National Review Disinvited from Co-Hosting Debate After Editorial Against Trump
After publishing a special issue editorial and symposium piece against Donald Trump last night, the conservative journal National Review has been disinvited by the Republican National Committee from co-hosting the GOP debate in February.
In the editorial, National Review warns that Trump is “a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones.”
The symposium piece includes contributions from 22 right-of-center pundits and writers — including the likes of Glenn Beck, Brent Bozell, Erik Erickson, Bill Kristol, Russell Moore, and Ed Meese — all making the case for why fellow conservatives should reject Trump.
Trump wasted no time in reacting to the issue 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
As pointed out by Politico, Trump’s tune towards the conservative opinion magazine was very different as recently as April 2015:
.@NRO Really important to save National Review from going out of business. We need a true conservative voice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2015
Later in the evening, National Review publisher Jack Fowler broke the news that National Review had been disinvited from co-hosting the upcoming GOP debate in Houston:
Just got a call from top GOP official. @NRO disivinited from Houston debate on Feb. 25th becasue of #AgainstTrump. https://t.co/KrPECb1Mwz
— Jack Fowler (@jackfowler) January 22, 2016
The special issue and subsequent decision come in the wake of a series of articles and commentary suggesting that the Republican “establishment” is coming to terms with a Trump nominee.