Tucker Carlson announced that he heard about the CIA’s alleged plans to have him charged under the “Foreign Agents Registration Act” (FARA) for his communications with Iran, whose President Masoud Pezeshkian he interviewed last summer shortly after the end of the 12-Day War. His nemesis Laura Loomer, who’s Trump’s close advisor and even read out a statement from him during a recent media event in India that she attended, preemptively claimed credit on X if this happens.
She disclosed in a separate post that “I have created a list of Conservative influencers who I believe are taking money from Iran, Russia and Qatar. I have attached my supporting evidence. As I told the DOJ, Tucker Carlson isn’t the only person who is likely violating FARA. All of these traitors deserve jail time.” Another one saw her boasting about directly informing the FBI and the White House of her concerns. If Tucker is charged under FARA, which can’t be ruled out, then it might metastasize into Russiagate 2.0.
That’s not just because he interviewed Putin in early 2024, which the Biden Administration tried to stop according to him, but due to the Tenet media scandal later that year which was analyzed here and here. In a nutshell, the Justice Department alleged that Russia paid this conservative influencer management firm to encourage them to continue producing their content, though the influencers themselves claim not to have been aware of this. This sets the precedent for Russiagate 2.0 if the “deep state” wants it.
Between then and now, some conservative figures revived the last decade’s speculation about Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin’s influence, particularly alleging that he’s the puppeteer of MAGA dissidents like Tucker, Candace Owens, and Marjorie Taylor Green, et al. Tucker interviewed Dugin during his trip to Moscow, and Dugin has praised Tucker and the aforesaid dissidents, which Loomer recently drew attention to. The alleged evidence of collusion is that they have similar criticisms of Trump 2.0.
That’s not reasonable grounds for claiming that he’s their puppeteer, nor is Dugin’s famous 1997 book on “The Foundations of Geopolitics” that proposes subverting the West by exacerbating domestic political differences, since they all just happen to dislike Trump 2.0 for their own reasons. While Dugin is a Russian Nationalist, the MAGA dissidents tend to more aligned with Leftism, Islamism, and/or “Third Worldism” even if they don’t self-identify as supporters of these ideologies that challenge MAGA’s.
Nevertheless, the “deep state” might still try to run with the speculation about Dugin’s influence that was revived by some conservative figures and Loomer herself, which the MAGA dissidents’ opponents might fall for due to their dislike of these folks and their belief that Trump 2.0 wouldn’t cook this up. The purpose of this “deep state” plot would be to sabotage the ongoing talks over a Russian-US “New Détente” and ideally, from their perspective, get Trump to redouble the US’ support for Ukraine.
Dugin looks like Rasputin in some Americans’ imaginations, harshly criticizes Trump 2.0 on X, and has indeed praised MAGA dissidents before, so many members of MAGA might be duped into thinking that he’s really puppeteering opposition to Trump. That would be regrettable since it truly advances the US’ interests to complete its envisaged rapprochement with Russia as explained here and here. Derailing their “New Détente” would therefore undermine Trump 2.0 much more than the MAGA dissidents are.
