I & I Editorial BoardThe political left will never recover from Trump Derangement Syndrome. President Donald Trump could put the economy on a perpetual growth path, stop World War III, bring permanent peace to the Middle East, resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and in his spare time cure cancer and put a man on Mars, and the Democrats and progressives would still blindly hate him. Would the Republicans and conservatives who have battered and cursed him since 2015 continue to bitterly disapprove of him, as well?
Trump has had an extraordinary run so far. An AI analysis by Newsweek says the first six months of Trump’s second term “have been the most ‘successful’ of any American president since Franklin D. Roosevelt” (though we’d argue that Roosevelt was a disastrous president who prolonged the Great Depression, but we do understand the comparison).
The American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, hardly a bastion of conservatism, says Trump has had “the most successful first six months in office for any President in modern American history.”
Former MSNBC host and top aide for Democratic Speaker Tip O’Neill Chris Matthews argues that “the country is moving toward Trump” because he “has strength” that is “greater than the Democratic strength.”
“He is a stronger public figure than the Democratic people.”
J.T. Young, a friend from our days at Investor’s Business Daily, says that while “Trump remains a divisive political figure,” he nevertheless “has expanded his base and continues to hold it. In contrast, Democrats have been unable to capitalize on Trump’s political vulnerabilities and have lost ground compared to 2017.”
And the Trump base, Young adds, “is far bigger than it was eight years ago.”
It’s impossible to know what the next 42 months will bring. But Trump is on a historic trajectory.
Because of Trump’s achievements, some minds are being changed. One high-profile figure who has pivoted is Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone, now one of the more vocal converts. At one time, in the words of the Daily Mail, Langone, a GOP megadonor, “loathed Trump.” Now he says “I am sold on Trump. I think he has a good shot at going down in history as one of our best presidents ever. … I want to tell you, I’m a believer. What I’m seeing is nothing short of a great thing.”
Will the Never Trumpers on the right ever acknowledge that maybe they were too rash in their assessment of the man as the country’s chief executive and too stubborn, until now, to support?
How about former congressman Adam Kinzinger, who said Trump “suffocated the soul of the Republican party,” was handed a preemptive pardon by President Autopen and endorsed the dreadful Kamala Harris over Trump? Or Asa Hutchinson, the former GOP Arkansas governor, who said in 2022 that a third Trump presidential run would be “really the worst scenario”? Or Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president during his first term who ran against him in the 2024 primaries?
And what about George W. Bush, who was in the White House himself for eight years and declined to endorse Trump and didn’t even attend the Republican National Convention?
Shouldn’t these conservatives and so many others who have regarded Trump with contempt be pleased with a president who is actively shrinking the federal government, cutting taxes, boosting economic growth through supply-side principles, deregulating, constraining unreliable and expensive renewable energy projects, cleaning up after the previous administration’s illegal immigrant invasion and kicking men out of women’s sports?
Other Republican presidents had chances to zero out USAID, set the Education Department on the path of elimination, annihilate Iran’s nuclear weapons program, lead the effort to take the bite out of the punitive CAFE standards and restore “shower freedom,” and yet none did.
Isn’t the Trump agenda worth getting behind? Or is it more important to nurse old grudges?
Given the Democratic Party’s plunging approval ratings, there is a grand opportunity for the Republicans to crush the anti-American and, with its dedication to the state over the individual and central planning over free markets, truly fascistic left. It’s a tough task made more difficult by the Never Trumpers on the right actively working against him. What more does Trump have to do to get them on board? With Ronald Reagan in mind, we hope that he doesn’t have to get shot again.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
“ Shouldn’t these conservatives and so many others who have regarded Trump with contempt be pleased with a president who is actively shrinking the federal government, cutting taxes, boosting economic growth through supply-side principles, deregulating, constraining unreliable and expensive renewable energy projects, cleaning up after the previous administration’s illegal immigrant invasion and kicking men out of women’s sports?”
That is exactly why I do not expect them to return. Trump crushes their egos by clearly demonstrating that effective governing was never something they were interested in. They were interested in power and prestige and ego strokes.
Mostly lies. Why do you conveniently overlook the damage these cuts are going to do? I’m not sure even you will come to your senses if your own mother died because she couldn’t get the medical care she needed because of the cuts to necessary institutions. Stop patting P01135809 on the back for ruining people’s lives (on BOTH sides of the aisle) just so he can give himself more tax breaks.
Richard,
Respectfully, you are living in a fantasy land. The amount of money that has been cut is a pittance of the bloated Federal Budget, and pretty clearly has been to done in places where the party you support was spending money to help its friends and gain power at the expense of taxpayers.
You put your head in the sand and refuse to see reality for what it is. You talk about damage, but then in California, when $100 million dollars plus was raised to help the victims of the fires, none of the money went to the victims, the process of rebuilding is becoming a roadblock, and the Democrats are acting like Marxists. They decided they will build what they want where they want when they want, no matter who gets harmed. These people have already felt your party’s ‘care and concern’ for people, and that does not even speak about the failures that allowed the fires to start and grow so quickly.
