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By Hannah Parry
Associate News Editor
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Tucker Carlson escalated his break with President Donald Trump and the Republican Party on Wednesday, as he announced he's working to launch a new political party aimed at voters who no longer feel represented by either major party.
“I’m going to help build a third party,” Carlson told the Columbia Journalism Review. “There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country.”
The move comes just weeks after the former Fox News host declared there was "no chance" he would support the GOP in the 2026 midterm elections.
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“How could I or any American voter support a political party that’s not loyal to the United States. That puts the interests of a foreign country above those of its own citizens,” Carlson said last month. “It’s not possible to vote for people like that, and I’m not going to.”
The conservative commentator has spent recent months criticizing Trump's foreign policy, particularly the administration's military action against Iran, arguing that the president has abandoned the "America First" principles that helped propel him to office. Those disagreements have widened into a broader rejection of the GOP, with Carlson saying he no longer sees the party as representing his political values.
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In his third-party announcement, he spoke about the decline in Americans' quality of life, saying the government should prioritize its own people.
"Your life expectancy has gone down, and the promise of your children’s lives is likely gone. No one seems to care. It’s not even a factor. 'What about Hamas?' I officially don’t care about Hamas. The US government should have, as its first priority, the welfare of its own people," he said.
While third parties have historically struggled to gain traction in U.S. politics, facing steep structural barriers such as ballot access laws and the winner-take-all electoral systems, they can siphon votes from one of the two major parties, particularly in closely contested races.
If even a small share of Republican voters follows Carlson into a new movement, it could prove consequential in competitive House and Senate races.
The announcement comes at a sensitive moment for the Republican Party, which has shown signs of growing internal divisions. While much of the party remains firmly aligned behind Trump, a vocal faction of conservatives has become increasingly critical of his leadership and policy agenda, creating fractures that figures like Carlson appear eager to capitalize on.
If Carlson succeeds in convincing disaffected conservatives that neither major party represents them, Republicans could face an unwelcome challenge: defending seats while fending off a movement led by one of the right's most influential media figures.
A History of Third Parties in the U.S.
One of the most successful third-party bids came in 1912, when former President Theodore Roosevelt ran as the Progressive Party's "Bull Moose" candidate after splitting with the Republican Party. Roosevelt finished second behind Woodrow Wilson, outperforming incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft, but the Progressive Party quickly faded after the election.
Businessman Ross Perot mounted another notable challenge in 1992, winning nearly 19 percent of the popular vote as an independent candidate—the strongest showing for a non-major-party presidential candidate in decades. Although Perot did not win any electoral votes, his focus on the federal deficit and trade policy helped shape the national political conversation. He later founded the Reform Party and ran again in 1996.
More recently, parties such as the Libertarian Party and the Green Party have regularly fielded presidential candidates, occasionally drawing enough votes to affect closely contested races. However, they have struggled to build sustained national support or win significant federal office.
Political scientists generally attribute the limited success of third parties to the U.S.'s winner-take-all electoral system, strict ballot access requirements and fundraising challenges, all of which favor the two established parties. As a result, while third-party movements can influence elections and public policy, few have endured as permanent forces in American politics.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Gabe Whisnant and Gray R. Thomas
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