Source: Politics<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump\u2019s most vocal opponents on the right were sowing the seeds for a future third-party political organization during a weekend get-together aimed at undercutting the Republican establishment.<\/p>\n
The meeting at Tucker Carlson\u2019s compound in Maine with Rep. Thomas Massie, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and others \u2014 captured in a photo posted<\/a> by Greene on Saturday \u2014 served as a launch pad for a possible independent presidential campaign focused on unwinding U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise. But he\u2019s betrayed us all,\u201d Greene wrote in the post. \u201cThe movement has begun.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe Kent, the former Trump national security official who resigned earlier this year<\/a> and attended the weekend confab with Carlson, said the group congregated to strategize on how to best organize their shared opposition to the war in Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s a lot more nuts-and-bolts work that needs to be done there,\u201d Kent said in an interview on \u201cThe Young Turks,\u201d the progressive talk show. \u201cRunning as a third-party candidate is challenging. Not impossible, but it is very challenging. But that’s kind of the consensus that we came to, that the current system just simply doesn’t work, and we have to find something new to save our country.\u201d<\/p>\n Carlson, Greene and Massie all backed Trump ahead of the 2024 election. But each one broke with Trump<\/a> over the course of his second term as the Trump administration continued to coordinate military operations with Israel in the Middle East. Greene and Massie were also loudly critical<\/a> of Trump\u2019s opposition to releasing federal investigative documents relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, further drawing Trump\u2019s ire.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear who would lead the newborn movement. Kent said every attendee at the Maine meeting urged Carlson to run for president in 2028 with their group\u2019s backing but noted that Carlson said he wouldn\u2019t run.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully he wakes up one day and Tucker says he’s going to run,\u201d Kent said.<\/p>\n Carlson and Massie did not respond to requests for comment. Greene declined to comment.<\/p>\n The challenges facing third-party and independent presidential candidates are enormous. They must navigate different signature requirements and deadlines in each state just to get on the ballot. Past independent campaigns have been unable to compete financially with the two major parties.<\/p>\n The most recent third-party presidential campaign \u2014 Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s independent bid in 2024 \u2014 ended months before Election Day when Kennedy endorsed Trump. At the time he dropped out, Kennedy was polling in single digits and fighting lawsuits seeking to block him from the ballot in multiple states.<\/p>\n Kent said the policy platform for the group\u2019s hypothetical third-party campaign in 2028 would ignore most domestic matters and further emphasize their staunch anti-interventionism.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it is having a very, very simple platform, and it’s acknowledging upfront, like, we are going to disagree on a lot of domestic policy and a lot of social issues,\u201d Kent said. \u201cAt the end of the day, the president can talk a lot about all those things, but he really doesn’t have a lot of power.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe do agree that we don’t want Israel dictating our foreign policy,\u201d he added. \u201cWe don’t want any more foreign wars.\u201d<\/p>\n Lisa Kashinsky, Alec Hernandez and Sam Benson contributed to this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n