National Review magazine published a 22-author symposium Thursday night, laying out a plethora of reasons conservatives oppose Donald Trump as the Republican nomination. The New York billionaire was quick to fire back.
Less than an hour after the website posted the editorials, Trump tweeted out his response. He said the news organization was “failing” and jabbed the writers’ works as something “the late, great, William F. Buckley would be ashamed of.” It was a fairly standard response for Trump, but he failed to address the arguments against him.
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
The late, great, William F. Buckley would be ashamed of what had happened to his prize, the dying National Review!
— 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
At 10 p.m. on Thursday, the magazine declared war on the Republican candidate it called a sell-out to the party’s conservative principles.
It is the first time in this election cycle a sizable group of conservative editors, columnists and writers has united against a candidate. Their goal is to upend the self-funded billionaire’s campaign and disturb the first national primary in Iowa, just eight days away.
The main editorial by Lowry and the editors unhesitatingly attacks Trump’s intentions. “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,” they say.
The additional essays by 22 other esteemed authors hit Trump from every angle.
