What A Day - Tucker Carlson's Vision For America

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

In a livestream Wednesday night, Tucker Carlson laid out some ideas for what he thinks would make Americans’ lives better – a vision, you could call it. And while he didn’t say that he’s going to run for President in 2028, a lot of people think he should – including some of Trump’s most prominent former allies. So we asked The Bulwark’s Will Sommer: What’s really behind Tucker Carlson’s long rant?And in headlines, a Senate committee votes to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, Uganda’s Defense Minister wins parliamentary approval to deploy troops to Gaza, and WK Kellogg says it will remove artificial colors from all its cereals by the end of 2026.Show Notes: Check out Will's piece – https://tinyurl.com/yawzsfkf Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail]

You know, I mean, this is a guy, he has a big audience. I think he has a big ego. It seems like, you know, he's probably thinking, you know, maybe I should just run for president myself. I'm Jane Koston, and this is what a day. The show that has some surprising news that you will never, ever believe. A family member of a Trump administration official will likely benefit from a White House policy shift. I know. You're stunned.

See, the Trump administration had backed a ban on intoxicating hemp products like gummies and sodas last year. But now the White House is asking Congress to delay the enforcement of that ban with the support of hemp industry insiders. Among those insiders, Brett Worley, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles' son-in-law. Now look, influence peddling and pay-for-play allegations are bad. But this time, it's for gummies one could take before watching old episodes of Loveter Listed. Hypothetically. On today's show, we talked to the bulwarks Will Summer about Tucker Carlson's maybe, potentially third-party run in 2028. Before we go into that horrifying region of possible health, here's what we're following

today, Thursday, August 6th. Eight days ago, Dr. Anthony Fauci sat before this committee in the witness chair under subpoena for conduct covered by the President Biden's full and unconditional pardon, reaching back to 2014. Dr. Fauci faced no risk of federal prosecution. All he had to do is tell the truth. More than 100 times, though, he refused. And that really bothered you, didn't it, Senator Paul? A Senate committee voted along party lines today to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress. But for what? For refusing to answer questions and invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination at a hearing on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, Fauci raised fresh legal questions about Congress's ability to compel testimony from a previously

pardoned witness. Quick refresher, Fauci received a pardon last year from then-president Joe Biden. But Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul said constitutional protection does not apply. He argues Fauci's pardon means he doesn't have to worry about the threat of prosecution for anything he did while he was leading the U.S. COVID response. Paul has said he intends to send the contempt referral directly to the Justice Department, rather than first to the full Senate. Democrats, however, have questions over the legal validity of such a maneuver. I have questions as to why the Republican Party has decided that yelling about 2020 is a valuable contribution to the discourse.

President Donald Trump spent part of his Thursday as he typically does, screaming on the internet, this time about a Washington Post report regarding his in-person screaming. The Post reported on Thursday that Trump yelled at Defense Secretary slash little boy Pete Hegeseth during a cabinet meeting held at Camp David last week. The president was allegedly demanding answers. relating to the reporting of munitions shortages that have impacted Trump's war on Iran. As we mentioned on the show earlier this week, the U.S. has run extremely low on surface-to-surface-guided missiles and missile interceptors as a result of the war in Iran. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt

denied the allegations, but in response to the post reporting, Trump posted today on true social that, quote, the leakers of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long-term jail sentences will be sought, which does not imply the reporting. was false, exactly. But don't worry. Trump later posted, quote, I am extremely happy with the job that Pete Hegsteth is doing, and that everything in Iran is going just fine. Speaking of the war, Oman and Iran are attempting to negotiate terms to reopen the Strait of Formos to shipping for a fee. You know, the street that was open with no fees before the war began. Now therefore, be it resolved by this Parliament as follows.

