Charismatic can mean different things, of course. St. John Paul II had a charisma that left a worldwide television audience hearing the roars of Santo Súbito! coming from tens of thousands attending his funeral. On the other hand, Vlad the Impaler probably exuded a certain charisma of his own as he ordered fields filled with thousands of Turkish prisoners shish-kebabbed into the soil. In Trump’s case, however, I had never expected to find the word associated with him in any capacity. I left lunch still believing he couldn’t win but now wondering just how far he might go if America got to know this Trump.
Three and a half months later Trump announced his candidacy in the same lobby, and the Greatest Show on Earth 2016 was under way. The man I met was nowhere to be found now that he was on stage. From start to finish Trump embraced the persona of the bad boy of politics, breaking all the rules of presidential campaign discourse, showing a striking inability to deliver a speech or, worse, as some stressed derisively, to deliver a complete sentence. There wasn’t a hint of humility, or gentility, or thoughtfulness, or kindness—all the things he’d shown me. Immediately he shot to the head of the class, so Team Trump was happy.
I didn’t like the way he was doing it, and he wasn’t convincing many of us that he was a conservative.
I had endorsed Cruz because I’ve never questioned his conservative bona fides on anything. I can count on one hand the members of Congress about whom I’d say this. I’ve grown weary of betrayals coming from faux conservatives who cynically wrap themselves around a movement they don’t support in order to get elected, and then reelected.
The GOP leadership is even more cynical.
In electing Obama in 2008, the American people had emphatically not endorsed the radical left-wing agenda that would follow. Within just two years the American people wanted the Democrats thrown out of the House, especially after the passage of Obamacare. The Tea Party was born and political insurrection was in the air. John Boehner read those tea leaves correctly, embraced the revolution, and rode it to victory in 2010.
But the Tea Party had
Did Boehner fundamentally understand this? Did he understand the GOP still needed to restore the trust of its conservative base? In a private meeting on the eve of the election I asked him that question. The look on his face betrayed his supreme displeasure. “Yes,” he conceded angrily through gritted teeth, and then abruptly turned away.
“Yes” became “Screw you” the moment he assumed the mantle of Speaker in January of 2011, beginning with the refusal to honor his pledge to defund Obamacare, which could have been accomplished with his very first spending bill. It wasn’t just Obamacare. Boehner refused to challenge Obama on anything of consequence. It is incorrect to blame just Obama for the crazy spending sprees that gave us the greatest expansion of federal power and taxpayer debt in history. The Boehner-led House went along, every step of the way.
In 2014, then Senate Minority Leader McConnell traveled from one campaign event to the next, roaring his pledge to repeal Obamacare “root and branch.” It was that pledge to America that led to the GOP’s stunning capture of the US Senate in November. Just one month later Republican liberals and Democratic liberals joined Majority Leader–elect McConnell in voting to write yet another check, this one for an entire year, funding all of the Obama’s priorities, including 100 percent of Obamacare. It was yet another betrayal from a GOP leadership that long ago abandoned its conservative principles, root and branch.
Now Donald Trump, a lifelong Democrat supporting one liberal position after another while funding and championing leftist politicians such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, was telling America he was a conservative Republican. Call me jaded, but I wasn’t buying it.
The more I heard him embrace a conservative agenda, the more I feared that this was nothing more than cynical manipulation, and I said so publicly. When National Review publisher Jack Fowler asked me to pen a statement that would reflect that sentiment for an upcoming issue of NR devoted in its entirety to a corporate denunciation of the Donald, I agreed to do so.
A real conservative walks with us. Ronald Reagan read National Review and Human Events for intellectual sustenance; spoke annually to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Young Americans for Freedom, and other organizations to rally the troops; supported Barry Goldwater when the GOP mainstream turned its back on him; raised money for countless conservative groups; wrote hundreds of op-eds; and delivered even more speeches, everywhere championing our cause. Until he decided to run for the GOP nomination a few months ago, Trump had done none of these things, perhaps because he was too distracted publicly raising money for liberals such as the Clintons; championing Planned Parenthood, tax increases, and single-payer health coverage; and demonstrating his allegiance to the Democratic Party.
I stand by what I wrote, without apologies. It was true. It is also true that since taking the oath of office President Trump has walked with conservatives as well as Ronald Reagan and in some respects even more than the Gipper did.
However, Donald Trump did not care for what I wrote. Seven days later “the Great Brent” was on the receiving end of a patented Trump tweet.
@BrentBozell, one of the National Review lightweights, came to my office begging for money like a dog. Why doesn’t he say that?
Maybe because it wasn’t true? I had not gone to him for money; he’d invited me for lunch to discuss his potential campaign. I hadn’t groveled. I hadn’t even asked for money. He’d offered it. That tweet was just another day at the office for Trump. I found myself laughing (my wife, Norma, found none of this humorous). It was going to be a wild and bumpy ride.
One by one Trump’s sixteen competitors were vanquished, beginning with Jeb Bush and his $100 million war chest. Bush was the moderates’ Chosen One, and the establishment was convinced he was unstoppable. Trump returned Jeb to the private sector brutally and immediately. Looking back, it should have been clear at that moment that this was The Year of Trump, and nothing was going to stop this juggernaut. Support for this candidate from his opponents’ followers was by no means automatic, and from some quarters, like Governor John Kasich, virtually nonexistent.
But once the GOP convention was concluded and its nominee was chosen, it was time for the Republican nominee to turn his cannon fire on Hillary.
Some who had submitted pieces in that National Review issue joined the #NeverTrump ranks. I never joined. Like millions of other conservatives, I did not like the way Trump had conducted his primary campaign. I found the personal attacks distasteful in general. Some of the attacks on good men like Ted Cruz were repugnant. Even if Trump did not personally orchestrate them (i.e., the ultimate “fake news” story in National Enquirer linking Rafael Cruz to JFK’s assassination), he did nothing to condemn them.
Trump the Entrepreneur promised to vastly reduce both corporate and personal tax rates while breaking the arrogant financial institutions—banks, insurance companies, defense contractors, and most especially the lobbyists servicing these entities—pillaging the US treasury. Fiscal conservatives were relishing the message, especially because it was coming from a billionaire businessman looking at America as a business itself.
Trump the Patriot energized the America First crowd. The promise to build the wall and halt the flow of unvetted immigrants, drug runners, and potential terrorists became the cornerstone of every speech. He was not only getting tough on America’s enemies (finally!), he was getting tough on dead-beat allies (finally!). Most importantly, he was committing to rebuilding America’s shattered defenses. Both military hawks and foreign policy isolationists were applauding.
Trump
