Fox News Analyst Brit Hume: Trump’s ‘Poor Character’ Might ‘Cripple’ His Presidency

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume said Tuesday that President Donald Trump‘s “poor character” might “cripple” his presidency.

Hume’s warning, issued on Twitter, was in response to a Los Angeles Times op-ed by conservative writer Jonah Goldberg, who argued the “Trump presidency will end poorly because character is destiny.”

In the piece, Goldberg bats away arguments from Trump supporters that the president is in fact a “man of good character”:

This latter group rushes to rebut the claim, citing banal or debatable propositions: He loves his children! He’s “loyal to a fault!” He’s authentic! Never mind that many bad men love their children, that loyalty to people or causes unworthy of loyalty is not admirable, and that authentic caddishness is not admirable. Never mind, too, that he is not remotely loyal, to his wives or the people who work for him.

Goldberg further argues that Trump’s faults lie not in his ideology, but in his personality:

But his refusal to listen to advisors; his inability to bite his tongue; his demonization and belittling of senators who vote for his agenda; his rants against the 1st Amendment; his praise for dictators and insults for allies; his need to create new controversies to eclipse old ones; and his inexhaustible capacity to lie and fabricate history: All this springs from his nature.

Hume, who has been more critical than usual of Trump in recent weeks, concurred with Goldberg’s piece, writing in a tweet he “is right about Trump’s poor character.”

“Bill Clinton had/has poor character which greatly harmed his presidency, but did not cripple it,” Hume wrote. “For a time, it seemed the same might be true of Trump. But lately, there are signs it might not.”

.⁦@JonahNRO⁩ is right about Trump’s poor character. Bill Clinton had/has poor character which greatly harmed his presidency, but did not cripple it. For a time, it seemed the same might be true of Trump. But lately, there are signs it might not. https://t.co/bXjgfPGpdA

— Brit Hume (@brithume) December 25, 2018

Read the op-ed here.