We seek the resolution of Parliament that Parliament supports the decision of His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Uganda, to deploy the Uganda People's Defence Forces in the Gaza Strip for a peacekeeping mission in accordance with the Constitution of Uganda and Section 38 of Uganda People's Defense Forces Act. to move. Uganda's defense minister sought and won parliamentary approval today to deploy troops to Gaza. The successful motion is Uganda's first public indication that it's willing to join the international stabilization force. The force was announced by Trump's Board of Peace earlier this year

to secure the territory following the Israel-Hamas war. It was not immediately clear why Uganda agreed to deploy in Gaza, or if there was a quid pro quo involved. However, the defense minister cited Uganda's military capabilities stemming from its peacekeeping deployment. in countries such as Somalia. Here on Water Day, we like to bring you the most important news of the moment. So grab a spoon and your milk of choice, because today that means cereal. W.K. Kellogg, the company behind Fruit Loops and Apple Jacks, said it will remove artificial colors from all its cereals by the end of 2026.

And guess what? The change comes a year earlier than the company's original commitment. Okay, overachievers. The company has faced pressure for years to remove artificial ingredients from its cereals, which it has already done in other countries like Canada. That pressure has grown under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Not to mention, Kellogg signed an agreement with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last August, saying it would eliminate toxic dyes from its cereals. Kellogg said it will use fruit and vegetable-based juices to color their cereals, because no one wants their fruit loops to be tope.

And that's the news. Let's talk about MAGA. It's a tough to be tough. time to be a fervent supporter of President Donald Trump. I mean, first, you're a fervent supporter of President Donald Trump, but also you're probably getting pretty lonely. Support for Trump is dropping everywhere, with Quinepiac measuring his approval at just 32% at the end of July. But how bad could it really be? Pretty bad. Even in Ruby Red Mississippi, Trump has an approval rating of 46%, a record low for the state. That's according to new data from civics. So,

What went wrong? If you're a bow-tie enthusiast Tucker Carlson, the answer is that Trump betrayed what MAGA truly stood for, which just so happens to be whatever Tucker thinks MAGA stood for. In fact, he argued in a live-stream Wednesday night that both parties have turned against the American people, and he had some thoughts on what would make life better. A vision, you could call it.

We thought it would be useful just to set down the goals of whatever comes next, and it'll find all kinds of expressions. And hopefully it's better than what we're. what we have, but we know it'll be different from what we have because what we have literally doesn't work. It can't protect itself from the greatest threats in human history. Tucker didn't say in this live stream that he's going to run for president in 2028, but a lot of people think he should, including some of Trump's most prominent former allies. So I asked the bulwarks Will Summer. What's really behind Tucker Carlson's long rant? Well, welcome back to Water Day. Hey, thanks for

having me. So on Wednesday night, Tucker Carlson live streamed for over an hour about his vision for America. He did not formally announce a presidential run. He said he does not want to run for president, but he basically unveiled a campaign platform. Can you quickly walk us through Tucker's wonderful ideas for America? Yeah, I mean, basically, I think we could sum it up as him saying essentially like, you know, everything sucks. And, you know, I'm the only one who can fix it. I mean, he had 10 words that he said America has to be. And so it's optimistic, decent, sovereign. Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Who could disagree with that? And then he would dive in and say like, okay,

sovereign is about not just borders, but also, you know, banning foreign lobbyists and even like getting rid of debt seemingly, even for people. He didn't exactly get into specifics. But it really looked like a campaign platform, even if he didn't say explicitly that he's running for president. Yeah. The thing that struck me is that he said a lot of things. like optimistic and beautiful, but those were all euphemisms. Like, optimistic is a euphemism for everybody needs to have kids. Beautiful is a euphemism for violent crime makes everything ugly, and it should be illegal to make ugly buildings.

