Conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, a former Ronald Reagan speechwriter, said it’s time for Donald Trump’s Republican critics to put aside their grudges and help the president elect.
In an op-ed published Thursday night, Noonan said the Republicans who either shunned Trump throughout his unlikely campaign or actively worked against his candidacy should now work to make him a success.
“[T]here are former officials and true experts with esteemed backgrounds who need to be told: Help him,” she wrote. “They wouldn’t advise him during the campaign because of the stigma he carried as a barbarian and likely loser. It might damage their stature. Better to watch him go down to defeat and continue their career as big brains in exile. But that’s over.”
She said the Trump administration would be smart to welcome old Washington hands, given Trump’s inexperience in politics.
“They are needed now. They have heft, wisdom, experience and insight,” she said. “Donald Trump doesn’t know how to be president. He isn’t a reader of the presidency. He’s never held office. There’s little reason to believe he knows how to do this. The next president needs you. This is our country. Help him.”
Despite Trump’s rocky relationship with seasoned Republicans — he blatantly attacked many of them as corrupt and inept — there’s some evidence that they may be coming together.
House Speaker Paul Ryan refused to aid Trump during the campaign, but the two met in Washington on Thursday.
“What I got out of Donald Trump today is, this is a man of action,” Ryan said of the meeting. “He is ready to get working. He wants to get it done for the country.”
