Tucker Carlson declared on a podcast last Thursday that he is finished supporting the Republican Party, and he will not be supporting the Democratic Party either.
The comments, made during a June 18 appearance on the Canadian show Can't Be Censored, did not gain widespread attention until Monday when a clip spread on social media.
By Tuesday they were the most talked-about political media story in the country.
"I would not support the Republican Party. There's no chance I would support the Republican Party," Carlson said. "I voted Republican my entire life, I've been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican Party, but there's no defending this." He added, "I'm out. And if I'm out, then I think a lot of other people are out."
The issue driving his departure is the Iran War that began February 28. Carlson has been one of the most prominent critics of the conflict from the right, arguing that the decision to go to war was made under pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and does not reflect American interests.
"How could I or any American voter support a political party that's not loyal to the United States. That puts the interests of a foreign country above those of its own citizens. It's not possible to vote for people like that, and I'm not going to," he said.
President Trump has disputed that characterization directly and repeatedly.
"I call the shots. I call all the shots," Trump told the Financial Times earlier this month. "Netanyahu doesn't call the shots." Trump has also said "If anything, I might've forced Israel's hand" when asked about the war's origins. The Iran peace deal announced June 14, which Trump negotiated, formally ended the military conflict.
Carlson acknowledged he does not know what he will do going into the November midterms.
He is not moving to the Democratic Party. He said he is simply out of the one he spent 35 years defending.
His audience on X and the Tucker Carlson Network remains large and concentrated on the populist right. The November midterms are four months away.