Donald Trump snagged his biggest newspaper endorsement to date early Sunday, when the Las Vegas Review-Journal announced “Donald Trump for president.”
“History tells us that agents for reform often generate fear and alarm among those intent on preserving their cushy sinecures,” the newspaper’s editorial board wrote. “It’s hardly a shock, then, that the 2016 campaign has produced a barrage of unceasing vitriol directed toward Mr. Trump. But let us not be distracted by the social media sideshows and carnival clatter. Substantive issues are in play this November.”
The paper condemned the direction the U.S. has taken in the last eight years, citing an out of control national debt and struggling healthcare system under President Obama, and said Hillary Clinton “promises to lead us down the same path.”
“She’ll cuddle up to the ways and perks of Washington like she would to a cozy old blanket,” the editorial board said.
Meanwhile, the paper said Trump “brings a corporate sensibility and a steadfast determination to an ossified Beltway culture.”
“He advocates for lower taxes and a simplified tax code, in contrast to his opponent’s plan to extract another $1 trillion from the private economy in order to enlarge the bureaucracy,” the paper added. “Mr. Trump understands and appreciates the conditions that lead to prosperity and job creation and would be a friend to small business and entrepreneurship. Mrs. Clinton has spent most of her adult life on the public payroll.”
On the Supreme Court, the paper said Trump would “recognize the Constitution’s checks on federal authority as a bulwark against tryanny,” while Clinton would be a “disaster” in picking new Supreme Court justices.
“Protections enshrined in no fewer than five amendments in the Bill of Rights could be eliminated or diminished under a progressive high court,” the paper argued. In particular, the paper warned that the Second Amendment would be a “casualty” of a Clinton administration.
The paper, owned by Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson, who has endorsed Trump for president, did note that Trump’s “impulsiveness and overheated rhetoric” could alienate many voters and urged the candidate who has “trouble dealing with critics” to “discover the power of humility.”
But the paper said: “Make no mistake, a Hillary Clinton administration would indulge the worst instincts of the authoritarian left and continue to swell the bloated regulatory state while running the nation deeper into the red in pursuit of “free” college and health care.”
“Mr. Trump represents neither the danger his critics claim nor the magic elixir many of his supporters crave. But he promises to be a source of disruption and discomfort to the privileged, back-scratching political elites for whom the nation’s strength and solvency have become subservient to power’s pursuit and preservation,” the paper said.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is Nevada’s largest newspaper, boasting a print circulation of about 100,000.
Trump has the support of only a few newspapers to date, trailing both Clinton and Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson in the number of endorsements earned, some of which have been given in protest to Trump’s candidacy.
