We all knew it was coming. Tucker Carlson is a force to be reckoned with, and nothing and nobody has the power to keep him quiet for long.

Tucker has already been dropping free videos on Twitter, and the engagement has been much higher than his viewership on the network, boding well for his future. I took a quick look at the engagement numbers of his videos and the low is 10 million and the high is well over 100 million views. His interview with Andrew Tate has 73 million views so far.

On that last one, you can be sure that one of those views was not mine. Whether Tate is guilty of crimes I don’t know, but I get the sense he is a pig. Apparently a fascinating one, but a pig.

Tucker Carlson is looking to raise money to launch a subscription-driven media company with longtime associate Neil Patel, and has had talks with Twitter about how it could serve as the backbone, ⁦@keachhagey⁩ & ⁦@AlexaCorse⁩ report https://t.co/IYi9lQ7ubV

— Amol Sharma (@asharma) July 14, 2023

As a testament to Carlson’s star power, Fox Corporation stock was downgraded earlier this week at least partly due to the loss of viewers that was the result of Fox’s taking him off the air. Fox has more than enough other problems to justify the downgrade, but they definitely shot themselves in the foot by letting Tucker go.

For many years, Tucker was the sole reason why a lot of people continued to watch Fox News.

“Fox sucks, but at least they let Tucker do his thing.”

Now that Tucker is gone, there is no more appeal. And Fox News’ financials are going down the toilet.https://t.co/d4xwvHjkpE

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) July 10, 2023

I haven’t watched cable news in years, and the only remotely “news” related video I watch except for clips on Twitter is from The Daily Wire, and those really aren’t “news” shows. For that matter, “news” shows aren’t news shows anymore, so why not spend time watching opinion shows that are open about it?

Tucker certainly qualifies in that regard. He lets you know what he thinks and why he thinks it without pretending that he is just reporting facts.

Tucker’s new venture is certainly ambitious. He’s not just raising money, but hundreds of millions to build out what will amount to a new network.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and former White House adviser Neil Patel are seeking to raise funds to start a new media company that would potentially use Twitter as its backbone, according to people familiar with the matter.

The new company would be anchored by longer versions of the free videos that Carlson has been posting regularly on Twitter since shortly after his departure from Fox News, but would ultimately be driven by subscriptions, some of the people said.

Carlson and Patel are looking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the company, the people said.

That ain’t peanuts. And there is no reason that Tucker should be satisfied with peanuts. He has a brand that is clearly very valuable, and with adequate funds could create an alternative media outlet that rivals Fox and the other cable outlets.

He won’t be able to do it alone. Even long-form Tucker content put out daily wouldn’t likely generate the kind of revenue that could sustain that kind of investment. But it would give him the market power to recruit other nontraditional personalities who could together build out a “network” of compelling content providers. And he could do so without all the legacy costs that a major corporation contends with.

Carlson’s team met with a Twitter team in recent weeks to discuss the endeavor, people familiar with the matter said.

Carlson and Patel’s new company would also have its own website and mobile app, and is exploring other homes beyond Twitter for its content as well, some of the people said.

Other big stars who have left TV have built thriving digital businesses, but sometimes with smaller audiences and less influence than they had before, media observers said. Carlson and Patel’s venture will compete for eyeballs with news personalities on YouTube and Rumble, a service popular on the right, as well as with TV networks such as Fox News and Newsmax.

The new company’s potential partnership with Twitter would expand the relationship between the platform and one of its highest-profile video creators, and serve as a test case for the social media network’s video ambitions under Elon Musk. It could also complicate Twitter’s efforts to rebuild relationships with advertisers, many of which pulled back from the platform after Musk’s acquisition in October.

Musk has said he wants Twitter to be a haven of free speech, even if controversial. He has also said Carlson is one of many creators Twitter wants on its platform. “I hope that many others, particularly from the left, also choose to be content creators on this platform,” Musk tweeted in May.

What makes me pretty sure that Carlson isn’t raising that kind of capital just to build a bigger Glenn Beck-type operation is that it wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Tucker could raise a smaller, though substantial sum, that would put much more of the profits of his own show and smaller operation into his own pocket. You give away parts of your company in return for the investment, and Tucker could probably monetize his videos and brand without much outside investment if that was his only ambition.

No, Tucker wants to multiply his impact by building something big, not just get even richer. That is only my opinion, but it is consistent with Tucker’s character. Remember, Tucker and Patel founded The Daily Caller, which is still going strong today.

I mentioned The Daily Wire earlier for a reason–it has a similar mission to what I envision Carlson is doing. It is not just a place for its hosts to land and make money, but to build out a political force to be reckoned with.

While the Daily Wire’s focus is clearly socially conservative in focus, with political conservatism a not-so-distant second, I expect Carlson to be pushing a more politically populist message. Carlson is clearly anti-establishment, and my guess is that he will use his platform to make the powerful very uncomfortable indeed.

I am glad to see he is doing this and hope he resolves his legal issues with Fox News quickly. I like much of what Carlson says and cringe occasionally as well. But anybody dropping truth bombs on the Establishment is doing the Lord’s work.

Go forth and conquer, Tucker!