WASHINGTON — Talk that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson could mount a third-party bid for the White House in 2028 is picking up again, but people familiar with the once bow-tied commentator’s thinking say the idea is going nowhere.
“I think journalists are all suffering from traumatic brain injuries as they forget the wave of ‘Tucker 2024’ stories,” said one person close to Carlson. “He wasn’t running then and he’s not running now.”
The latest round of speculation about Carlson, 57, was reported Monday by Politico, following similar discussion in other outlets as the populist podcaster increasingly associates himself with antiwar conservatives disillusioned with the current political order.
Carlson is “interesting and says irreverent things, and some people would like him to run. But he’s never like, ‘I’m running,’” the person close to him said.
The person contrasted Carlson’s posture with President Trump’s early political rise, noting that Trump, once dismissed as an implausible candidate, was openly declaring his ambitions even when many refused to believe him. In Carlson’s case, the source said, observers appear to be doing the reverse: “They’re almost not taking seriously [Carlson’s] denials that he’s not running for president. It’s the opposite.”
Carlson backed Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign, but the relationship fractured this year after the president launched the ongoing war with Iran in late February.
Carlson has described the Iran conflict as a betrayal of Trump’s promise to steer clear of destabilizing wars in the Middle East. He sharpened his criticism Monday during a podcast interview with former first son Hunter Biden, calling the president “flamboyantly corrupt.”
The former cable host said his 2024 support for Trump was driven in large part by the prosecutions Trump faced, especially the case involving alleged mishandling of classified documents. Carlson pointed to the “transparently absurd” 2022 raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound and also disclosed that he had tried unsuccessfully to head off the Iran war.
“To me, what that [Mar-a-Lago raid] said was Trump is actually being persecuted by the Uniparty, therefore he is its sincere opponent,” Carlson said. “My goal, literally from that moment up until February 28, was I don’t want to go with Iran.”
“I overstated my own influence like dramatically in a very embarrassing way, and my own importance,” he added. “I was mad at Trump, but I was also really mad at myself.”
Renewed focus on Carlson’s possible political future followed former Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posting on X a photo with the commentator and other former Trump supporters on Aug. 1.
“We said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise,” Greene captioned the image, also featuring outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Trump’s former counterintelligence chief Joe Kent.
“[Trump] betrayed us all. Our commitment is America First for all Americans, right, left, and center. The movement has begun,” Greene wrote.
But a Republican operative said that movement isn’t likely to feature Carlson charting a path to the White House.
There’s a “99.999% chance that he doesn’t run,” this person said, “but he is on the war path to damage the GOP over Iran and a third party run from him would make it impossible for any Republican to win in 2028.”
“I think he’s like not running because he doesn’t wanna do it,” this operative said.
However, “it’s not impossible.”
“I think it just depends what happens in the administration over the next few years,” he added. “He’d be happy with a kamikaze mission, I think.”
