Political commentators Tucker Carlson and Stephen K. Bannon recently discussed their mutual discernment that the United States is engulfed in a spiritual war, and that palpable forces of evil are concentrated in Washington, D.C.
During a Monday interview on Carlson’s platform that focused primarily on the war between Israel and Iran, he and Bannon ended up discussing their sense that an oppressive spiritual force is active in the nation’s capital, especially since the political upheaval in 2021.
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— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 16, 2025
“When you come to Washington, you can really feel it’s a spiritual war because of the dark specter that hangs over this town,” said Bannon, who lives there and served as an advisor to President Donald Trump during his first term. “That spiritual war manifests itself in money and power.” He added that he personally knows people who have been corrupted by both.
Carlson said he has grown to find Washington, D.C., a city he resided in for several years before moving away five years ago, spiritually disturbing and generally plans to avoid it in the future.
He said he had breakfast alone on Monday at The Metropolitan Club, an exclusive club downtown that he frequented when he lived in the district, which was his home for over 30 years.
Carlson claimed the spiritual darkness of the city was oppressive enough that he could sense it during his recent visit.
“The second I walk outside [The Metropolitan Club], I’m like, ‘Whoa, the vibe in this city is … ’”
“ … bad,” Bannon cut in, to which Carlson replied, “Can you feel that?”
Bannon, whose “War Room” studio is in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, pinpointed early 2021 as a pivot point in the city, when the National Guard rumbled in and barbed wire went up in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“Ever since that time — and I hate to say, with all the positive energy President Trump has brought — it’s still a dark specter,” said Bannon, who added that the tension is a manifestation of an invisible war.
“They understand there’s an internal civil war here: that one side’s going to win and one side is going to lose,” he said, presumably speaking of the Left. “Their belief is they’re going to wait us out.”
“They have no intention of turning over control and power of the most powerful empire in man’s history; it has to be taken from them,” he said. “And I tell people, ‘We either do it now — if we don’t do it now, this wave of … people that have come together, we’re not going to be able to do it.’”
Carlson commended Bannon for recognizing that the political battles in Washington are “a spiritual thing.”
“I texted my wife this morning [that] the second this administration is gone, I’m never coming back here,” he said. “It’s just dark, it’s super dark.”
Carlson went on to say his new community is replete with poverty and drug addiction, but that he finds the District of Columbia much darker. He noted the irony that his former home there was sold to a CIA officer who hoisted a Ukrainian flag on the property after he moved out.
Carlson’s rhetoric has become increasingly spiritual in recent years.
Last fall, Carlson confirmed to CP that he believes he was “physically mauled” by a demonic entity in his bed at night on Feb. 20, 2023, which was two months before his last show on Fox News. His firing, which he has claimed was not explained to him, came days after he delivered a speech at The Heritage Foundation in Washington that framed the country’s political battles in spiritual terms of good versus evil.
“Ephesians 6 is real,” Carlson told CP at the time.
Carlson, who is now 56, has admitted he is “ashamed” to have promoted the regime change war in Iraq when he was in his 30s and has been outspokenly adamant in recent weeks that the U.S. should avoid getting entangled in a similar conflict against Iran.
In an interview with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, released Wednesday, he appeared to question Cruz’s interpretation that God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 applies to the modern nation of Israel or that it necessitates Christian support for the Israeli government’s actions.
Carlson’s views on the issue have prompted pushback from other conservatives, including Trump, who called him “kooky” in a Truth Social post on Monday.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
