Tucker Carlson delivered one of his most blistering critiques yet of the Republican Party during a lengthy, three-hour conversation with podcaster Shawn Ryan this week — blasting GOP leadership as corrupt, donor-serving, and fundamentally disconnected from the voters they claim to represent.
As the discussion wound down, Carlson didn’t hold back.
“The Republican Party is almost to the point where it’s just useless,” he said. “I’m going to have to oppose it because I hate them too much — because they’re such betrayers.”
The exchange began while the two discussed Carlson’s long-standing frustration with ugly, low-quality development projects — especially strip malls, dollar stores, and what he sees as predatory or community-eroding businesses. Carlson’s point quickly broadened into a full indictment of the GOP establishment for enabling these trends through special-interest favoritism.
“For a tiny benefit to a tiny group of people, who actually benefits from more Dollar Stores?” Carlson asked. He accused local developers of destroying communities while bribing county commissioners, then turning around and shouting “free market!” when residents object.
He continued:
“In a normal society, we’d like to burn your strip mall down. You can’t do that here. But you can say: ‘No, you don’t get to wreck my town. You don’t get to turn my women into prostitutes. Sorry, OnlyFans. You don’t get to destroy the landscape I live in.’”
Carlson then turned his ire back onto the political class:
“The whole reason you [local officials] exist is to protect my daughters from getting molested — and you won’t. Why?”
Ryan eventually asked what Carlson thinks the GOP will become.
Carlson’s response was a full philosophical takedown of party leadership:
“We shouldn’t underestimate how powerful a political party is… They run America. Maybe you shouldn’t ignore them. Maybe you should engage. I don’t want to, because I dislike them too much.”
But he added that some figures inside the party are still trying to fight for its soul.
Carlson argued that the central question is the one Donald Trump forced onto the national stage:
“Does the Republican Party exist to help its voters — or for some boutique corrupt reason, like serving a foreign government or serving your donors?”
He said that MAGA was never about a slogan, but about restoring the basic expectation that American leaders should put America First.
“If you’re running the country, you have a moral obligation to put its citizens before all others,” Carlson said. “It’s not controversial. It’s the only idea.”
Carlson accused much of the conservative nonprofit and media ecosystem of lying to voters for decades — pretending to champion their values while serving donors and corporate interests instead.
Carlson also contextualized why he believes young voters are angry at the conservative establishment. Speaking about his interview with Nick Fuentes — one that drew significant backlash — Carlson said the core of Fuentes’ critique is legitimate:
“He feels the conservative establishment… all of them are telling the same lie: ‘We’re on your side.’ They’re not. That is true. They’re corrupt. They don’t care enough — or at all — about you.”
Carlson stressed this is not about racial politics, as some critics allege:
“It’s not about the Jews or whatever. It’s about the country.”
And he made his position crystal clear:
“I’m fervently hoping that the America First people win.”
Carlson’s comments reflect a deepening divide within the right — between voters demanding a populist, nationalist agenda, and entrenched Beltway power brokers still clinging to the pre-Trump status quo.
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