The National Review slammed Donald Trump in its most recent issue, claiming that while “there are understandable reasons for his eminence ... he is not deserving of conservative support.”
The magazine’s editors wrote a piece that they said outlined why Trump shouldn’t receive support, noting that “Trump’s political opinions have wobbled all over the lot.”
“His signature issue is concern over immigration — from Latin America but also, after Paris and San Bernardino, from the Middle East. He has exploited the yawning gap between elite opinion in both parties and the public on the issue, and feasted on the discontent over a government that can’t be bothered to enforce its own laws no matter how many times it says it will (President Obama has dispensed even with the pretense). But even on immigration, Trump often makes no sense and can’t be relied upon. A few short years ago, he was criticizing Mitt Romney for having the temerity to propose ’self-deportation,' or the entirely reasonable policy of reducing the illegal population through attrition while enforcing the nation’s laws. Now, Trump is a hawk’s hawk,” the editors wrote.
“He pledges to build a wall along the southern border and to make Mexico pay for it. We need more fencing at the border, but the promise to make Mexico pay for it is silly bluster. Trump says he will put a big door in his beautiful wall, an implicit endorsement of the dismayingly conventional view that current levels of legal immigration are fine. Trump seems unaware that a major contribution of his own written immigration plan is to question the economic impact of legal immigration and to call for reform of the H-1B–visa program. Indeed, in one Republican debate he clearly had no idea what’s in that plan and advocated increased legal immigration, which is completely at odds with it. These are not the meanderings of someone with well-informed, deeply held views on the topic.”
The editors later called Trump “a menace to conservatism,” and urged voters not to support him.
The Review also published another piece, “Conservatives Against Trump,” in which various conservative figures took shots at the presidential candidate.
Trump wasn’t happy with the Review, firing back at a press conference in Las Vegas.
“The National Review is a dying, dying paper,” Trump said. “It’s circulation is way down. Not very many people read him anymore. People don’t even think about The National Review. I guess they want to get a little publicity. But that’s a dying paper. I got to tell you, it’s pretty much a dead paper.”
