Veteran Washington Post columnist George Will at the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland on March 6, 2014 (Christopher Halloran/Shutterstock.com)
In MAGA media outlets, Never Trump conservatives — from attorney George Conway to MSNBC's Joe Scarborough to ex-GOP strategist Tim Miller — are often accused of moving to the left. But Never Trumpers maintain that the Republican Party has changed, not them — and that President Donald Trump is bad for the conservative movement.
Veteran Washington Post columnist and outspoken Never Trumper George Will remains a scathing critic of Trump's second presidency. In his September 17 column, Will laments that Trump is "floundering" in a variety of ways, from the economy to foreign policy.
"Whirlpool, the U.S. appliance maker, still is not happy," the 84-year-old Will observes. "(Russian President) Vladimir Putin, however, seems to be. The U.S. president is floundering on several fronts. In 2006, Whirlpool paid $1.7 billion to buy its largest competitor, Maytag, and said competition from foreign producers would prevent it from wielding unseemly market power. But U.S. consumers continued to like imported machines' prices and qualities."
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Will adds, "So, early in his first term, President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on washing machines to protect Whirlpool from the competition it had said it welcomed."
The conservative ex-Republican notes that Trump's tariffs are also "costly for the largest U.S. manufacturer of agricultural machinery," John Deere.
"John Deere, the New York Times reports, expects higher steel and aluminum tariffs to add $600 million to this year's manufacturing costs," Will warns. "And because China retaliated for Trump's tariffs with tariffs on soybeans, U.S. exports of this crop are down 51 percent and $3.4 billion from 2024. So, growers will buy fewer John Deere machines…. Similar stories are multiplying across the economy, producing a paralytic uncertainty that probably is taking a toll on hiring."
Trump's "seamless unseriousness," Will notes, is also evident in his foreign policy.
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"Since Putin took Trump's measure in Alaska last month," Will explains, "Russia's intensified assault on Ukraine has been matched by Russia's undisguised contempt for him. The Post reports a senior Russia politician dripping with disdain: 'Trump is in a normal state, either waiting to talk to Putin, talking to Putin or explaining how well he talked to Putin'…. Trump's idea of strength can be gauged by his response on social media when a swarm of Russian drones violated Poland's airspace."
Will continues, "About what The Economist called the 'most serious incursion into NATO territory since the alliance began in 1949,' Trump's less-than-Churchillian response was: 'What's with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go'…. From Benton Harbor, Michigan (Whirlpool), to Moline, Illinois (John Deere), to the skies where NATO aircraft downed some but not all Russian drones, the world becomes more serious as the president becomes less so. There is an eerie disconnect between events and his flippant “Here we go!”
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George Will's full Washington Post column is available at this link (subscription required).