Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,
Popular podcast host Tucker Carlson has long dismissed questions about whether he would ever seek public office. But this week, he hinted at a major political move, though don’t expect to see his name on the ballot.
Speaking with the Columbia Journalism Review in an interview published Wednesday, Carlson said he plans to “help build a third party,” just months after publicly breaking with President Donald Trump over the U.S.’s involvement in the Israel-Iran war.
“I’m going to help build a third party. There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country,” Carlson said.
During the same interview, Carlson insisted that he still has no interest in seeking public office.
“I don’t want to be a candidate,” he said.
“Before I did the Times interview, someone said to me, ‘They’re going to ask you if you’re running for president.’ I was very tempted to say ‘I am running—on the pro-patriarchy ticket.’ Just to make sure I gain no new fans.”
Carlson’s support for a third party stems from what he rebuked as bipartisan support from both Democratic and Republican parties for foreign intervention.
He accused Republicans and Democrats of being “in lockstep solidarity with each other” when it comes to foreign wars.
“That’s not a democracy,” Carlson stated. “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.”
He pointed to Trump’s support for Israel’s military campaign against Iran as a “lesson.”
“If you vote for Trump and you still wind up in a regime-change war,” Carlson added, “if Chuck Schumer is strongly behind Trump’s foreign policy, which he is—then we need options, or else let’s just give up and be ruled by the most unscrupulous people. And I’m just too young to accept that. We need a third party.”
Carlson joins a growing list of political figures and pundits who have publicly argued that the country needs a viable third political party to challenge the two-party system.
Billionaire Elon Musk announced the creation of the America Party after his falling out with Trump over federal spending. While the announcement generated widespread headlines, the party has shown little visible activity since its launch.
Others who have voiced support for a third-party alternative include former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; former Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; and former Democratic presidential contender Andrew Yang.