MAGA SPLIT OPENS OVER INTERVIEW

WHITE NATIONALIST'S CLAIMS 'TAKE TABOO INTO THE MAINSTREAM'

- STORY: FRANKIE TAGGART / AFP

Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation in Washington on March 31, 2022.

It began as a simple stunt — a long, provocative chat between two lightning rods of the American right.

The goal: spark debate, go viral and maybe boost their brands.

But when US media star Tucker Carlson devoted two hours to interviewing white nationalist Nick Fuentes, the result was far more explosive - splintering conservatives, triggering a reckoning over anti-Semitism and reviving a bigger question: who really owns the Republican Party?

From think tanks to influencers, Donald Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement has been plunged into open warfare - a battle over extremism, loyalty and what comes after the Republican leader finally exits the stage. When Carlson spoke to Fuentes — a figure who has praised Hitler, denied the Holocaust and branded American Jews as disloyal — he didn't steer the incendiary commentator away from these toxic claims.