NYT Columnist Gives Up on ‘Never Trump’

One of the Never Trumpers at the New York Times says he is giving up his anti-Trump stance.

Bret Stephens, one of many journalists who looked to attack Trump at every opportunity, is throwing up the white flag.

Stephens said the anti-Trump movement never quite caught up to MAGA, so it’s time to change direction.

Giving Up

I have to say, the fact a journalist is even admitting that he was anti-Trump is pretty disturbing.

It is no secret that I don’t like Democrats, but I do my best to report fairly on both sides of the aisle.

Stephens just admitted that since he has been reporting on Trump, he has been doing so with a bias.

The good news is that he has given up, stating, "It’s been more than nine years since I first denounced Donald Trump as a ‘loudmouth vulgarian appealing to quieter vulgarians.’  I’ve called myself a Never Trump conservative ever since, even when I agreed with his policies from time to time. I also opposed him throughout his run this year.

“Could his second term be as bad as his most fervent critics fear? Yes. Is it time to drop the heavy moralizing and incessant doomsaying that typified so much of the Never Trump movement — and that rendered it politically impotent and frequently obtuse? Yes, please.”

I really need you to let those words sink in for a bit because it is a pretty damning confession in terms of the integrity of today’s news media.

He basically admitted that he was over-sensationalizing this alleged threat that Trump poses to this nation and our constitutional republic.

Stephens added, "It wasn’t that we’d forgotten Clinton’s scandals or were ignorant of the allegations about the Bidens. It’s that we thought Trump degraded the values that conservatives were supposed to stand for.

“We also thought that Trump represented a form of illiberalism that was antithetical to our ‘free people, free markets, free world’ brand of conservatism and that was bound to take the Republican Party down a dark road.

"In this we weren’t wrong: There’s plenty to dislike and fear about Trump from a traditionally conservative standpoint. But Never Trumpers also overstated our case and, in doing so, defeated our purpose."

The most telling part of his column stated, "What else did we not sufficiently appreciate? That, as much as Trump might lie, Americans also felt lied to by the left — particularly when it came to the White House-cover-up of Biden’s physical and mental decline.

“That, as bigoted as elements of the MAGA world can be, there is plenty of bigotry to go around — not least in the torrent of Israel-bashing and antisemitism that emerged from the cultural left after Oct. 7.

“That, as much as we fear Trump could wreck some of our institutions, whether it’s higher education or the F.B.I., many of those institutions are already broken and may need to be reconceived or replaced."

The truth… that is all the American people are asking from the media. I have stated many times I would put my reports up against any mainstream media outlet because I try to call it as I see, and I have no blind loyalty to party or person.

I am a conservative, but my readers expect me to call out everyone, both sides of the aisle, when I believe they are betraying our trust and our country.

Sadly, many in today’s mainstream media forget that is actually their role.

They can have an opinion, but what they are commenting on must be based on the full context and fact, not cherry-picked quotes and the twisting of facts to suit a narrative they want to push. That is not news, and that is now how it is supposed to be reported.