Conservative journalist Tucker Carlson has unveiled his 10-point vision for a post-Trump MAGA movement, amid growing speculation that he plans to help launch a third party to take on the US Democrat-Republican duopoly.
In a 90-minute livestream on Wednesday, Carlson declared the American political system “totally incapable of responding to reality” and unable to deal with the dual threats of AI and nuclear war – referring to the “merging” of the Ukraine and Iran conflicts into a “world war.”
“It’s worth thinking about what comes next,” Carlson said. “Something will replace this system…and it will probably be a third party or multiple parties.”
Describing the Democratic and Republican platforms as “identical,” Carlson suggested that any third party should embrace the following “ten things that America should be”:
Doesn’t this sound like Trump’s MAGA platform?
There is significant crossover between Carlson’s manifesto and President Donald Trump’s campaign-trail promises. Trump also promised to lead a sovereign and isolationist US that would stay out of foreign conflicts, reindustrialize the country, purge liberal ideology from the education system, beautify public architecture and clean up the country’s major cities, as well as restrict immigration. Trump’s Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has also banned some artificial food ingredients and attempted to clamp down on the overprescription of psychiatric drugs.
That Carlson would support these positions is no surprise. A supporter of Trump since his days as a Fox News host, Carlson campaigned for Trump’s reelection in 2024, describing him as “a wonderful person” and “the leader of this nation” at that year’s Republican National Convention.
However, Carlson’s relationship with Trump soured shortly after Trump took office last year. Carlson repeatedly urged Trump not to go to war with Iran, describing the conflict as “disgusting and evil” and in the interest of nobody but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. To Carlson and a growing number of the president’s former allies, Trump betrayed his promise to put “America first” by surrounding himself with neocons and waging the same regime-change wars he vowed to end.
The weekend before his livestream, Carlson hosted some of the most prominent MAGA defectors at his home in Maine. Among his guests were former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Representative Thomas Massie, and former National Counterterrorism Center chief Joe Kent. All three have publicly condemned the war with Iran, with Greene and Massie also breaking with Trump over what they described as his efforts to conceal documents related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The get-together was interpreted by US media as a first step toward founding a third party to contest the 2028 elections, in which Trump’s successor – likely Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio – will lead the Republican Party. While nobody at the meeting confirmed this, they did drop some strong hints.
“We said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise,” Greene wrote on X. “But he’s betrayed us all. Our commitment is America First for all Americans, right, left, and center. The movement has begun.”
We said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise.But he’s betrayed us all.Our commitment is America First for all Americans, right, left, and center. The movement has begun. pic.twitter.com/mZXadw0kBr
“Running as a third-party candidate is challenging. Not impossible, but it is very challenging,” Kent told the left-wing Young Turks podcast on Tuesday. “But that’s kind of the consensus that we came to, that the current system just simply doesn’t work, and we have to find something new to save our country.”
Carlson has emerged as a figurehead for disaffected Trump voters and has made some allies on the left – bonding with Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur and host Ana Kasparian, as well as journalist Glenn Greenwald and comedian Jimmy Dore, over their shared disdain for Israeli influence on US foreign policy.
Carlson has repeatedly denied any plans to run for office, but he has said that he would back any attempt to create a third party.
“I do know what really matters is war and finance,” he told the Columbia Journalism Review in July. “On those questions, the parties are in lockstep solidarity with each other. That’s not a democracy. That’s a one-party state posing as a democracy, and it needs to be broken, and there’s going to be a third party, and I’m going to do everything I can to bring that about.”
Trump has referred to Carlson as a “fool” and a “troublemaker” over his opposition to the Iran war. The president has also called Greene a “traitor” and Kent “weak.” Responding to Greene’s post on X, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle declared that Trump “remains the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party.”
“Meanwhile, this photo represents an embarrassing collection of mostly whiny turncoats who dramatically overestimate their influence and relevance,” Ingle added.
Recent polling suggests that while more than 60% of Americans feel a third party is needed to break the Republican-Democratic duopoly, only 15% would be “very likely” to vote for such a party. Third-party candidates are more often seen as disruptors, capable of sabotaging mainstream parties but not of winning elections on their own merits. Businessman and Reform Party candidate Ross Perot was accused of drawing votes away from both Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush in 1992; Ralph Nader was accused of denying Al Gore the win in 2000; and the Green Party’s Jill Stein was likewise accused of pulling votes from Hillary Clinton in 2016. Clinton herself remains bitter toward Stein, whom she has labeled a “Russian asset.”
A new party backed by Carlson and Greene could pose a serious threat to the GOP in 2028. The war with Iran is unpopular and has kept fuel prices high. Trump is underwater with voters on economic issues, with 70% of voters disapproving of his handling of inflation and the cost of living, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday.
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