We can go back a few more months to the horrendous response to the massive hurricane damage in the Southeast, especially Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee, where people died because FEMA did nothing for them, and is only doing more now because of who is in the White House and Congress.
Clean up your own house before lying and throwing stones at your political opponent’s house.
In my opinion, many of these successes that President Trump is having fall into two categories for his Republican critics: Either they were ideas that they liked to talk about but never actively do, or they are just opposed to anyone else having real success in governing.
BRAVO my man! 👍
Republicans like all the Bushes were not conservatives, and never wanted to see the federal government reduced or spending cut, or illegal immigration reversed. Even Ronald Reagan, with the greatest election mandate in history, only cut the amount of increased spending in the budget — but never actually cut the budget. Most of the Never Trump pundit class like National Review and Bill Kristol, had their hands in the cookie jar, and didn’t want to see that taken away. That’s why they hate Trump. He took away their federal handouts and influence and they became irrelevant. What they don’t understand, is that what’s happening in America is what everyday Americans like me, have been praying for, for decades, but we always thought if we elected guys like the Bushes, we were winning. When it finally became clear that we were being scammed by those guys, our country was so far down the road to the left, that it was unrecognizable as a Constitutional Republic, and now bringing it back, is going to be very messy, but the cat’s out of the bag now, and the scam artists have been mostly revealed. Those guys know we know, and don’t want to show their faces among us anymore, and will do everything they can, behind the scenes, to reverse the progress being made. They are traitors to America, pure and simple.
Purging the RINOs out of the GOP is not something we want reversed, but intensified. The establishment GOp are just Dems in drag. A rapid and total purging of RiNOs needs to happen in all state and local RNC offices. That’s where Dems running on Republican tickets in Republican districts are coming from. Get rid of RNC RINOs…quickly.
Who cares? Not me. They can wander in the desert for the rest of their lives. They put themselves there, so the hell with them.
Bush, Pence, Chaney, Kinzinger, Bill Kristol, etc. are just swamp creatures. Little difference between D & R in DC.
Lots to like about Trump but the fact that the entire swamp hate him is a great endorsement.
Well, this editorial and the 4 comments thus far persuade me that I have no place in my country any longer. It certainly has never been with the Left and now it is not with the Right, either. I guess I’m screwed. I just wish all the Trumpists could see Trump for the hideous human being he is. But it sounds like the ends justify the means. If so, that is a dark, dangerous road. Fortunately, I’m old enough to believe that I’ll be gone before we see Nazi-like Trump flags in the public square with hangings and public humiliations. That or the Chinese or Russian flag in the public square. What’ll be left of it.
Boo hoo, pitiful you. RINOs are worse than Democrats in the same way as wolves in sheep’s clothing are worse than wolves barring their teeth. At least one is honest.
When National Review devoted a whole issue to attack Trump, I cancelled and never renewed. This was after being a faithful subscriber for years. The other choice was Hillary!!. I cannot imagine what NR was thinking, but they are dead to me.
You never said anything said about Trump and his indiscretions wasn’t true. Fine, leave…. your kind won’t be missed. Only open minds welcome.
Well, thank goodness there were no other candidates with “indiscretions” hanging over them. Clinton? Biden? Sheesh.
Was it the indiscretions that made them NeverTrump? Or the elimination of the safe sinecures these people had enjoyed for decades pretending to be totes conservative?
But Trump said “pu**y”… is the whole of your argument.
Don’t bother. They are at what I call the “terminal stage” of the derangement. Any attempt to talk with them immediately degenerates into insults, screaming, or at best they run away. There are liberals that one can talk with and try to convince them since they do not engage in the above behaviors; they are salvageable. The rest are hopeless.
Quite the opposite and you know it Capote. You need only watch every single Republican before the House and Senate and how they REFUSE to give a “yes or no”, or honest answer to questions that everyone already knows the answer to. I can’t debate a Trump cultist for 2 minutes before their “nuts gone flake” and they start screaming. Your problem is WE have the facts on our side and unlike Republicans, we’re not afraid to be fact-checked. Just see how JD reacted when he was fact-checked on immigrants eating cats and dogs. I’d GLADLY debate you….. until you lose control and start ranting uncontrollably.
Brahahaha…you are a poster child for TDS. A Liar..but that’s what makes you special.
How hypocritical!! When Republicans get backed into a corner, they say that they refuse to deal in hypotheticals. Yet here’s a lost soul DEALING IN HYPOTHETICALS. Trump never has and never did any of those things. Biden passed more legislation than any president in recent memory (he HAD to to fix Trump’s dumpster fire) and the righties bent over backwards trying to discount all of the good he did. If it’s good, they give Trump credit. If it’s bad, blame ANYONE else. That’s the MAGA philosophy.
