Will those who once claimed that Trump didn’t truly represent the Republican Party now insist that the party remain in his image

Will those who once claimed that Trump didn’t truly represent the Republican Party now insist that the party remain in his image? Or will they shift again and distance themselves from Trump and Trumpism?

There was a time in early 2016, before eventual-President Donald Trump officially secured the Republican Party’s nomination, when many figures in conservative media looked at the real estate mogul and reality TV star with skepticism. In fact, some outright detested the idea of Trump becoming the torchbearer of the party and beseeched voters to reject him.

After Trump won the presidency, some of those figures continued to criticize him. This group of Republicans and conservatives came to be known collectively as “Never Trumpers.” A few anti-Trump conservatives, like those behind The Lincoln Project, have gained prominence by making waves with their attacks on the president.

By in large, though, most conservative platforms have embraced Trump and “Trumpism” since he became president. Even the center-right Wall Street Journal, which ran the headline, “Donald Trump Is No Ronald Reagan” in June 2016, has filled its opinion page with pro-Trump conservatives in recent years.

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With Trump set to leave office in less than a month, many of these publications will be faced with a tough decision: reject an ex-president who refuses to acknowledge the victory of President-elect Joe Biden, or continue to support Trump even as he pushes baseless accusations and conspiracies.

It won’t be an easy decision, as Fox News learned recently when it angered Trump’s loyal supporters by preemptively (but accurately) calling Arizona for Biden. At the same time, though, as Trump’s inner circle increasingly draws conspiracy theorists, the Republican Party and the right-wing media sphere will have to decide what the future of American conservatism will look like.

The Wall Street Journal
In July 2015, when few in the media believed Trump had a chance of winning the Republican nomination, let alone the presidency, The Wall Street Journal ‘s editorial board wrote a blistering op-ed criticizing both Trump and those in conservative media who supported him.

Of Trump, the editors stated, “As a standard-bearer for conservative ideas, Mr. Trump would … be a catastrophe.” They added, “Some Americans may find it satisfying 16 months from Election Day to tell pollsters they’d vote for him, but that doesn’t mean conservative elites should validate this nonsense.”

The op-ed then turns its attention to Republicans, specifically Texas Senator Ted Cruz and “conservative media elites” who refused to criticize Trump. The editors compare conservatives’ silence in the face of Trump’s “demagoguery” and attacks on a fellow Republican, the late Senator John McCain, to liberals refusing to condemn communists.

The op-ed concludes with a dire warning: “Many on the right seem willing to indulge any populist outburst no matter how divorced from reality or insulting to most Americans. If Donald Trump becomes the voice of conservatives, conservatism will implode along with him.”

Yet, a year and a half later, just days before the 2016 election, the WSJ editorial board offered the case for electing Trump.

It wasn’t an endorsement — the newspaper doesn’t do presidential endorsements — but it did explain why conservative voters could be happy with a Trump presidency, including a conservative majority on the Supreme Court and Trump’s promise “to rebuild US defenses that have eroded on [President Barack] Obama’s watch.”

“The strongest argument against Mr. Trump,” they wrote, “concerns his temperament and political character.” That’s a far cry from claiming Trump would destroy conservatism.

Four years later, the editorial board again gave their preelection assessment, this time focusing on Biden and his purported leftward turn. As in 2016, the board didn’t endorse a candidate, but they expressed few qualms with Trump’s reelection, other than noting that voters “may elect the man they think is Mr. Trump’s opposite in the hope of restoring more decorum and calm to American politics.”