Right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson said he plans to build a new party after leaving the Republican Party last month.
“I’m going to help build a third party,” Carlson told the Columbia Journalism Review in an interview published Wednesday. “There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country.”
Much of his frustration with President Donald Trump and the GOP establishment stems from his opposition to the U.S. war with Iran, for which he has blamed Israel.
The conservative podcaster previously announced his departure from the Republican Party was due to continued U.S. support for Israel amid recent conflicts in the Middle East, including the Israeli military’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
“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. No one seems to care. It’s not even a factor. ‘What about Hamas?’ I officially don’t care about Hamas. The U.S. government should have, as its first priority, the welfare of its own people.”
While he once voted for Republicans, Carlson now finds himself politically homeless. He doesn’t find the Democratic Party attractive, either. In fact, he considers Republicans and Democrats part of a “one-party state” due to their involvement in foreign affairs.
“I do know what really matters is war and finance. Where does the money come from? Where does it go? And who gets killed?” he asked. “And 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.
“And that’s the lesson of the last two and a half months, to me,” he said. “If you vote for Trump and you still wind up in a regime-change war — if Chuck Schumer is strongly behind Trump’s foreign policy, which he is — then we need options, or else let’s just give up and be ruled by the most unscrupulous people. And I’m just too young to accept that. We need a third party.”
Months after resigning from Congress earlier this year, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene no longer considers herself a Republican. Similar to Carlson, Greene indicated she is “in talks” to help form a “true America-focused party” that could take on Republicans and Democrats.
Speaking with British talk show host Piers Morgan on Tuesday, the former congresswoman said she has not spoken to Carlson about creating a new party but noted that he could be a “great threat” if he decided to run for office in the future.
Carlson, however, has no desire to run for president as a possible third-party candidate.
“I don’t want to be a candidate,” he said before making a joke. “Before I did the [New York Times] interview, someone said to me, ‘They’re going to ask you if you’re running for president.’ I was very tempted to say ‘I am running — on the pro-patriarchy ticket.’ Just to make sure I gain no new fans.”
The former Fox News host made a similar statement in a recent interview with fellow podcaster Alex Jones, saying “of course” he doesn’t want to run for office.
“I never have an interest in political office ever,” Carlson said. “It’s just not kind of what I do for a living. It’s not what I’m interested in. I really don’t like politicians.”
TUCKER CARLSON SAYS ‘OF COURSE’ HE’S NOT PLANNING TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT
Carlson then praised a possible White House bid with Vice President JD Vance at the top of the ticket, saying “he’s great compared” to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In the meantime, it remains to be seen whether a new party comes to fruition. Elon Musk vowed to form the “America Party” after he broke with Trump last year, but he later mended his relationship with the president and backed away from his plan to create a third party.