BS BULLETIN
- Victor Davis Hanson says Tucker Carlson’s emerging third-party movement is “incoherent” because much of its agenda is already being pursued by Trump.
- Hanson warns the movement could become a spoiler against JD Vance or Marco Rubio in 2028.
- Carlson’s growing split with Trump centers heavily on Iran, Israel and foreign intervention.
The MAGA family feud is getting nastier.
Conservative historian Victor Davis Hanson has delivered a blistering assessment of Tucker Carlson’s attempt to build a political movement outside the Republican Party, warning that the project may accomplish little beyond helping Democrats win the White House in 2028.
“I don’t know the purpose of what the Tucker Carlson group is, because historically it would suggest that all they want to do is make sure that Donald Trump’s successor, JD Vance or Marco Rubio, loses the 2028 election,” Hanson said on his Daily Signal podcast.
Carlson’s break with the Republican Party has been brewing for months. In June, he publicly declared himself “out” of the GOP. More recently, Carlson gathered with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Rep. Thomas Massie and former Trump counterterrorism official Joe Kent at his Maine home, where the group discussed building an alternative “America First” movement.
Greene declared afterward that “the movement has begun,” accusing Trump of betraying supporters who believed his promise to avoid foreign wars.
Carlson then released a 10-point manifesto calling for, among other things, an end to American support for what he labels Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza, a more restrained foreign policy and greater accountability for politicians.
Hanson isn’t buying it. “It seems kind of incoherent because its ideology is 80-85% identical to the Trump Administration,” he said.
That’s Hanson’s central argument: Trump is already delivering many of the things Carlson’s movement claims to want — particularly tougher immigration enforcement, dismantling DEI programs and challenging the permanent Washington establishment.
So why blow up the coalition?
Hanson believes some of the answer is personal.
“Most of the people who are guiding this movement owe allegiance to Donald Trump, who has helped them in the past,” Hanson said. “They turned on [him], they had fights, so much of their zeal is personal angst.”
Then Hanson went directly at the most explosive fault line in today’s conservative movement: Israel. “There is an element of anti-Israelism and anti-Semitic anger that also fuels it,” Hanson argued.
Hanson has been raising alarms about antisemitism and extreme anti-Israel rhetoric on parts of the Right for months, particularly after Carlson’s controversial interview with Nick Fuentes.
Carlson, meanwhile, has increasingly portrayed Trump’s foreign policy as a betrayal of America First, particularly over Iran. Reporting last week indicated that Carlson’s allies continue to deny he currently plans to run for president, even as speculation grows that he could become a disruptive force in 2028.
Hanson’s prediction? “It’s not going to go anywhere,” he said, but warned that it could still function as a spoiler against “the Trump-MAGA agenda.”
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- Mediaite — Victor Davis Hanson slams Tucker Carlson’s ‘incoherent’ third party plan
- Axios — Tucker Carlson unveils 10-point manifesto amid third-party speculation
- New York Post — Tucker Carlson ‘on the war path’ with Trump as insiders address 2028 buzz
- Axios — ‘I’m out’: Tucker Carlson says he’s done with the GOP
- USA Today — MAGA Trump critics Greene, Massie and Carlson meet and tout new ‘movement’
