BS BULLETIN:
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Conservative historian Victor Davis Hanson says JD Vance must publicly break with Tucker Carlson or risk losing the 2028 Republican presidential nomination.
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Hanson believes Carlson is deliberately escalating his attacks on Trump and Israel to force Vance to choose sides.
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Vance has defended his friendship with Carlson while acknowledging serious disagreements, setting up a growing argument within the conservative movement.
Vice President JD Vance may have to choose between his friendship with Tucker Carlson and his presidential ambitions, according to conservative historian Victor Davis Hanson.
And Hanson isn’t suggesting a polite disagreement.
“He has to do it. He won’t be nominated if he doesn’t do it,” Hanson declared during an appearance on The Western Spirit podcast with Ariel Whitman.
The warning comes as Carlson, once one of President Trump’s most prominent supporters, has become an increasingly outspoken critic of the administration’s military campaign against Iran and its relationship with Israel.
Hanson believes Carlson is deliberately intensifying his criticism to force Vance into an uncomfortable public confrontation.
“He’s deliberately amplifying it to force JD” into choosing whether to defend a friend who has attacked the president, Hanson argued.
Carlson has accused Trump of abandoning his promise to avoid new wars. Last month, he went considerably further, calling for Trump’s removal under the 25th Amendment.
His criticism of Israel has also become increasingly confrontational, including comparisons between Israel’s conduct in Gaza and Nazi Germany’s actions during World War II.
Hanson, who has previously appeared frequently with Carlson, has become one of his sharpest conservative critics.
Earlier this week, he blasted Carlson’s questioning of whether Britain benefited from defeating Hitler, calling his historical arguments deeply flawed.
But Vance has resisted demands to disown his longtime friend.”Everybody knows that Tucker Carlson and I are friends,” the vice president said during a September White House briefing.
Vance acknowledged that Carlson had made statements he disagreed with, including remarks about Trump that he considered wrong.
Hanson sees a political trap.
He believes Carlson’s substantial audience makes a public break risky for Vance, because Carlson could retaliate by turning his supporters against the vice president. “JD also knows he has a big audience and if he cuts him off like that, he’s going to go ballistic and turn on him,” Hanson said.
Yet Hanson argues that refusing to confront Carlson creates an even bigger problem for Vance’s future.
The disagreement reflects a widening debate among prominent conservatives over Israel, American military intervention, loyalty to Trump and the direction of the Republican Party after his presidency.
For Vance, the immediate question is whether maintaining a personal friendship should be treated as an endorsement of Carlson’s increasingly controversial political positions.
For Hanson, that distinction is becoming impossible to maintain.
Whether Republican voters agree is another matter.
MY QUICK TAKE
Well, this is one heck of a Republican family feud. Hanson says Vance has to dump Tucker, Tucker has an audience that doesn’t appreciate being dumped, and Vance is stuck in the middle. Here’s the interesting question: Since when did agreeing with somebody on every issue become a requirement for friendship? Or has Tucker crossed a line where friendship itself becomes a political liability? This one could make for a fascinating argument around the conservative dinner table.
