The anti-Trump crew on the “right” plan to go third party
This isn’t exactly news – I wrote about it in this previous post about Tucker Carlson, for example – but it’s a little more official now, or as Ace writes: “Tuq’r Qarlson, Marjorie Trailer-Queen, Thomas Massie, and Joe Kent Meet and Announce New Party for Nazis and Lunatic Conspiracy Theorists.”
Former Republican Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene posted a photo this past weekend of herself, Tucker Carlson and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., along with the statement that “the movement has come.”
Last month, Carlson said he was planning to create a new political party, the Columbia Journalism Review reported.
Greene’s photo, posted on X on Saturday, featured the three, who have been sidelined over their opposition to President Trump’s agenda and suggests discussions on a third party are continuing.
Greene in particular, but Massie as well, are personally aggrieved at Trump. I’ve dealt with Kent in this previous post. How did Kent get in there? It has to do with this photo at Carlson’s home; they’re all sitting around a dining table, beaming. You can see the photo here if you have X:
We said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise.
But he’s betrayed us all.
Our commitment is America First for all Americans, right, left, and center.
The movement has begun. pic.twitter.com/mZXadw0kBr— Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene?? (@FmrRepMTG) August 1, 2026
Someone in the responses there posted an AI version:
— mallen2024 (@mallen20243) August 1, 2026
This group does have followers, but how many are US voters and how many of those were ever going to vote Republican anyway is completely unknown. I see the Carlson crew as motivated by revenge and power – people who find it more fun to destroy than to be powerless. It’s easier to destroy, too; you can be a spoiler with far fewer supporters when a political race is otherwise very close. Their goals short-term are similar to the goals of the NeverTrumpers in previous elections, such as the members of The Bulwark, although their positions are not identical.
Long-term, the Carlson wing probably does want to be more than spoilers. Long-term, they have more grandiose visions.
They’ll do just as well as Egg McMuffin in 2016.
I hope their “grand visions” turn out to be “grand delusions” about their ability to affect elections.
I wonder how large the anti-Israel crowd is in the Republican party? I guess we’ll find out whether it’s large enough to swing an election from Rubio toward Vance. I wouldn’t count out DeSantis either. In fact, I might support him given his track record of running a large state successfully.
They can ensure that Vance is not the candidate though. If they force Vance to solidly espouse their platform, given the neo-neo-nazi baggage of some of their coalition, it’s doubtful Vance could get enough conservative support elsewhere.
I like Vance, but I’m not sure he’s ready for the top job.
Where’s Candace?
This is indeed desperation and revenge. As for Tucker power lust? Undoubtedly.
Trump and MAGA has around 96-98% of R support, IIRC. This conviction support is unlikely to budge, even if they get some ballot access. And given that short timeline, even that’s very much in doubt.
To paraphrase “Can’t we all.just get along”.
This is no surprise.
It takes BIG MONEY to have a major impact on an election, especially for a third party. Ross Perot spent a lot. In California, Tom Steyer reportedly spent $200 million in a losing effort for Governor of California (his 3rd try at public office).
I don’t believe the “new war” in Iran is the sole reason for their get together. I’m not real sure if they know or have a bona fide reason for this folly.
It’s all about the clicks.
Interesting that Jonah Goldberg has a contentious relationship with The Bulwark. For some reason he considers them too anti-Trump.
So there will finally be a Social-Nationalist Party in the US, no biggie
Along with Art Deco’s invocation of Evan McMullin, I find it very curious that neo labels these charlatans as “the” anti-Trump crew on the right. This is more accurately described as another anti-Trump crew on the right. Evan McMullin has gone off the leftist deep end since 2016, but even the 2016 version of McMullin had almost nothing in common with the 2026 version of Tucker Carlson or with Thomas Massie, Marjorie Green Taylor, or the rest of these clowns. (Aside – I wonder if the reporters who gave MGT the glowing “strange new respect” treatment in the NYTimes when she came out against Trump are having second thoughts now?)
To me, this just highlights Trump’s own ideological incoherence. Trump loves tariffs and bombing Iran. Everything else is negotiable. But, in the Venn diagram of the GOP, how much overlap is there between “love tariffs” and “bomb Iran?”
They are just as likely to take voters away form the Democrats as they will for Republicans. Marjorie Trailer Trash Greene, Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Thomas Massie – are Democrats in all but name.
Bauxite – Trump does not not have the cajones to finish the job against the Mad Mullahs. In his heart he is still a Democrat from Queens.
To me, this just highlights Trump’s own ideological incoherence. Trump loves tariffs and bombing Iran.
