'Self-sabotage': Conservative WSJ editorial board rips MAGA effort to 'purify' GOP

26 January 2024

The night after winning New Hampshire's GOP presidential primary, frontrunner Donald Trump vowed to blacklist any Republicans who donate to rival Nikki Haley's campaign.

During a Wednesday night, January 24 rant on his Truth Social platform, Trump posted, "Nikki 'Birdbrain' Haley is very bad for the Republican Party and, indeed, our Country. Her False Statements, Derogatory Comments, and Humiliating Public Loss, is demeaning to True American Patriots. Her anger should be aimed at her Third Rate Political Consultants and, more importantly, Crooked Joe Biden and those that are destroying our Country - NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL SAVE IT…. Anybody that makes a 'Contribution' to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don't want them, and will not accept them, because we Put America First, and ALWAYS WILL!"

This wasn't the first time Trump made such a threat. In March 2023, NBC News reported that Trump had declared that anyone who helped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential bid would be considered "ineligible to join the Trump campaign or another Trump White House." And Trump, MSNBC's Steve Benen argues in a January 25 opinion column, has made good on that threat by blacklisting GOP strategist Jeff Roe.

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Roe was part of DeSantis' presidential team, and Politico reported,on January 18, that Trump had "told down-ballot Republican candidates not to hire Republican strategist Jeff Roe or his political consulting firm" in an "act of political retribution."

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board calls out Trump's blacklisting in a biting editorial published on January 25, arguing that for the GOP, no good can come from efforts to "purify" the party and "purge" Republicans for being insufficiently MAGA.

"Donald Trump has decided the way to unite the GOP, after his 54 percent to 43 percent victory in New Hampshire, is to purge Republicans who are still skeptical of him," the WSJ board laments. "Retribution is at the top of his mind, as he said when launching his campaign. Yet this politics of subtraction will make it harder to beat President Biden. Many of Nikki Haley's supporters, including longtime Republicans, aren't persuaded that Mr. Trump deserves a second term. In New Hampshire this week, 'three-quarters (77%) of Haley voters said they would not vote for Trump in November,' according to a Fox News survey of 2000 people."

The WSJ board continues, "This is a symptom of Mr. Trump's political weakness, not its cause. The obvious move for Mr. Trump is to assuage the concerns of these voters and welcome them into the fold. Instead, he wants to banish them."

The conservative board not only slams Trump, but also, another far-right MAGA Republican who is also big on purity tests: Kari Lake, who lost Arizona's 2022 gubernatorial election to Democratic now-Gov. Katie Hobbs and is now seeking the GOP nomination in Arizona's 2024 U.S. Senate race.

"The state's three-way Senate contest this November could be a good opportunity for a GOP pickup, with liberal voters split between independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and presumptive Democratic nominee Rep. Ruben Gallego," the board writes. "Yet the GOP seems prepared to nominate the polarizing Ms. Lake, who's again busy firing inside the tent. If Mr. Trump and other MAGA figures spend the coming months trying to purify the GOP of everyone who won't kiss his ring, it will be a high act of self-sabotage. It will also be a good reason to vote for someone else."

The Wall Street Journal's full editorial is available at this link (subscription required).

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