Arwa Mahdawi: “Here’s the thing about Carlson: he has lots of odious views, but, unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of ignoring him. He’s not a fringe figure: he knows how to work the attention economy. He had the highest-rated show on Fox before his abrupt departure and his YouTube channel has more than 5 million followers. And now, it seems, he has broader ambitions. Prediction markets and numerous analysts, including the New Yorker writer Jason Zengerle, who has written a new biography of Carlson, think the former Fox host may be gearing up for a bigger political project.”
Said Zengerle: “I don’t really think of Carlson as a media figure any more. I think he’s doing something very different. He’s a movement leader.”
He added: “I think the Iran war sets up Tucker, especially if the war goes badly, really well to run for president in ’28. He can hang that war around JD Vance’s neck, around Marco Rubio’s neck … And he can say: ‘I was against this from the start. I’m the true heir for MAGA.'”
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