THIRST FOR POWER

How Tucker Carlson, 56, Could Steal Crown From Trump, 79

The former Fox News star could be weighing multiple options for his post-Trump future, a political reporter said.

Tucker Carlson has begun visualizing his future in a post-Trump world, according to a seasoned political reporter.

Jason Zengerle, a journalist who chronicles Carlson’s career in his book Hated By All the Right People, said the former Fox News star, 56, has long wielded great power over Donald Trump. But with the 79-year-old president now serving his final term, there are many different paths that Carlson could take—including a possible run for office.

“I think Tucker—I don’t think he has a burning ambition to be a politician. I don’t think he’s like Bill Clinton. He’s not someone who spent his whole life trying to become president,” Zengerle told The Daily Beast Podcast host Joanna Coles. “I do think, though, that he has things he wants to see achieved in this country.”

Carlson is in “a good situation” thanks to his close ties to Vice President JD Vance, Zengerle said. Last year, Carlson said Vance was the only person who was “capable of carrying on the Trump legacy and expanding it.”

The vice president, for his part, staunchly defended Carlson’s son Buckley amid allegations that he idolized Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust-denying white nationalist. Buckley also serves as Vance’s deputy press secretary.

“They have a real, I think, ideological and personal bond. And right now, JD Vance is in complete lockstep with Tucker on sort of the things that Tucker believes and the things Tucker wants,” Zengerle said. “And he is a fantastic vehicle for Tucker because he has this influence.”

But that doesn’t mean a Carlson presidential run is entirely out of the question, the journalist added. Zengerle said there are two scenarios in which Carlson could seek office.

“The first would be if JD Vance started to diverge from Tucker and no longer advanced the same views, supported the same policies. I could see him maybe wanting to do it himself,” he said.

“And then the second scenario—and I think this is actually probably more plausible—is if Tucker concluded that JD Vance just doesn’t have the political talent you need to get elected president,” Zengerle explained.

“I would imagine that he would look for someone else that he could influence and be an adviser to, and have kind of his own cat’s paw,” Zengerle continued. “And maybe there’s someone out there like that—maybe Bobby Kennedy Jr., I don’t know—but if he couldn’t find that person, then yes, I could definitely see him saying, ‘Alright, I’m just gonna do it myself.’”

The White House and the Tucker Carlson Network did not immediately return a request for comment.

Carlson spent the first decade of his broadcasting career jumping from CNN to PBS to what was then called MSNBC. But it was landing at Fox News that made him a star. In 2020, Tucker Carlson Tonight became the highest-rated primetime cable news program ever.

Since departing from Fox News in 2023 amid the fallout from the network’s settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, Carlson has carried his large audience over to the Tucker Carlson Network.

But his most important viewer resides in the White House, according to Zengerle.

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“He’s an adviser to Trump. I think that’s important to understand. During Trump’s first presidency, he was an adviser through the television, through his Fox News show,” Zengerle said. “Tucker realized that he could drive government decision-making, drive policy-making just by communicating with Trump through the television, through his show. He knew Trump was watching. He would structure his monologues, he would book his guests all with an eye towards influencing the president. And he had a lot of success on that.”

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