., were sympathetic to the 27-year-old podcaster, who has expressed antipathy toward Israel, questioned the scale of the Holocaust and praised Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
When Carlson offered what critics described as a softball interview of Fuentes on his podcast last fall, it prompted a fissure within the conservative movement, including mass resignations from The Heritage Foundation and demands that the think tank where Carlson started his career denounce him.
Dreher, who claimed he launched Vance's political career with a 2016 article in The American Conservative, said the vice president "cut me off after I went to visit late last fall to talk to him about this very thing."
"I'm not going to disclose our conversation, but I will just say that I pointed out to him these people — the Fuentes', the groypers, all of them — are going to destroy conservatism in the Republican Party," said Dreher, who added that he doesn't believe Vance is an antisemite or a racist.
"I don't think we're friends anymore; he cut me off."@roddreher visited his friend JD Vance last fall, warning him to draw a red line against groyperism and Jew-hate rising on the right.
— The Jeremy Boreing Show (@JBoreingShow) July 27, 2026
The response left Dreher questioning Vance's ability to lead. pic.twitter.com/BJKQDVpqLG
Dreher also touched on his former relationship with Carlson, who reportedly told him about the physical demonic attack he experienced in 2023 before he went public about it the next year. Carlson confirmed to The Christian Post on Halloween in 2024 that the attack took place on Feb. 20, 2023, two months before Fox News unceremoniously fired him.
"When Tucker came out and told the world that he had been attacked by a demon, people laughed at him. I didn't," said Dreher, prompting Boreing to cut in, "I didn't, either."
"He had told me about it right after it happened, and this was like a year or so before he told the world. He texted me because he knew I was a serious Christian. Being Orthodox, I do have a demonology," Dreher continued.
Dreher claimed he got Carlson in touch with multiple exorcists from various Christian traditions, but that Carlson ultimately decided their efforts reminded him too much of witchcraft and that he was intent on handling the issue through his own study of the Bible.
"I connected him with an exorcist I know, and the exorcist also brought in a second exorcist to work with him. But Tucker decided he didn't want to do that. He said, 'I'm too Protestant for that. This seems like witchcraft to me.' That's his actual word," said Dreher, who implied Carlson platforming Fuentes was a result of his reluctance to undergo the exorcisms he prescribed.
Dreher said after he criticized Carlson for the Fuentes interview, he "texted me ending our friendship; that's that."
Citing the plot of "The Witch," a 2015 horror film about a heretic in Puritan New England who's tormented by evil forces in the forest, Dreher went on to float the theory that the "spooky s—" Carlson has claimed to sense in the woods around his home in rural Maine could be causing him to be demonically influenced.
"I have a theory that something like that might have happened to Tucker. It might be happening to Tucker. I hope I'm wrong about that, but I do believe absolutely in spiritual warfare," he said. "The exorcists I've talked to who know about his case are incredibly worried about him. They say he's in deep, deep danger, and he also has the ear of the vice president of the United States."
"You need to talk to an exorcist." @roddreher tells the shocking story of getting two exorcists to work with Tucker after he learned of his demonic encounter—and why Tucker refused their help. pic.twitter.com/tLGbflOGY6
— The Jeremy Boreing Show (@JBoreingShow) July 27, 2026
Some on social media took issue with Dreher's assertions and his willingness to publicly criticize those whom he described as his former friends.
"Obvious bearing false witness by [Dreher] as JD [Vance] has spoken up on these things over and over in unequivocal terms, especially when it comes to his family," said conservative influencer Jack Posobiec.
"This is so distasteful on Dreher’s part. I can see why Vance cut him off," said Crisis Magazine editor-in-chief Eric Sammons.
"This whole interview is Rod gatekeeping. JD Vance is not fit to lead because he's further Right than Rod. Tucker Carlson is demonically possessed because he's further Right than Rod. Typical neocon/lib mentality. Left behind, cannot comprehend how/why and so they attack Right," said Calvin Robinson, a British-born Catholic cleric.
"Unclear why anyone pays any attention to this perpetually vacillating, self-absorbed, emotionally incontinent manbaby. Nice of him to take a break from his Hungarian sabbatical to opine on America," said Federalist CEO Sean Davis.
Jordan Daniel "J.D." Hall, an author and former pastor whose appearance on Carlson's podcast last month prompted widespread backlash and an attack from Dreher, suggested during a lengthy article on his Substack that some Christian figures are maligning Carlson as demon-possessed and feigning concern for his spiritual welfare in an attempt to dismiss his criticism of Israel.
Claiming Boreing is part of the "Israel Lobby" and that Dreher "was the pet OrthoBro of BigEva whose pony had one trick — convincing American evangelicals to have less to do with the culture wars," Hall expressed some skepticism regarding Dreher's account of Carlson and the exorcists.
He noted that "according to Dreher, Tucker turned down the exorcists because he was 'too Protestant for that' and he seemed to allege — in a scumbaggish 'read between the lines' sort of way — that Tucker was in grave spiritual danger."
"I wonder if the Orthodox Church has clergy-penitent confidentiality vows that would prevent them from sharing that with Dreher so that it could be put on blast during Israeli-paid advertising," he continued. "Actually, they do. The Eastern Orthodox Seal of Confession is considered inviolable, which means either Dreher manufactured it, or some black-robed priests need to be defrocked."
