Willie Robertson tells Tucker Carlson he 'stayed out of' 2024 election for fear of 'gumming up' Gospel message
Willie Robertson, star of the hit reality show "Duck Dynasty," reflected on his unlikely rise to fame, his relationship with President-elect Donald Trump and the enduring influence of his Christian faith on his life and career in a wide-ranging interview with Tucker Carlson.
Robertson, who endorsed Trump in 2016, told Carlson he “stayed out of” the 2024 election amid concerns it would distract from the Gospel message in his new book, Gospeler: Turning Darkness into Light One Conversation at a Time. In the book, Robertson encourages people to share their faith with others in transformational, one-on-one conversations.
The 52-year-old told Carlson that he has friends who supported Vice President Kamala Harris in the election, people he largely knows from his many years in reality TV.
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“I've done tons of TV,” he said. “I've got friends all over. We had great debates, but it's the way it should be; we debate, we love each other, we're friends. I can certainly look at Trump and call them, like, ‘That doesn't make sense,’ or ‘That's not how I feel,’ or ‘That's not right, I would say,’ or 'That's ugly,’ or ‘That's unkind,’ or whatever it is."
“This year, I was staying out of it," he said. "I really was, because of the book. When I wrote this book I said, ‘I don't want to get pulled in. I want this message to come out. I want the message of the Gospel, and I don't want it to get gummed up […] because I was involved, I was the first speaker in the 2016 convention.”
Robertson recounted his first meeting with Trump in 2015 during a rally at the Oklahoma State Fair: “I thought, ‘This is cool. We need a business guy, someone outside of politics,’” Robertson said, recalling his initial impression of Trump’s candidacy.
In November, Robertson said he called the race between Trump and Harris “at 8:33 Central time” when he saw North Carolina and Virginia “sitting sober.”
“I had a good sense about it. It just felt like it did in 2016,” he said. “I was just kind of looking at the culture and looking at what people are saying and it’s like, ‘he’s got a lot of people that are,’ you know,’ 'cause it wasn’t as weird as it was before. Now, it’s kind of cool. You weren’t ostracized as much.”
Robertson noted that in 2020, “people did not like” Trump amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but the overall tenor changed significantly in the 2024 election. Reflecting on his prediction for the 2020 election, Robertson said Trump would win reelection “unless something really weird happens,” adding: “I said that like, and they manufacture a virus in China, and then the weird thing happened, and there you go.”
Carlson then asked Robertson if he knew of anyone in Louisiana, Robertson’s home state, who had questions about the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
“We all got questions,” Robertson replied. “But I understand what it is like. I was like, ‘I've listened to people over time. There are tons of people who question that stuff’ […] it seems strange.”
Though interested in politics, Robertson stressed that his mission is to fulfill the Great Commission as described in Matthew 28. The term “gospeler,” Robertson explained, is an old word for laypeople known for spreading the Gospel, a practice he lamented has become rare in modern times.
“I think we get so lethargic, even in churches,” he said. “I take my mission from Matthew 28, which is labeled as the Great Commission. Then Jesus says, ‘Go out, make disciples of all nations, baptize people, teach people.’ Three things, three specific ideas: make disciples, baptize people, teach people. So those are the last things He said before He left, like, 'Make sure you do this.'"
“You just think about what you got to do to accomplish those three things,” he continued. “You probably are going to have to have conversations with people. If you’re going to baptize them, if you’re going to disciple them, if you're gonna teach them, you're going to have to have some sort of conversation […] those three things Jesus said were outward, it's other people, not just you.”
In a previous interview with The Christian Post, Robertson shared how the book’s opening chapter focuses on his father, Phil Robertson, and his transformation from a life of addiction and violence to becoming a devout Christian.
In the late 1960s, Phil abandoned his family, living in the woods to evade arrest after a violent bar fight. His life turned around after a preacher confronted him at a bar in Arkansas — a pivotal moment that planted the seed for his eventual conversion.
“Dad had not become a Christian. He'd already kicked us out, so we knew where it was headed. It was heading towards divorce for sure, split up family. When you take that out of the mix, there would have been no Duck Commander, there would have been no company, there would have been no 'Duck Dynasty.' I don't even know if I would be a believer today,” he told CP at the time.
“Every day of my life, someone has been impacted by what happened 50 years ago,” he continued. “Because of what was able to come out of that, when you start thinking about the television show that reached hundreds of millions of people, still does every day […] all the books, the movies, the podcast, all the things that have pointed people in some way to the Gospel, to the light, I can trace all that back.”
The Robertson family gained fame with the 2012 debut of "Duck Dynasty" on A&E, a reality series chronicling their family business and lifestyle in rural Louisiana. The show, which ended in 2017, became one of the most popular reality programs in history, known for its humor, family values and weekly prayer.
“We made it clear from the start that our faith was non-negotiable,” Robertson told Carlson. “We ended every show with a prayer, and surprisingly, there was no resistance to that.”
While the show’s success brought business growth and widespread recognition, Robertson said it also served as a platform to share the Gospel with a broader audience.
Seven years after the end of "Duck Dynasty," the Robertsons are returning to television with a new series focused on the next generation, Robertson told Tucker: “We’re getting back into production,” he said.
The project will follow the family’s lives as their children and grandchildren take on new roles in the business and beyond.
“We’ve grown a lot since the show ended,” Robertson said. “The family’s larger, and the kids are older. It’s the right time to come back.”
