Cruz Wants Tucker As His 2028 Enemy
New AmCon column
Ted Cruz is preparing to run for president, again. This time, he wants his chief opponent to be Tucker Carlson. He can’t attack Trump, or JD Vance at this time. So Tucker suits as a useful foil to demand for the restoration of old guard conservatism.
This time, the Texas senator wants to restore the old order against the Trumpist takeover. But Cruz is smart enough to know he can’t outright attack the president or his legacy. To be a successful Republican candidate, one will need to present as pro-Trump: Over 90 percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s performance. The base’s attachment to the president remains as strong as ever.
That leaves Cruz in a difficult situation. He needs to distinguish himself from JD Vance, Trump’s assumed heir who will run on the administration’s legacy. But Cruz can’t attack Trump or his movement. Instead, he’s set on Tucker Carlson as a proxy target to deride Trumpism. With Tucker as his preferred nemesis, Cruz can claim he’s MAGA while he demands the GOP return to the old guard conservatism Trump buried in 2016. The senator will simply brand Carlson’s America Firstism as un-MAGA and his own conservatism as true MAGA.
No matter how much Cruz claims otherwise, it won’t be America First. Cruz wants to drag the right back to the days before Trump came down the escalator. He’s just pragmatic enough to put a MAGA hat on it.
Read the rest here.
Despite how much oxygen it sucks up in the talkosphere, most voters just don’t care that much about foreign policy. So it seems at least plausible to me that someone could win MAGA voters with a “MAGA agenda domestically + (very softly) neocon abroad” message.
But I struggle to see how that candidate could be Ted Cruz. He’s never been an immigration hawk, the core MAGA issue, and he’s about 10% as charismatic as Vance.
This could backfire for Cruz
A lot of people do not know this but Hillary Clinton's campaign at first actually supported Trump. The wiki leaks emails confirm it. For the simple fact they saw him as having the worst chance of winning.