DISLOYALOPPOSITION
DISLOYALOPPOSITION
HOW THE # NEVERTRUMP RIGHT
TRIED — AND FAILED —
TAKE DOWN THE PRESIDENT
© 2020 by Julie Kelly
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Encounter Books, 900 Broadway, Suite 601, New York, New York, 10003.
First American edition published in 2020 by Encounter Books, an activity of Encounter for Culture and Education, Inc., a nonprofit, tax exempt corporation.
Encounter Books website address: www.encounterbooks.com
Manufactured in the United States and printed on acid-free paper. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992
(R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Kelly, Julie, 1968– author.
Title: Disloyal opposition : how the NeverTrump Right tried—and failed—to take down the president / Julie Kelly.
Other titles: How the NeverTrump Right tried—and failed—to take down the president
Description: First American edition. | New York : Encounter Books, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020000596 (print) | LCCN 2020000597 (ebook) ISBN 9781641771146 (hardback) | ISBN 9781641771153 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Trump, Donald, 1946– | Republican Party (U.S. : 1854– ) Intra-party disagreements (Political parties)—United States.
Conservatism—United States. | United States—Politics and government—2017– | Presidents—United States—Election—2016.
Classification: LCC E912 (print) | LCC E912 (ebook) DDC 973.933092—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000596
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000597
Interior illustrations by Elliott Banfield
DEDICATION
To John, Victoria, and Josie
To the late Alice “Kitty” Kelly (May 15, 1947–June 15, 2019),my mother-in-law and dear friend of 25 years whom I miss every day.
No one is more excited about this book than she would have been.
CONTENTS
2. Trump Wins, NeverTrump Regroups
8. The Death of the Weekly Standard
PREFACE
As this book went to print in spring 2020, the country was in chaos due to the threat of coronavirus, or, as President Trump called it, the “Chinese flu.” After deadly outbreaks consumed parts of China and Italy, US government leaders started to enact harsh measures to combat the virus’s spread here. Schools were closed; college campuses cleared out for the semester; public places shuttered; restaurants, bars, shopping malls, and public beaches closed during the height of spring break. The stock market started to crash, erasing all the gains under the Trump era. People were panicked about not just contracting the disease but the short-term and long-term ramifications of locking down the country during an economic boom.
Forecasts for economic growth in the second quarter were unfathomable: Some experts predicted double-digit drops in gross domestic product for the second and third quarters of 2020, just in time for the November presidential election. This, of course, titillated NeverTrump. As I detail in this book, Trump’s foes on the putative Right seized on every crisis, every rumor, every scandal, to warn that the end days for Donald Trump finally were upon us. “The Trump presidency is over,” declared one NeverTrump writer in the Atlantic on March 13, 2020. “It has taken a good deal longer than it should have, but Americans have now seen the con man behind the curtain.”1
The nonprofit run by Bill Kristol, NeverTrump’s
