Ben Samuels in Haaretz: America First, antisemitism second: The dangers of Tucker Carlson formally entering politicsI

Tucker Carlson and several of his most prominent ideological allies have signaled in recent days that they are considering launching a third-party political organization, with Israel’s influence over American politics at the center of the prospective movement.

Carlson earlier this week hosted former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie — two prominent Republican isolationists who have been pushed to the party’s margins — and Joe Kent, the former Trump administration national security official who resigned shortly after the outbreak of the Iran war earlier this year

All four have fallen out with Trump at various points, and Israel has figured prominently in each rupture.

Their grievances range from opposition to Israel’s perceived role in drawing the U.S. into war with Iran, to broader claims that Trump and the American political system are unduly influenced by Israel and its supporters. Carlson and his allies, meanwhile, have long promoted conspiracy theories involving Israel — most notably concerning the Jeffrey Epstein affair.

What binds the emerging movement is not merely an effort to reclaim the “America First” mantle, but an insistence that Israel and its American supporters represent a central source of the movement’s betrayal.

“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,” Greene posted while sharing a picture of the group at Carlson’s Maine compound. “The movement has begun.”

Appearing on the progressive talk show The Young Turks earlier this week, Kent acknowledged the difficulty of mounting a third-party campaign. “Running as a third-party candidate is challenging. Not impossible, but it is very challenging,” he said. “But that’s kind of the consensus that we came to, that the current system just simply doesn’t work, and we have to find something new to save our country.”

Kent also said that everyone at the gathering urged Carlson to run for president in 2028, so far to no avail. “Hopefully he wakes up one day and Tucker says he’s going to run,” Kent said.

Carlson used his Wednesday show to present an unofficial 10-point vision for the country, organized around ideals including fairness, sovereignty, honesty and decency. His treatment of Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship suggested that he views the alliance as fundamentally at odds with those aspirations.

The electoral viability of Carlson’s potential party may be less important than its influence on the broader political conversation. It could become the first significant modern American political movement to place allegations of Israeli control — and, by implication, doubts about the loyalty of Israel’s Jewish supporters — at the center of its founding narrative.

Carlson and his allies have repeatedly moved beyond legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and American military support into rhetoric that echoes longstanding conspiracies about Jewish money, influence and divided loyalty. A party organized around those ideas could provide a path into mainstream politics for figures and views that have previously remained beyond acceptable boundaries. It could also encourage the treatment of American Jewish donors, organizations and public officials as presumptive fifth columns.

Whether Carlson ultimately runs for president is almost beside the point. His formal entry into organized electoral politics could normalize a conspiratorial framework in which Israel, Jewish political participation and hidden foreign influence are increasingly treated as interchangeable.