What else stuck out to you? I felt like he was really positioning himself at the center of a lot of kind of like these populist revolts we're seeing, whether it's about these flock surveillance cameras or, you know, if you go on TikTok, there's a lot of people who are like, the data centers are buying up the farmland near me. And it's like, well, is that illegal per se? Or they're upset about solar panels, things like that. And I mean, the one that struck me was he really got into sort of like this idea that we're losing the American heartland to these things like the surveillance cameras or the data centers. And this idea that farms should be sacrosanct,

sort of this idea, and it's very Trumpian thing as well, that like this American golden age has been lost. Yeah. And I have seen the flock surveillance thing, all over the place. That has been something, I think Carlson is correctly picking up on a bipartisan concern that doesn't really seem to run conservative or liberal because I've seen people on Blue Sky talking about it. Can you just very quickly explain what Flock surveillance cameras are doing and where they are? So these are these cameras that are typically set up alongside roadways by this company called Flock. And then they can be used, they track license plates and car movement. And so they can be used by local police departments. I think in the best

case scenario is to say, okay, and then the criminal committed this crime and then we track them to where they were. But I think in practice, and the Washington Post and some other outlets have done a lot of reporting on this, these are like insanely abusive in terms of surveillance. The Washington Post had stories about cops being like, that's a hot lady. I'd like to know where she lives or I'd like to track her movements. People stalking former partners. Like, it's being used in the way that you kind of think the worst people would use something like this. Exactly. And so there's this kind of broader sort of revolt against this idea of this surveillance. And I think Tucker, who's a very savvy guy about sort of what the next issue is going to be, he's saying, you know, we've got to

get rid of these cameras. So Carlson's live stream came a few days after he hosted other notable ex-Maga figures at his home. Former Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Green posted a photo on Twitter showing Kentucky Representative Thomas Massey and ex-national security official Joe Kent, among others. And writing of Trump, quote, he's betrayed us all. So can you remind us all how they fell out of favor with the president? Sure. So, you know, Thomas Massey has always been kind of a contrarian, libertarian member of Congress. But him and Marjorie Taylor Green was obviously much more devoted to Trump in the past, was a Q&on believer and all this stuff. The pair of them really fell out with Trump over their efforts to get the Epstein files released.

They were, you know, one of the handful of Republicans who were in favor of that. And Trump essentially ran Marjorie Taylor Green out of office and successfully primary to Thomas. Miss Massey as well. Now, Joe Kent is another interesting case. This is a guy who is very much in kind of like the Tucker Carlson, you know, more isolationist, more Israel critical mold. And yet he managed to be the U.S. counterterrorism chief in this new administration up until he resigned in protest over the war with Iran. So you have a lot of people who were sort of Trump allies in various, to various degrees, who have now been cast out of Maga World or have quit and have united and whatever. this new effort is going to look like.

If you, like me, do not feel bad for people who supported Donald Trump and then got shafted by him. Stick around. We'll get back to my conversation with Will Summer in a moment. In the meantime, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What a day is brought to you by Nutrifle. Summer is full of vacations. We can getaways in spending more time outdoors. And when you're packing for a trip, the last thing you want is to be worrying about your hair. Nutriful is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand,

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Right now, they have great deals on planting essentials, up to half off on select plants, and listeners to our show get 20% off their first purchase when using the code Wad at checkout. That's an additional 20% off, better plants and better growing at Fastgrowingtrees.com using the code Watt at checkout. Fastgrowingtrees.com code Watt. Now it's the perfect time to plant. Let's grow together. Wad to save today. Offer is valid for limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Let's get back to my conversation with Will Summer. Back in July, Carlson told the Columbia Journalism Review, quote, there's going to be a third party and I'm going to do everything I can

to bring it about. Now, third parties don't really work in the United States. And in my view, the best way a third party can work, and by best, I mean, like most effective way for it to work, is to try to get one of the two main parties to do something they want. You see this from left-leaning parties and you see this from the Libertarian Party, for example. So why does Tucker Carlson actually want to start a third party? Yeah, you're right. I mean, third parties don't have a great track record in the U.S. in terms of actually achieving power.

I mean, typically they would just be siphoning off whatever they're kind of like ideologically aligned major party is. I think there's a couple things going on here. Number one, I think Tucker Carlson was really close with J.D. Vance and the war with Iran has kind of soured him on Vance for now. I think there's a sense of, you know, if J.D. won't do it right, maybe I'll have to do it myself and run for president instead. I think he feels kind of spurned by the, by Trump and the administration more broadly. And then, you know, I mean, this is a guy, he has a big audience. I think he has a big ego. It seems like, you know, he's probably thinking, yeah, maybe I should just run for president myself.

