New Delhi: A weekend gathering at journalist Tucker Carlson’s sprawling Maine home has ignited talks of a new political movement in the United States. The meeting, attended by prominent MAGA figures, many of whom are at odds with President Donald Trump, is seen as the first step towards launching a third party ahead of the 2028 presidential election.
In June 2026, during an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review, the conservative political commentator had said that he was “going to help build a third party.”
“There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country,” the 57-year-old said.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and conjecture started after Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s post on 1 August. Greene’s shared a photo featuring Republican Thomas Massie, former Trump administration official Joe Kent, as well as Carlson. The caption claimed that Trump has “betrayed us all.” The X photo had over 13 million views and 15 thousand comments.
“We said no more foreign wars, and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise. But he betrayed us all. Our commitment is America First for all Americans, right, left and center. The movement has begun,” Greene wrote.
It was followed by Carlson retweeting the photo saying, “MAGA was betrayed. We all were. It’s time for a new path forward. More tomorrow night at 6 PM ET on TuckerCarlson.com.”
On 5 August, Carlson aired a 94-minute program titled “Rebuilding America after the great betrayal,” in which he presented a 10-point political vision, but not a new political party.
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Who are the defectors?
Trump’s former advisors and aides gathering together has sparked talk of a new conservative front emerging. While most of the MAGA-supporters have had a falling out with the President, they remain firmly rooted in conservative ideology.
Greene, who rose to prominence for being Trump’s active, outspoken ally, has not only objected to his foreign policy but also to the handling of the infamous Jeffrey Epstein files. Last year, Greene supported Epstein’s victims and urged the government to release files from two federal investigations into Epstein.
As a result, Trump called her “Marjorie Traitor Greene.”
Another former Trump groupie, Massie, has been against the government’s military intervention and increase in surveillance.
In 2025, Massie termed Trump’s bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities “not constitutional.”
“When two countries are bombing each other daily in a hot war, and a third country joins the bombing, that’s an act of war,” he wrote on X.
Even Joe Kent resigned over Trump’s role in the recent Iran war and ended up becoming a vocal critic of US military intervention.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)