This is 100% true. But since the right won’t like it, this won’t get posted. Republicans avoid facts like vampires avoid sunlight.
What will it take for the right to hold Trump accountable for all of the damage he does? You want Biden prosecuted despite never finding a shred of evidence of any wrongdoing. You cheer the release of 1,500 traitors (that’s what an insurrectionist is!), who received their due process and were found guilty.
I know what MAGA politicians stands to gain by kowtowing to Trump. I don’t see what radical brainwashed platforms like this stand to gain. Again, I sincerely doubt this will be published due to the rights aversion to the truth.
WHAT HAS HE DONE??? Even his most staunch supporters are screaming, “We didn’t vote for this”! MAGAs are leaving him in droves, and as usual, you’re giving Trump credit for ghost accomplishments. He’s broken every single “on Day 1” promise, and he’s systematically destroying this country to satisfy his ego. To quote Trump, “I KNOW IT AND YOU KNOW IT”.
Real numbers call you a BSer. Trump supporters haven’t budged. But living on fantasy island must be necessary when you suffer TDS.
Most anti-Trumpers (with exceptions like the HD co-founder) will never never admit that they were wrong. Call it an addendum to the Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).
Like TDSers they’d rather be wrong than lose their consistency. I suspect that if they ever do change there mind on Trump they’d believe that all their past decisions and conclusions must be suspect-and must be re-examined.
Thank God there were enough of us Trump supporters who, not only believed he must be smarter than the average person (after all, how successful did he prove himself to be in the private realm).
Trump supporters also admired his toughness and his willingness to run towards enemy fire. Like any self-respecting New Yorker he never backed away from a challenge-no matter how nu-meritable.
I’d call the anti-Trumpers losers-but then I think they have farther to fall than a mere loser’s plummet.
Amazing. In the comments following an article about whether Never Trumpers might introspect and moderate their opinions, one shows up, lurks for an hour arguing with all comers and repeating the usual calumnies just to show that the answer is … NO!
By the way, I just read Richard Keller’s rants. Each one is more hate filled and idiotic than the next.
As a punishment, and this is the most horrible one I can think of, I suggest that he have to live with himself for the rest of his life.
Don’t you find it extraordinary how many writers complain about “cuts” killing grandmas and yet those complainers despise Elon Musk for disclosing, through DOGE’s good works, the USAID spending insanities that have stolen money from grandmas for decades?
Excellent observation.
Great post. Trump ruins the political games by actually solving problems. Years ago former Speaker Boehner’s staff admitted that not opposing Obamacare will give us fuel to campaign on in the future. Disgusting at best.
Lessee… Kinzinger, Kristol, Ponnuru, Goldberg, Davis, Wilson, Rothman, Dougherty, Lowry, Last, Miller, Charen, Saletan, Conway, Steele, Rhoades, Allahpundit, Romney, Murkowski, Rubin, Navarro, Noonan, D. Cheney, L. Cheney, J. Bush, G. Bush, McLaughlin, Stevens, French, Scarborough, Will, Boot, and Schmidt – are never coming back. Most are neo-cons that actively worked with D’s on D causes prior to 9/11. Others were D’s in conservative clothing that were exposed as a result of Trump. There’ll be no grudge forgiving from this group.
I really thought Trump learned from his 1st term, and meant what he said all these years.
He is a massive disappointment, he has outsourced his foreign policy to the dimwitted Lindsay Grahm and using tariffs as weapons like sanctions.
Tariffs have a useful place to protect industry, not the erratic manner we see now.
Dealing with 40 million illegals need a solid plan and pulling our military out of foreign lands, and hundreds of courts working 24/7 to expedite mass deportations.
Not continuing to fund, arm, command the Ukraine Army in a hot war with Russia. And get out of NATO and Europe. We have a very ill and fractured society, this is our #1 problem.
We are facing a complete financial collapse with added trillions to the debt. Deal with problems, not low end show time and hollow words.
The Department of Education was not eliminated in the “Big Beautiful Bill” another pork barrel monstrosity.
Homework. Do your homework before you go out to play. There are no “cuts” to Medicaid. That spending is right on track with where it was “growing to” before this administration came in. The media always calls reductions in growth “cuts” but the rapid rise in Medicaid spending is alarming because it is unsustainable. If anything, be angry because there are no cuts.
Whatever it cost for never Trumpers to return to the GOP, don’t pay it. We don‘t want them.
No.
Let the rinos stay alone in the wilderness. We dont need them and certainly don’t want them. Mike Pence is to respect what hot sauce is to an ulcer. Liz cheney? Not even the dems will her. Bushes? Please. They were fine right up until.jeb acted like the wh was his…he made hunter look like Amy carter.
No. Stay away. We win. You lost. Now stay alone.