So underlying all of this is Tucker's idea that Trump failed MAGA by going against his America First Promises, mishandling the Epstein files, going to war with Iran. And that's kind of the idea that you get from Marjorie Taylor Green or from a host of these other people who all think, like, MAGA is a real thing and Trump has messed with it or betrayed it. But Trump has repeatedly says he's MAGA. Whatever MAGA is, that's him.

And I agree with that. And I've been making that argument now for like 11 years, roughly, that whatever Trump says, that is what MAGA is. So who do you think is right here? I think this can be kind of ideologically slippery. But as you said, I think MAGA is essentially whatever Donald Trump says it is. And, you know, we can, there's very little ideological consistency going on with the Trump administration. It's sort of whatever's convenient.

Whoever talked to Trump last, whoever he's mad at, whatever. And I think that's what's been driving this split between MAGA, which is essentially whatever Trump tells you to do or tells you to believe. And America First, which is how Marjorie Taylor Green, I think, would say. essentially she was a true believer in Trumpism, whatever that was supposed to be in 2016 or 2020. And now they're kind of trying to, what Trump promised them, they're trying to actually fulfill. So what do you think? Is Tucker Carlson actually going to run for president in 2028? You know, after this monologue or this speech, I think he will. Obviously, you know, it's still a few years away. But I think he is, this sort of read to me like a presidential announcement speech. I think he's

laying it out. I will say he didn't mention a lot. of his crazier ideas, independents might not like, like, the demonism, the demonology, and all of these other kind of wackier ideas. Also, his views on minorities or women or anything, like, that's what got me about the use of euphemisms is like this idea that who could object to beauty, who could object to sovereignty. But one, he and Nick Fuentes are agreeing about how the real problem are women and that there's no such thing as a happy, married, liberal woman. Like, again, ideological slipperiness is a theme for Tucker Carlson. So I think my next thought is, like, how do you think he would do? Because what

we've seen with Thomas Massey and a host of other people is that there actually aren't that many America firsters. I mean, they're very prevalent on Twitter. But like, in the actual voting public, there are lots of people who voted for Trump and are just kind of fine with whatever he does. Or they're not fine with whatever he does and they just would vote for a Democrat. Well, you know, it's interesting. I mean, I think Trump's new lows in the polls. I think we're around 32 percent now in terms of the approval rating. I think that does suggest that there's some amount of Trump supporters who are feeling discontented or people who had voted for Trump. Now, I think if Trump ran again, they vote for him against a Democrat, probably. But is all that

support going to transfer to J.D. Vance or Marco Rubia or whoever, especially if even Republicans continue to be unhappy with this administration? I mean, probably. not. And so I think Tucker Carlson is recognizing whether it's, I'm going to talk about the Epstein class, I'm going to talk about the data centers, these things that kind of split people away from Trump. I think he's rightly recognizing that there's going to be this pool of voters that you can capture. Well, as always, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me. That was my conversation with Will Sumner, senior reporter at the bulwark. We'll link to his newsletter in the show notes. Before we go, if you haven't gotten tickets for CrookedCon yet,

There are some exciting new faces joining us. At Crooked, we believe the answer to right-wing authoritarianism is a big, welcoming, fun, pro-democracy movement. So we've invited some of the biggest, funniest voices online to all-day CrookedCon. At CrookedCon, you'll have the chance to meet creators and new media personalities who make sense of the news with humor and hot takes. They'll be bopping around the Washington Convention Center, hosting happy hours, Q&As, and workshops for attendees. They'll also be making content, because what happens at CrookedCon ends up online for every, political nerd to see. Check out which creators are joining us so far at crookedcon.com and grab your tickets today. See you in DC. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe,

leave a review. Check out new images of the surface of the sun and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, and not just about how scientists in Maui, Hawaii, were able to capture the closest and best images of the sun's surface we've ever been able to see, like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com. slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston, and if you want to experience the surface of the sun, I recommend just going outside. What a day is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily Ford, Erica Morrison, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor.

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