I am a big fan of all of Jonathan V. Last’s work for The Bulwark. Yes, his feelings about Donald Trump are more extreme than mine. But I find his work consistently thoughtful — and thought-provoking.
His recent piece on how Vice President JD Vance is the Honky Tonk Man — an absolute MUST-read — got me to thinking about the 2028 GOP race and, more broadly, the future of the Republican party.
JVL and I got together on Tuesday afternoon to talk about all of that. And what stood out to me was how high he was on Tucker Carlson’s chances of being the Republican nominee in three years.
“If Tucker Carlson decided that he wanted to be the Republican nominee for president, I think he would be,” JVL told me. “He is perfectly in line with where the Republican base is right now. And he is the best talker any of us have ever seen.”
Which fascinated me. Not to say that I don’t think Tucker would be a factor. ( I listed him as a “wildcard” in my initial rankings of the 2028 field.) But I guess I didn’t consider Tucker to be a frontrunner as JVL does.
His reasoning? The party is going to want another version of Donald Trump in 2028. An outsider. A talker. Someone who sticks it to the elites. Someone who they believe is authentic. An entertainer.
Tucker ticks all those boxes in a way no one this side of Donald Trump Jr. does.
It’s a very intriguing argument.
You can watch my full conversation with JVL above for FREE. We talk about the possibility of Trump running (again) in 2028, why Marco Rubio has no chance and why neither of us so Trump coming a decade ago.
