Tommy Vitor

Well, so the original genesis for the book was I was talking to my agent not too long after January 6th in 2021.

And we were talking about doing a book about the coming Republican Civil War because Donald Trump was clearly gone, right?

And we were talking about how 2024 was going to play out, the various factions within the Republican Party who was going to sort of triumph in that.

And I was explaining to my agent that I thought, you know, all the people who are going to try to inherit Trump supporters, you know, the Ted Cruz's, Josh Hawley's, all those guys, no matter how many positions like Trump like positions they staked out, they were never going to get Trump's supporters, the MAGA base, because like they weren't entertaining.

They have no charisma.

They're not able to kind of hold their attention.

I mean, say what you will about Trump, but like that that is one of his superpowers.

He's a remarkably entertaining figure.

Yep.

And as just kind of an aside, I said to Chris, like, you know, the only guy who can do that is Tucker Carlson.

And we both kind of paused and were like, oh, wait a second.

Like, that's the book.

And, you know, the more I thought about Tucker, the more...

I just kind of recognize that his whole career is such an incredible window on the incentive structure that exists in conservative media and conservative politics.

Because every step along the way, he's kind of tailored his own personality, tailored his own stances to that incentive structure.

And what you see him doing today and what he did at Fox, he's kind of responding to what the conservative base and conservative viewers want.

And he has a really just well-developed kind of radar for where the audience is.

And he's had that his entire career.

I mean, sometimes it's failed him in certain instances, but I think for the last 10 years or so,

It's been operating on kind of the highest level.