National Review attempts to take down Donald Trump
Conservative magazine National Review is trying to take down Donald Trump.
The magazine, founded by William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955, unveiled its new cover on Thursday night with the title "Against Trump" in bold letters that mimic the Trump organization's logos.
Inside the edition are mini-essays written by nearly two dozen conservatives who argue why Trump is not fit to be president. The magazine also questioned the billionaire real estate mogul's conservative values in an editorial.
Conservatives against Trump https://t.co/XmGNWXJq17 pic.twitter.com/93UKXbdfrA
— National Review (@NRO) January 22, 2016
"He is not deserving of conservative support in the caucuses and primaries," the editorial said. "Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones."
The editorial goes on to point out that Trump's political opinions have "wobbled" all over. He previously supported abortion, for example, gun control, taxes on the wealthy and a single-payer health care system.
National Review slammed Trump's illegal immigration plan, arguing that his proposal to make Mexico pay for a wall along the border is "silly" and his promise to deport 11 million undocumented people is just impractical and impossible for the federal government to do.
Conservative blogger Erick Erickson is among the conservatives who wrote one of the mini-essays in the magazine. He said he won't be voting for Trump in the primary, though he confessed that he would vote for Trump over Hillary Clinton in a general election.
"Donald Trump needs more time and more testing of his new conservative convictions," he wrote.
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey wrote that Trump would "imperil" U.S. national security, and Trump's plan to block all Muslims from entering the U.S. is just an example.
"Trump's proposal would assure the enmity of all Muslims, including those whose support we need if we are to prevail," Mukasey said.
And Glenn Beck said that Trump's candidacy is a "crisis for conservatism."
"Sure, Trump's potential primary victory would provide Hillary Clinton with the easiest imaginable path to the White House. But it's far worse than that. If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, there will once again be no opposition to an ever-expanding government," he said.
The magazine, of course, elicited a negative response from Trump on Twitter.
National Review is a failing publication that has lost it's way. It's circulation is way down w its influence being at an all time low. Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2016
Very few people read the National Review because it only knows how to criticize, but not how to lead.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2016
Meanwhile, the magazine's publisher, Jack Fowler, announced in a blog post Thursday that the Republican National Committee (RNC) has dropped the National Review from the Feb. 26 Republican debate. It was originally supposed to partner with NBC News, but the RNC cut ties with that network because of CNBC's last debate and has switched to CNN.