{"id":415861,"date":"2026-04-29T02:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/415861\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T02:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:21:22","slug":"is-tucker-carlson-eyeing-a-2028-presidential-run-arwa-mahdawi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/415861\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Tucker Carlson eyeing a 2028 presidential run? | Arwa Mahdawi"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, Tucker Carlson was sleeping peacefully alongside his wife and four dogs when, all of a sudden, he was \u201cphysically mauled<\/a>\u201d by a demon. This supernatural attack left bloody claw marks on his side, the former Fox News star claimed in a documentary<\/a> about spirituality. Shaken by this unusual ordeal, Carlson called an evangelical friend who told him: \u201cYeah, that happens \u2013 people are attacked in their bed by demons.\u201d The whole thing, he said, was a \u201ctransformative experience\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to the present day and poor old Carlson seems to be plagued by demons again, although this time they\u2019re more metaphorical than metaphysical. The far-right personality, who started his own media company after parting ways with Fox in 2023, has said that he is \u201ctormented\u201d<\/a> by his previous support for Donald Trump. In a recent episode of his podcast, Carlson spoke to his brother, Buckley, a former Trump speechwriter, about their shared disappointment with the president and said he was \u201csorry for misleading people\u201d. This was a moment, Carlson said, \u201cto wrestle with our own consciences\u201d.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how genuine this mea culpa is, but it\u2019s the most recent example of the growing fractures within the Maga movement. While Carlson privately admitted he hated Trump in text messages that surfaced during the 2023 lawsuit<\/a> between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems, he has stood by him in public, drumming up support for the Maga agenda at rallies. He has been one of the president\u2019s biggest supporters for a decade. And while that support has waned during Trump\u2019s second term, largely driven by Carlson\u2019s criticism of Israel and the Iran war, this public denunciation of the president feels like a pivotal moment.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing about Carlson: he has lots of odious views<\/a>, but, unfortunately, we don\u2019t have the luxury of ignoring him. He\u2019s not a fringe figure: he knows how to work the attention economy<\/a>. He had the highest-rated show on Fox before his abrupt departure and his YouTube channel<\/a> has more than 5 million followers. And now, it seems, he has broader ambitions. Prediction markets<\/a> and numerous analysts, including the New Yorker writer Jason Zengerle, who has written a new biography of Carlson<\/a>, think the former Fox host may be gearing up for a bigger political project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really think of [Carlson] as a media figure any more. I think he\u2019s doing something very different. He\u2019s a movement leader,\u201d Zengerle told Poynter<\/a> recently. \u201cI think [the Iran war] sets up Tucker, especially if the war goes badly, really well to run for president in \u201928. He can hang that war around JD Vance\u2019s neck, around Marco Rubio\u2019s neck \u2026 And he can say: \u2018I was against this from the start. I\u2019m the true heir for Maga.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Galloway, a co-host of the Pivot podcast, also thinks that\u2019s what this recent Tucker redemption tour is about: less a road-to-Damascus moment and more a route-to-the-White-House moment. \u201cI think I absolutely know what\u2019s going on here,\u201d Galloway said<\/a> on a podcast last week<\/a> about Carlson\u2019s public apology for supporting Trump. \u201cHe\u2019s running for president \u2026 I think here and now Tucker Carlson is the most likely GOP nominee for president in 2028. Put him on stage with Rubio and Vance, he\u2019s going to slice and dice them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlson, for his part, has been coy about his political ambitions. He dismissed the idea that he might be interested in becoming the Republican presidential nominee during an interview with the Economist <\/a>last month. Around the same time, Carlson told Piers Morgan<\/a> that he wasn\u2019t sure he was interested in the presidency because he thinks politics is \u201cdisgusting\u201d and \u201ccoalition-building\u201d doesn\u2019t come naturally to him.<\/p>\n

But despite these protests, I\u2019d be surprised if he wasn\u2019t thinking about it. Trump\u2019s brand is becoming toxic and, come the next election, Vance and Rubio will probably be damaged goods. Vance has been carefully trying to distance himself<\/a> from the Iran war, but without a speedy resolution it will become an albatross around his neck.<\/p>\n

It also won\u2019t help that the ugliest provisions of Trump\u2019s \u201cbig beautiful bill<\/a>\u201d will kick in in 2027, serving up tax cuts for the rich and taking essential services away<\/a> from poor Americans. People are worried about the cost of living<\/a> now, but it\u2019s about to get much worse. Carlson will have the perfect opening to break from Maga and market his own brand of rightwing populism to an increasingly disillusioned<\/a> US. Forget Carlson\u2019s mysterious demons \u2013 US politics is a never-ending nightmare.<\/p>\n

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist<\/p>\n

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few years ago, Tucker Carlson was sleeping peacefully alongside his wife and four dogs when, all of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-415861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}