Conservative icon unveils 'potent symbol' pointing to MAGA's direction after Trump: expert

Tucker Carlson has publicly broken with President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, and a religious scholar analyzes the "potent symbol" he has adopted that suggests he intends to lead the MAGA movement deeper into Christian nationalism.

The former Fox News host still holds considerable sway over the conservative movement, which could make him a kingmaker in the fractious GOP, but religious studies scholar Matthew D. Taylor argued in a Substack post that his adoption of the Appeal to Heaven flag suggests Carlson wants to be the king himself.

"You could easily miss it amid all the bric-a-brac and folksy paraphernalia in Carlson’s podcast studio, but the latest addition to his cornucopia of kitsch is an important signal to a very politically active segment of American Christians," Taylor wrote. "Within the past month, Carlson — one of the most popular right-wing podcasters in the country — has adopted the Appeal to Heaven flag into his personal iconography."

The Revolutionary War-era flag's titular slogan is emblazoned over a white field and green pine tree, and for most of the nation's history it was an obscure symbol known mostly the battle re-enactors until Pentecostal-charismatic pastor and author Dutch Sheets in 2013 declared it the symbol of a religious right revolution that would be led by the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).

"The New Apostolic Reformation leaders were some of the first Christian leaders to recognize Trump’s potential as a strongman ally, and Sheets became one of the most ardent Christian Trump supporters, believing God had prophetically ordained Trump to turn the nation back to God," Taylor wrote. "Sheets and his NAR cohort ... became principal architects of Donald Trump’s religious appeal to charismatic evangelicals (Trump’s most diehard base)."

The flag has become symbol of prophecy and spiritual warfare to violently wrest the nation away from leftists, as well as steadfast Trump support, and the NAR movement has convinced GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), to display the banner at statehouses and the U.S. Capitol – where Jan. 6 rioters carried dozens of them during the insurrection.

"The brilliance and subtlety of the Appeal to Heaven flag as a political marker hinges on its ambivalence," Taylor wrote. "It is a genuine artifact of American history; that is its historic denotation ... This means that public figures caught flying it can routinely claim they are just patriotic history buffs while sending all the right signals of solidarity to prophecy-believing Christian nationalists."

That's what unnerves Taylor about Carlson's recent decision to swap out the American flag with the Appeal to Heaven flag as the centerpiece of the side-by-side photos he takes with guests who trek to Woodstock, Maine, to appear on his podcast.

"Carlson has been a lifelong, savvy navigator of the zone between the respectable right and far right, a master at the art of dog-whistling and provoking," Taylor wrote. "It beggars belief to think that Tucker would innocently center this flag with no knowledge of its meaning or connotations."

Carlson split with Trump and the GOP over their support for Israel, while Sheets and the NAR are apocalyptic charismatic Christian Zionists, and Taylor argued that conflict was noteworthy.

"My best read: Tucker Carlson has discovered the unique virtue of the Appeal to Heaven flag as a deeply ambivalent symbol of American patriotism and Christianity," Taylor wrote. "It signals common cause to a core audience of hardline Christian nationalists while remaining deniable as mere Americana. It can gesture toward neo-Nazi adjacent America First politics while retaining the cover of maritime history."

"Tucker, I suspect, is appropriating this potent symbol for his own America First ends — suggesting a desperate prayer for God to overthrow the current regime," he added. "Tucker’s own appeal is addressed not to the charismatic prophets and MAGA establishment that created the flag’s modern meaning, but to the disaffected Christian right that has broken with Trump and is searching for a new banner. Tucker, it appears, is auditioning for the role of standard-bearer."