Conservative journalist Jonah Goldberg doesn’t see his social media activity as “some deep and profound philosophical mission.” But he’s getting “really tired of the bulls–t.”
He was referring to the current tempest in right-wing media which threatens to upend what has been one of the most effective tools of Republican politics, a juggernaut of Fox News, talk radio, podcasts, and websites like Breitbart.
Goldberg, editor of the center-right site The Dispatch, spoke to TheWrap after his latest pushback on host Megyn Kelly for defending Tucker Carlson’s interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
People “are trying to get really, really, really clever about how complicated a question this is about whether or not we should allow a guy who says he’s on ‘Team Hitler’ into the coalition,” which is a reference to Fuentes, said Goldberg.
“It is just nonsense, and the lack of moral clarity about this, the desire to turn it into this very complicated question,” he added, “is really just a smokescreen for being afraid of your audience.”
Goldman’s comments illustrate how media and political figures on the right have gone to war over Carlson’s kid-gloves treatment of Fuentes and the Jeffrey Epstein saga, a fracturing that includes The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro accusing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of trying to sell a “knock-off” or “Temu version of MAGA.” These fissures may continue to grow as right-wing media personalities compete for audience share and try to shape the GOP ahead of 2028, when, for the first time in 16 years, Donald Trump will not be the Republican presidential nominee.
Howard Polskin, who tracks right-wing media coverage on TheRighting, told TheWrap he’s observed “a vibe shift” in terms of more critical coverage of Trump in conservative precincts of the internet.
Trump has weathered countless crises, and his power remains unmatched on the right. But there are signs that his grip on the party is loosening, evident in Republicans giving in on releasing files related Epstein, a convicted sex offender with ties to Trump, and state lawmakers opposing his midterms redistricting plans.
Just scan National Review this week, where one headline has Republicans “contemplating a post-Trump world,” and another finds Trump “inching closer to lame duck status.”
Staking Ground for 2028
On his podcast, Shapiro was quick to point out that Trump remains the leader of the “Make America Great Again” movement. “MAGA is President Trump. Period. End of story,” he said this week. That’s a view, unsurprisingly, shared by Trump, who told Fox News host Laura Ingraham, “MAGA was nobody else’s idea. I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else.”
Trump is still the standard bearer, but the fact he feels the need to reassert his MAGA bona fides on Fox News suggests the ground is starting to shift.
The 45th and 47th president has fed speculation about running for a third term, despite the constitution saying otherwise, though lately seems to have backed off the idea. (“War Room” host Steve Bannon, who has been noticeably quiet on his close ties to Epstein, is one of the proponents of the ‘Trump 2028’ gambit.)
When asked about succession, Trump touts Vice President JD Vance, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio — or the “unstoppable” combination of the pair. Vance, presumably the 2028 front-runner, has some major media figures, like Carlson, in his corner.
“JD Vance and Tucker are so joined at the hip that if you successfully excommunicate Tucker, or make him radioactive, that’s a huge problem for JD Vance,” Goldberg said.
In 2024, Vance disavowed Fuentes — who has made derogatory remarks about his wife, Usha – but he’s been less vocal of late, while wading into other social media spats. For instance, he went to bat last week for Carlson’s son Buckley, who works in his office.
Goldberg suggested Vance won’t criticize Carlson for interviewing Fuentes because he thinks it’s “smart politics.”
Who can get in the big tent?
“This argument, which you see all over the place, is we can’t cancel Tucker, but we have to purge the RINOs and the neo-cons and the Never Trumpers and all of these people from conservatism for all time,” said Goldberg, editor of center-right site The Dispatch. “Well, which is it? Are you making a big-tent argument that all voices should be heard, or are you just simply saying there’s no room for the Nikki Haleys, but there is room for people who play footsie with Nick Fuentes?”
Goldberg has clashed with Carlson before. In 2021, he and Stephen Hayes, a Weekly Standard alum who is also a cofounder of The Dispatch, quit Fox News, where they were contributors, in response to then-host Carlson’s conspiratorial Jan. 6 special on Fox Nation.
But he wasn’t the only conservative voice to object to booking Fuentes, who has developed a following of largely young, right-wing men, or “groypers,” through his streaming show. Earlier this month, Shapiro called Carlson “the most virulent super spreader of vile ideas in America,” as Free Press co-founder Bari Weiss, host Mark Levin and the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal also took aim. Carlson, meanwhile, brushed off the reaction to TheWrap: “That’s ‘right wing media’? Hilarious.”
Carlson found a defender in Trump, who suggested “people have to decide,” while Sen. (and podcaster) Ted Cruz is taking a different lane in the right-wing media wars, and one seen as setting the stage for a 2028 run. “I think Tucker is dangerous. I think what he’s saying is wrong,” Cruz said on Wednesday night, adding, “I’m calling him out over and over and over again.”
A National Review veteran, Goldberg has expressed conservative views in print and on-air for decades, while writing books with titles like “Liberal Fascism.” Yet Goldberg acknowledges his brand of conservatism differs from the more extreme voices on the right that have gained influence on the past decade.
When asked about the state of “conservative media” today, Goldberg suggested the term “is so amorphous and imprecise,” with lines blurred between media and activism. He said his goal has been to advance ideas and engage in debates, rather than simply support a party or politician.
“There are a lot of people in right-wing media who I would just argue are not conservative,” he said, adding that “burn-it-all-down populism is definitionally not conservative.” And in the “right-wing influencer sphere,” as he dubbed it, “things are a hot mess.”
