Tucker Carlson Leads MAGA Breakaway Faction, Eyes Third-Party Run in 2028

A new coalition of high-profile conservatives has formally broken with President Trump, rallying around former Fox News host Tucker Carlson as the intellectual figurehead of what its members are calling a true “America First” movement — one they say Trump has abandoned.The group, which includes former Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Congressman Thomas Massie, and former National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent, convened at Mr. Carlson’s compound in Maine on August 1, with the meeting documented in a photo Ms. Greene posted to X. “We said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise,” Ms. Greene wrote in the caption. “But he’s betrayed us all. Our commitment is America First for all Americans, right, left, and center. The movement has begun.”The image — which has since been viewed nearly 14 million times and shared over 15,000 times — served as the unofficial launch of a potential third-party presidential campaign targeting 2028.Mr. Kent has been the group’s most candid voice on the question of 2028 leadership. Every attendee at the Maine meeting, he said, urged Ms. Carlson to enter the race.“I’d say all of us at one point in time told Tucker he needs to run,” Mr. Kent said on “The Young Turks” podcast. “Tucker’s been pretty public that he’s not going to run. So, we all made our pitch to Tucker as to why he should run, and hopefully he wakes up one day and Tucker says he’s going to run.” Mr. Carlson, for his part, has repeatedly ruled it out — most recently reiterating on his Wednesday livestream of his podcast that he has no intention of seeking office. But, of course, that’s what they always say two years out from a presidential election.The former Fox pundit may seem an odd choice to follow the MAGA president. Once a staunch supporter, he has since broken (several times) from the president, citing a series of grievances that have accumulated over the course of Mr. Trump’s second term. Speaking on Stephen A. Smith’s “Straight Shooter” podcast this week, Mr. Carlson acknowledged his history of flip-flops on Mr. Trump, including a private text in 2021 — when he was publicly supporting Mr. Trump — in which he said he “passionately” hated the president.“I’ve had many, many pivots,” Mr. Carlson told the ESPN sportscaster. “I was wrong because I’m wrong a lot. I was wrong on Trump and I was wrong on the Iraq war.” He insists now his current position is driven by principle, not politics. This time, Mr. Carlson says, the breaking point is clear: Mr. Trump’s decision to join Israel in launching a regime-change war on Iran in February, which Mr. Carlson has called “the most disastrous decision any American president has made in my lifetime.” Beyond the Iran war, Mr. Carlson and his allies have cited Mr. Trump’s failure to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, the influence of foreign lobbying and donors over U.S. foreign policy, and what they describe as a wholesale betrayal of the “America First” agenda that brought Mr. Trump to power.“It doesn’t make me the person who breached the contract,” Mr. Carlson told the New York Times earlier this year in an 18,000-word interview. “He’s the one who breached the contract.” In the piece, Mr. Carlson described Mr. Trump as appearing “uniquely weak” and functioning “more like a hostage to foreign interests.”Not everyone within MAGA has welcomed the new movement. Laura Loomer, a staunch Trump loyalist, was blunt in her dismissal. “He’s a lunatic! Tucker wants to hijack the GOP in 2026 and 2028,” Ms. Loomer wrote on X, citing Mr. Kent’s interview on “The Young Turks.”Prominent MAGA influencer Phillip Buchanan, known online as Catturd, was even more cutting: “All of you combined have zero pull anymore. You can’t even move the needle much less start a movement. Table full of laughingstocks,” he wrote on X.Notably, the Trump White House itself issued a statement calling the group “an embarrassing collection of mostly whiny turncoats who dramatically overestimate their influence and relevance,” while declaring Trump the “unequivocal leader” of the Republican Party, Axios reported.Ms. Greene’s participation in the Maine meeting is itself a significant shift. As recently as June, Ms. Greene was not publicly aligned with Mr. Carlson on the question of a new party — though she did announce she was quitting the GOP. She wrote on X: “There is A LOT of us that are absolutely fed up and will not support a party that betrays its voters and country. That does not mean we are turning into Democrats either. But we are DONE with the America LAST Republican Party.” Her evolution from a one-time staunch Trump supporter to cautious critic to vocal co-organizer of a breakaway party reflects a broader radicalization among Mr. Trump’s former supporters in the months since the Iran war began.Rather than announcing a formal candidacy or party launch, Mr. Carlson used his Wednesday livestream to unveil a 10-point vision for what America “should be,” presenting it as the ideological foundation for “whatever comes next.” The 10 points are: Fair (equal rules for elites and citizens alike), Sovereign (ending foreign lobbying and foreign-led wars), Productive (rebuilding manufacturing and farming), Beautiful (restoring American cities), Healthy (embracing RFK Jr.’s food agenda and opposing pharmaceutical dependency), Honest (punishing officials who lie and opening classified records), Optimistic (encouraging families and children), Wise (teaching practical knowledge over ideological credentials), Decent (paying restitution for noncombatant deaths and ending support for what Carlson calls genocide), and United (halting immigration and making English the sole language of federal documents), according to Axios.The fledgling coalition faces enormous structural obstacles. Getting a third-party candidate on the ballot in all 50 states requires navigating different signature thresholds and legal deadlines in every state — a challenge that effectively ended Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2024 independent bid before Election Day.On the other hand, the field of potential 2028 alternatives to a Carlson-aligned candidate looks thin. Marco Rubio, who ran for president in 2016, failed to capture the party’s imagination then, and little has changed since. Vice President JD Vance, often mentioned as the heir apparent, lacks the raw political charisma that made Mr. Trump a once-in-a-generation political force — a deficit that could prove fatal in a general election environment.Whether Mr. Carlson’s movement grows into a genuine political vehicle or fades under the weight of the challenges remains to be seen. What is clear is that a meaningful fracture has opened on the American right — and for now, Tucker Carlson is at the center of it.

Tucker Carlson Leads MAGA Breakaway Faction, Eyes Third-Party Run in 2028

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