National Review Savages Trump Over 2024 Announcement: ‘Once Was an Experiment, Twice Would Be Perverse’
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Editors at the conservative National Review blasted former President Donald Trump’s announcement seeking a second term in a piece published late Tuesday night.
Trump spoke for over an hour from his home and exclusive club in south Florida. After a week in which he was savaged by the right for costing the Republican Party the Senate in the midterms, he decided to throw his hat in the ring.
Editors at National Review ignored other conservatives who praised Trump’s toned-down language, deciding to go for blood. Trump concluded his remarks just after 10 p.m. ET. By 10:12, the outlet posted an op-ed that was simply headlined “No.”
The piece began:
To paraphrase Voltaire after he attended an orgy, once was an experiment, twice would be perverse.
A bruised Donald Trump announced a new presidential bid on Tuesday night, an invitation to double down on the outrages and failures of the last several years that Republicans should reject without hesitation or doubt.
National Review credited Trump for having “killed off the Clinton dynasty in 2016,” and celebrated his policies. The piece continued:
That said, the Trump administration was chaotic even on its best days because of his erratic nature and lack of seriousness. He often acted as if he were a commentator on his own presidency, and issued orders on Twitter and in other off-the-cuff statements that were ignored. He repeatedly had to be talked out of disastrous ideas by his advisers and Republican elected officials.
He turned on cabinet officials and aides on a dime. 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.
National Review concluded the 2024 presidential field will offer “better alternatives” than Trump. You can read the piece in its entirety here.
