Former Never Trumper Glenn Beck Jumps on The Trump Train
Glenn Beck, who throughout his journey from Fox News chalkboard conspiracist to head of conservative news outlet The Blaze has maintained a principled opposition to Trumpism, has apparently succumbed. In a monologue on Friday, Beck predicted that if the economy continues to thrive, and the media keeps up its aggressive coverage of the administration, Trump will win in 2020.
He then declared that recent coverage of Trump’s remarks that MS-13 are “animals” enraged him so much that he has no choice but to hop aboard the Trump Train.
“Media: If you can get me, Glenn Beck, to do this — and in case you’re only listening to us on radio, I just donned a red Make America Great Again hat,” the pundit said, thrusting Trump’s signature hat on his silver flow, “I’ll vote for him in 2020! And not really on his record — which, we’ll talk about here in a second, is pretty damn amazing.”
A sign of the times perhaps? The Blaze, a once thriving conservative staple, has been hemorrhaging cash and talent in recent years, and the field of anti-Trump conservative outlets continues to shrink. There are only so many National Review conservatives, and 85% of Republicans back the president, so the margins are tight as it is.
So this could always be a cynical ploy to claw back some relevance as The Blaze swirls near the drain. For Beck himself, it’s also just sort of hard to be a conservative firebrand if you’re too busy calling for civil discourse to have time to bluster.
What’s perhaps more interesting about Beck’s emergence from the anti-Trump closet is something pointed out by Allahpundit over at Hot Air. When explaining his MAGA-conversion, Beck gave two main reasons for potentially voting Trump in 2020: the president’s supposed successes in office, and a distaste for how he is covered by the media.
The Blaze touted the latter portion of his explanation on its social media accounts, which is telling. Beck’s explanation that Trump’s accomplishments are reason for conservatives to celebrate ultimately matters less than a far more trafficable rationale: owning the media and the libs.
In his coming out video, Beck railed against the media for its coverage of Trump’s (confusing) remarks that MS-13 gang members are “animals.” He declared that the media’s deceptive coverage of the president’s comments, their refusal to accept that gang members are animals, their unrelenting pummeling of the administration, pushed even him — long and ardent Never Trumper — to don a “stupid” Make America Great Again hat.
Watch above, via The Blaze.
[image via screengrab]
