Trump.. no thanks says conservative flagship

November 16, 2022, 5:59 pm , by Richard Lutz

Well, a single word is worth a thousand pictures, to misquote and mangle the old adage (writes Richard Lutz).

Above is a single word headline from the arch conservative National Review, America’s voice of the right wing.

‘No,’ it says bluntly, brutally, atop a photo of Donald Trump in his gold leaf ballroom launching his 2024 bid for The White House.

The magazine, in its seven decades of publishing, has backed such arch conservative American presidential candidates as Nixon, Goldwater and Reagan. But today’s shout from Trump is one step too far.

Its main editorial says dryly: ‘Trump had a limited understanding of our constitutional system, and at the end of the day, little respect for it. His inability to approximate the conduct that the public expects of a president undermined him from beginning to end.’

So a big No from The National Review.

And from Rupert Murdoch comes another rebuff. The media tycoon has told his editors to reject Trump.

That means influential outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, the tabloid New York Post and his tv station Fox News all say it’s time for the Republicans to ditch the ex president. Here’s a cheeky little comment from today’s Post.

Expect Murdoch’s empire to back rising star Ron deSantis, a politician who may just pin Trump to the ground. And also a man with an ideology so hardline it will turn liberal hair white with fear and loathing.

From the more moderate section of the US media, 24/7 news station CNN throws this spanner into the works: ‘…his (Trump’s) campaign raises the extraordinary scenario of a candidate for president running for a new term while facing  multiple criminal investigations and the possibility of indictment by the Justice Department.’

And this is Day One of the campaign. It’s due to last right up to Election Day 2024. Unless Donald Trump lays down his cudgel and crawls away blaming the world for his woes.