Tucker Carlson for VP? If President Donald Trump is looking for a running mate to inject some 2016-style MAGA energy into his campaign, he should look no further than the populist Fox News pundit, Spectator USA writer Curt Mills argues in a new column.
While there’s still only speculation that Trump is considering the move, Mills breaks down a few good reasons why the president should give Mike Pence the boot.
Columnist: Tucker Carlson for VP
Other than Trump himself, few figures in conservatism evoke the kind of passion that Carlson does. And there is no denying Carlson’s intellectual ability — he outclasses most pundits on and off television, no contest. He has become the de facto leader of the new, populist American right that President Trump brought into being.
In terms of important people in the Trump movement, Trump is No. 1, Carlson is No. 2. Carlson seems a natural enough deputy to the chief. So does he belong in the White House? According to Mills, Washington is whispering about the possibility.
Mills lists a few reasons why Trump should go for it. First, Tucker and Trump get along naturally. Second, Carlson is the pre-eminent intellectual of Trump-ism, and that could help Trump solve a big problem: Trump, the candidate who went to the White House to “drain the swamp,” has had to rely on Bushies who don’t understand America First.
Exhibit A: the much-discussed conflict between John Bolton and the president over Iran.
It’s true that Trump might be a brawler, but he’s not much of a thinker, and his leadership is often unfocused. Tucker is a fierce, passionate intellect, and he hasn’t shied from criticizing Trump when necessary, Mills notes. Maybe instead of scolding Trump from the studio, Carlson could do it from the West Wing?
The Case for Carlson
Moreover, Carlson, who often seems frustrated with the president himself, is a true believer in MAGA who meets Trump voters where they are. Mills predicts that a Carlson ticket would bring a tsunami of energy that would sweep up even the most jaded Trump supporters.
“If Tucker jumped into the 2024 race, as has been widely discussed, excitement among the activist class would be barely containable. If he jumped into 2020, excitement would boil over,” Mills writes.
Third, with Trump settling down into “Keep America Great” mode, Carlson is a natural fit to revitalize his campaign. Bottom line, Carlson is the tip of the spear in the new American conservatism — a political juggernaut, a populist warrior, and one of the smartest at that.
Indeed, Mills notes, he is adored by millions of fans, obviously feared by the left — who have been trying to destroy him non-stop — and the fading Reagan-ite exiles at the Bulwark alike, and widely respected by conservatives inside Washington.
Is it already happening?
All around, Mills makes good points. Carlson’s paleoconservative manifesto back in January caused an earthquake that still echoes. Whatever direction conservatism is heading, Carlson is on the pulse.
Carlson’s conservatism is the conservatism that got Trump elected: craft policy around helping American families thrive and make the market work for the people, not the other way around. His politics — conservative on social issues and interventionist on economic issues, communitarian and nationalist in spirit, anti-war — are a political winner. Carlson has said so himself.
Like Mills points out, Carlson already occupies a quasi-adviser position in the Trump White House. Carlson has been credited with getting Trump to call off the recent airstrikes on Iran at the last minute, and he even joined Trump for his historic trip in North Korea this weekend, when Trump crossed into North Korea territory. Meanwhile, John Bolton was sent to Mongolia.
All the same, maybe Carlson would be better off where he is, leading the charge from his studio? Or, as Mills suggests, is the change already happening?
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