Tucker Carlson Says He's Helping Form New Political Party After Ditching GOP, Claims Trump Destroyed America
In an interview published Wednesday, former Fox News star and video podcaster Tucker Carlson said he intends to form a third party after his departure from the GOP fold, adding that President Donald Trump had destroyed “himself … the Republican Party and America.”
The interview, with the Columbia Journalism Review, touched on a number of issues, from his anti-war stance on Iran to his support for the Palestinian cause and opposition to the Israeli state to his controversial interview with extremist podcaster Nick Fuentes.
However, the most eyebrow-raising portion of the interview — at least for those attuned to the political world — came at the tail end of the piece, when he was asked if he was “interested in aligning yourself with other anti-war voices.”
“I do know what really matters is war and finance. Where does the money come from? Where does it go? And who gets killed? And on those questions, the parties are in lockstep solidarity with each other,” Carlson said.
“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. 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 … I’m going to help build a third party. There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country.”
And, Carlson said, he’d be a part of building that third party — but not as a candidate.
“I don’t want to be a candidate. Before I did the [New York’] Times interview, someone said to me, ‘They’re going to ask you if you’re running for president,'” Carlson said.
“I was very tempted to say ‘I am running — on the pro-patriarchy ticket.’ Just to make sure I gain no new fans.”
That interview came a month before Carlson announced his official split with the Republican Party, although he had made it clear in that interview he believed that Trump was being manipulated by a foreign power — specifically, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government, along with “his many advocates in the United States.”
“I would not support the Republican Party,” Carlson said in the June interview with another podcast. “There’s no chance I would support the Republican Party.”
“At this point, how could I, or any American voter, support a political party that’s not loyal to the United States?” Carlson added.
That announcement went viral on social media and was welcomed by unlikely sources — including Kamala Harris’ former campaign account, now known as “Headquarters” on social media:
Tucker Carlson: I would not support the Republican party, there’s no chance I would support the Republican party. How could I support a political party that is not loyal to the United States. I voted Republican my entire life, I have been a consistent defender for 35 years of the… pic.twitter.com/dYX0DK9XAx
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) June 22, 2026
As for Trump, a president who he was close to — he reportedly was one of the individuals who heavily influenced Trump to pick then-Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate in 2024 — he said that he hasn’t “spoken to him since the regime-change war began” in Iran.
“I’m not interested in talking to him. I feel sorry for him. He’s not a man in charge of his own life at this point,” he said.
“What is it really about, in Trump’s mind? Why did he destroy himself? His administration? His legacy? The Republican Party and America? I don’t know, but maybe someone at [Columbia Journalism Review] should get on this and find out.”
It’s unclear whether this was a statement of intent or a peek at a larger movement to start a third party. It was of note that the Carlson interview came a day after former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia told Piers Morgan she was “in talks” about a third party, as well.
“I think there’s a group of us that, if we decide to align, we could launch a true America-focused party that doesn’t fall into the traps of Democrats and Republicans, but could align some serious players from the right and the left,” she said.
Greene was supportive of Carlson’s decision to leave the party last month.
“Tucker is not the only one who is done supporting the Republican Party,” she said in a social media post. “There is A LOT of us that are absolutely fed up and will not support a party that betrays its voters and country.
“That does not mean we are turning into Democrats either. But we are DONE with the America LAST Republican Party.”
Tucker is not the only one who is done supporting the Republican Party.
There is A LOT of us that are absolutely fed up and will not support a party that betrays its voters and country.
That does not mean we are turning into Democrats either.
But we are DONE with the America…
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) June 22, 2026
Aside from long-standing also-rans, which occasionally act as spoilers, like the Libertarian and Green parties, there hasn’t been a major attempt to launch a third party since Ross Perot’s Reform Party, formed in the wake of his independent run at the presidency in 1992 where he secured 19 percent of the vote.
While the Reform Party never fully achieved liftoff velocity — in part because the Commission on Presidential Debates changed its rules for participation before the 1996 contest after Perot’s successes in the debates four years earlier — the party did manage to win the 1998 Minnesota gubernatorial race with former pro wrestler and actor Jesse “The Body” Ventura as its candidate.
The party still exists, but its momentum as a national force was almost totally halted in 2000 amid infighting over the candidacy of former 1992 and 1996 GOP presidential contender Pat Buchanan, who ended up securing the presidential nomination in a pyrrhic victory.
Ironically, Trump considered entering the 2000 Reform Party nomination race but decided against it. He did, however, criticize Buchanan’s run: “I’m on the conservative side, but Buchanan is Attila the Hun,” he said in 1999.
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