Opinion | Tucker Carlson’s Big Bet

It seemed to be very different politics among young Republicans than among old Republicans right now. What I would think of as the Fox News Republicans and the YouTube Republicans. But those feel to me like they’re splitting apart. I mean, you could call it the Tucker Carlson-Ben Shapiro split. I don’t think Tucker Carlson wants to be involved in any party right now. I mean, he endorses Republicans. He spoke at the R.N.C. in 2024. Unless and until Tucker Carlson runs in 2028, like, he has deliberately marginalized himself in a way that has, I think, been very successful in getting a grip around a certain audience. Let me push you on this, because I’m really curious to hear you say this, because what it looks to me like is happening is that Carlson is making a bet that the Republican Party is moving. What Carlson sees and is maybe also helping to shape is that young Republicans have very, very different views on a bunch of these issues. We live in a very, very intentionally thick society now. And yes, him, Candace Owens, I’m not saying that they are donating to the Republican Senate campaign committee, but they are on the right. They are endorsing candidates in Republican primaries. They both endorsed Massie, for instance. Yeah, maybe they’re losing some of the fights now. But I think their view is that the only thing holding this together is Donald Trump himself, and that JD Vance can’t hold it together. Marco Rubio can’t hold it together. And so they’re betting that after Donald Trump doesn’t have an iron grip around the Republican Party, that what’s going to be growing is their side of it. And in fact, picking some of these losing battles is good for them right now. What was good for Tucker is getting attention however he can, including right now picking fights with Donald Trump, because there is an appetite for that in a way that there wasn’t a couple years ago. But I don’t know that that’s his project. I don’t know that his is an electoral proposition. I think he’s trying to build his own platform. He’s trying to build his own audience. And I think he genuinely has a lot of these positions that he’s sorting out in real time. I’m sure Tucker has lots of interesting ambitions and wants to have max optionality, but I don’t know that this is about a broader —— Do you think he’ll run for president? I don’t expect him to. And I don’t know what would — like, that would be chaos. I don’t know. The train wreck would be interesting. I don’t get the sense that that’s what he’s doing. I think he’s playing with a lot of things that could build that speculation, and I think that benefits him and it benefits his enterprise right now. I genuinely think he is, in real time, toying with all kinds of things that have been floating around in his head for a long time.