Topline
Conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson launched a precious metals company with a North Dakota-based gold dealer, the latest business venture for the conservative firebrand who has also launched a streaming media company and tobacco pouch brand after leaving his role at Fox News.
Carlson’s Battalion Metals offers precious metals IRAs, as well as gold, silver and platinum products that can be stored in the company’s bunker.
AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
Battalion Metals, which Carlson co-founded with North Dakota bullion dealer Christopher Olson, sells gold, silver and platinum products for home storage or storage within the company’s “Battalion Bunker.”
It also offers a “precious metals IRA” that contain portfolios of “physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium”—investments it advertises as a way to diversify retirement portfolios, hedge against inflation or serve as insurance during periods of “severe economic distress, banking failures, or currency crises.”
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal promoting the new venture on Monday, Carlson echoed these fears—calling the U.S. dollar “doomed” and insisting the country was witnessing “the end of the postwar order.”
Why Did Carlson Get Into The Gold Business?
In a video posted on Battalion Gold’s website, Carlson said the idea to start a gold business came to him shortly after he was fired by Fox News in 2023. The former host said he got “tempting” offers from an unnamed gold company who advertised on the network to pitch its products, offering as much as $20 million per year. Carlson, who said he was already a gold buyer before getting the offer, said he was later informed these companies sell products to unaware “elderly Fox News viewers” with massive markups. A Washington Post report from 2023 examined some of these companies, including those offering precious metals IRAs, and found some sold products with astronomical markups—as high as 92% in one case. Carlson claims Battalion Metals will “not to scam people who want to buy gold.” Carlson did not name any specific gold companies or media personalities as “scams,” but many major precious metals companies have hired conservative news personalities or politicians to serve as spokespeople. For example, Birch Gold Group lists endorsements from the likes of Donald Trump Jr., former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former podcaster and deputy FBI director Dan Bongino and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly.
