Tucker Carlson burst through the doors of Charlie Palmer Steak, enfolded in an entourage of producers and assistants, cellphone pressed to his ear

Tucker Carlson burst through the doors of Charlie Palmer Steak, enfolded in an

entourage of producers and assistants, cellphone pressed to his ear. On the other end

was Lachlan Murdoch, chairman of the Fox empire and his de facto boss.

Most of Fox’s Washington bureau, along with the cable network’s top executives, had

gathered at the power-class steakhouse, a few blocks from the office, for their annual

holiday party. Days earlier, Mr. Carlson had set off an uproar, claiming on air that mass

immigration made America “poor and dirtier.” Blue-chip advertisers were fleeing.

Within Fox, Mr. Carlson was widely viewed to have finally crossed some kind of line.

Many wondered what price he might pay.

The answer became clear that night in December 2018: absolutely none.

When “Tucker Carlson Tonight” aired, Mr. Carlson doubled down, playing video of his

earlier comments and citing a report from an Arizona government agency that said each

illegal border crossing left up to eight pounds of litter in the desert. Afterward, on the

way to the Christmas party, Mr. Carlson spoke directly with Mr. Murdoch, who praised

his counterattack, according to a former Fox employee told of the exchange.

“We’re good,” Mr. Carlson said, grinning triumphantly, as he walked into the restaurant.

In the years since, Mr. Carlson has constructed what may be the most racist show in the history

of cable news — and also, by some measures, the most successful. Though he frequently declares

himself an enemy of prejudice — “We don’t judge them by group, and we don’t judge them on

their race,” Mr. Carlson explained to an interviewer a few weeks before accusing impoverished

immigrants of making America dirty — his show teaches loathing and fear. Night after night,

hour by hour, Mr. Carlson warns his viewers that they inhabit a civilization under siege — by

violent Black Lives Matter protesters in American cities, by diseased migrants from south of the

border, by refugees importing alien cultures, and by tech companies and cultural elites who will

silence them, or label them racist, if they complain. When refugees from Africa, numbering in

the hundreds, began crossing into Texas from Mexico during the Trump administration, he

warned that the continent’s high birthrates meant the new arrivals might soon “overwhelm our

country and change it completely and forever.” Amid nationwide outrage over George Floyd’s

murder by a Minneapolis police officer, Mr. Carlson dismissed those protesting the killing as

“criminal mobs.” Companies like Angie’s List and Papa John’s dropped their ads. The following

month, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” became the highest-rated cable news show in history.

His encyclopedia of provocations has only expanded. Since the 2020 presidential election, Mr.

Carlson has become the most visible and voluble defender of those who violently stormed the

U.S. Capitol to keep Donald J. Trump in office, playing down the presence of white nationalists

in the crowd and claiming the attack “barely rates as a footnote.” In February, as Western

pundits and politicians lined up to condemn the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, for his

impending invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Carlson invited his viewers to shift focus back to the true

enemy at home. “Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist?” Mr. Carlson