==
You cannot distinguish between principles and methods. That’s not attributable to any incoherence on Trump’s part.
==
Trump is not a political theoretician. Among the few working politicians who resemble one would be Ben Sasse and Rand Paul. The only Republican president in the last three generations who did was Ronald Reagan, and Reagan still had to cut deals.
==
Trump has several features which distinguish him from more recent Republican presidents. One is that he has a history as a roué, (2) he favors a more combative stance in trade negotiations and doesn’t cotton to the humbug which has attended the discussion of trade for the last three decades; (3) he favors vigorous enforcement of immigration laws; (4) he is explicitly antagonistic to the demise of ballot security in this country; and (5) he is not fazed by or deferential to the generators of the kultursmog. I suppose you could ad (6) Trump is fairly rude in public discussion. It’s rather grossly amusing how Trump’s detractors respond to these distinctions.
The most damage they could plausibly do at the Presidential level would be to bleed off just enough votes in tight races to flip a State. I’m not sure how plausible that is, really. OTOH, if they chose to run Senatorial/Congressional candidates, I could imagine them flipping some districts to the Dems by bleeding off just enough protest votes and naifs.
As for their motives, I’m pretty she neo has it right, with them and the Bulwark crew. Back in the day, for ex, Bill Kristol was an influential voice on the Right and he knew it and wanted more of it. Then Trump came along and marginalized him overnight (because Kristol represented precisely the GOP faction least popular with its own voters). He’s never forgiven that.
Likewise, Tucker and MTG were big names and famous on the Right…and Trump soaked up their influence and left them marginal. They want it back or they want the party they once led destroyed.
I’ve heard Democrats complain about the NeverTrumpers that they aren’t content to support Dem candidates, they want to take over the Democratic Party and run it. I think the people saying that were right, that’s exactly what the NeverTrumper crowd would like to do. They were dislodged from control of the GOP and now they’d like to move in and take control of the Democratic Party to regain their power and social status and so forth.
Right, HC68. Unfortunately for the NeverTrump crew, the DSA is taking over the Democratic Party, so these formerly Republican grudge holder are out of luck.
I’ve heard Democrats complain about the NeverTrumpers that they aren’t content to support Dem candidates, they want to take over the Democratic Party and run it.
==
You’ve been listening to Democrats who cannot count. Three dozen chumps on Pierre Omidyar’s patronage are in no danger of taking over the Democratic Party. Even if they were so inclined, they lack a certain vim and vigor. Wm. Kristol is 73 years old, Charles J. Sykes is 71, Mona Charen is 68, John Weaver is 66, David Frum is 65, David Brooks is 64, Cathy Young is 63, Jay Nordlinger is 63, George Conway is 62, Rick Wilson is 62, Dan McLaughlin (“Baseball Crank”) is 62, David French is 57, Jonah Goldberg is 57, Steve Schmidt is 55, Nicolle Wallace is 54, Kevin Williamson is 53, Ramesh Ponnuru is 52, Jonathan Last is 52; Sarah Longwell is 45, Tim Miller is 44, Miles Taylor is 39, and Ben Parker (Mona’s son) is 32. I think that’s most of them. To the best of my knowledge, none have a background in business or the military. Conway, McLaughlin, and French have all practiced law (though French’s career was weird and abandoned at age 35). Conway, Wallace, and Taylor all have a known history of dishonorable behavior. Parker has been roped into his mother’s largely avocational pursuit. A curiously high share of the foregoing are sexual deviants.
— Art Deco
I didn’t say they were succeeding, but they are trying.
You don’t have to have huge numbers to be more or less in control of a Party. This bunch was influential in the GOP for many years in spite of representing a minority viewpoint. They influenced it via money and connections and a lack of a clear alternative and inertia. We saw that repeatedly from 2006, when the GOP would push Comprehensive Amnesty, over and over and over, in spite of the clear fact that large majorities of the rank and file GOP voters hated it. I remember Bill Kristol publishing article after article and editorial after editorial in The Weekly Standard extolling the virtues of the Amnesty bills. They tried twice in 2006, again in 2007, and again in 2013, in spite of the whole idea having only a small base of support (but a lot of money) behind it.
Same deal with ‘free trade’ bills. Unpopular with the GOP voters but they tried over and over. But somehow ideas popular with the GOP voters kept stalling out, not even pursued.
If they could, they would position themselves the same way in the Democrats and reshape the Dems into a Party with themselves as gatekeepers in the same role they once held in the GOP. They aren’t succeeding, but oh, they so want to do it.
The movement has come. Usually within an hour of White Castle.