As a seasoned Republican politico, I remember being constantly stunned – stunned – at the horrible treatment President Trump received from the GOP establishment during his first term. They literally criticized everything he did.
Often I thought, ‘What are these fools doing? He’s pushing and passing the exact conservative policies you guys have always preached about!’ Tax cuts, taking a chainsaw to regulations, drill baby drill, taking on Democrat nonsense, adopting business-friendly policies, getting serious about border enforcement, pro-law enforcement, strong military, and so on.
Remember William Kristol and his ‘conservative’ magazine The Weekly Standard? It closed up shop midway through Trump’s first term. Kristol’s neoconservatism wilted badly to Trump’s MAGA populism, and he couldn’t stand that fact that no one wanted to take cruises with him anymore to ‘discuss real conservative policies.’ So now, during Trump 2.0, he says he’s a Democrat.
But that’s how it was throughout the GOP establishment – in Congress, in right-leaning journalism, and in the so-called conservative think tanks. It didn’t matter that Trump was doing exactly what the establishment cretins had been preaching about for years. Trump wasn’t a card-carrying GOP club member, but a rough-and-tumble New York businessman outsider. How dare he actually come into office and do those things they were preaching about? A club member president was supposed to be doing them!
Only, club member GOP presidents had never done those things, either. Turns out the GOP establishment never really believed what they were preaching. They were just ‘loyal opposition.’ They were all William Kristols.
The same establishment that was bailing on Trump’s GOP was part of the same uniparty that then went after Trump in the form of two impeachments. Some of the GOP establishment voted to convict, and most of them are gone now, with Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the last turncoat holdover, having lost his primary last month.
After all this, though, Trump may finally get some absolution:
President Donald Trump and congressional allies are discussing a push to formally expunge his two impeachments from the House record, a move supporters say would help correct what they see as partisan attacks against the president.
The effort has gained traction among some Republicans after the Trump administration declassified material related to the investigation behind Trump’s first impeachment.
Supporters argue the documents undermine the credibility of key witnesses and bolster claims that the proceedings were politically motivated.
“It should be done because I did nothing wrong,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal in a phone interview. “It was a rigged deal — it was a whole rigged situation.”
People familiar with the matter told the outlet that lawmakers are not expected to take up the measure until after the November midterm elections.
Trump has shared reports about the expungement effort on Truth Social but has downplayed his own role in promoting it.
“If they want to do it, I’m honored by it,” Trump told the Journal.
Somewhere, right now, Liz Cheney, Bill Kristol, and Nancy Pelosi are having a good meltdown.