Tucker Carlson says he will help build a third party

Carlson says parties in ‘lockstep solidarity’ on war and finance

Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host turned independent podcast host, said in an interview published Wednesday that he plans to help build a new political party in the United States, while making clear he has no interest in running for office.

“I do know what really matters is war and finance,” Carlson said in the interview with the Columbia Journalism Review, suggesting that pro-Israel donors had pressured President Donald Trump into attacking Iran. He argued that the two major parties are aligned on those issues. “On those questions, the parties are in lockstep solidarity with each other. That’s not a democracy. 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.”

“I’m going to help build a third party,” he added. “There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country.”

Carlson did not elaborate on the structure, platform, or timeline for a new party, and it was unclear whether he was describing an active project or a general aspiration. His remarks contradicted an interview he gave the New York Times in May, in which Carlson said: “There should be a party that is speaking for most people. Am I going to build it? Absolutely not.”

In the CJR interview, Carlson aired frustration with the current political system. “I mean, if you make $60,000 a year, you’re degraded,” he said. “Your life expectancy has gone down, and the promise of your children’s lives is likely gone. … I officially don’t care about Hamas. The US government should have, as its first priority, the welfare of its own people.”

Carlson, who has emerged as one of the most prominent voices in the nationalist-isolationist wing of the right, has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s war with Iran. He acknowledged in the interview that he had tried to personally persuade Trump not to launch military intervention. Their relationship has since broken down. “I haven’t spoken to him since the regime-change war began,” Carlson said. “I’m not interested in talking to him.”

Last week, Carlson said there was “no chance” he would support Republican or Democratic candidates in the November midterm elections. He has expressed regret for having supported Trump.

Carlson also used the interview to detail a range of views on immigration and religion. “I’m for less immigration,” he said. “In fact, I’m for ending all immigration today.” He said he did not see how to justify immigration when artificial intelligence is eliminating white-collar jobs.

He told the CJR that his thinking is not calculated. “I’m not strategic in any way,” he said. “I make almost all decisions on the basis of smell and instinct.”