Why Trump is a 'far more fundamental threat to conservatism' than Harris: GOP speechwriter

Peter Wehner is among the many Never Trump conservatives who is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump in the United States' 2024 presidential election.

Wehner, who served as a speechwriter under three Republican presidents — Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush — has made no secret of his total disdain for Trump and the far-right MAGA movement. Wehner believes that Trumpism has been terrible for the GOP, and in an article published by The Atlantic on October 29, he argues that a Harris victory on Tuesday, November 5 would be a better outcome for conservatism.

"It would be an affectation to say that Harris is a conservative champion, just as it would be a caricature to portray her now as a far-left liberal," Wehner argues. "She is neither, and if she's elected president, she is likely to govern from the center-left, at least on most things. But the strongest conservative case for voting for Harris doesn't have nearly as much to do with her as it has to do with her opponent. Trump remains a far more fundamental threat to conservatism than Harris."

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The 63-year-old Wehner adds, "Trump has, in a way no Democrat ever could, changed the GOP from within and broken with the most important tenets of conservatism. That's no surprise, because his desire isn't to conserve; it is to burn things to the ground."

Wehner points out that many of the things that Trump champions — tariffs, protectionism, mass deportations — are a big departure from the pro-free trade, pro-immigration conservatism of the Reagan and Bush years.

"It is in foreign policy, though, that Trump may be most antithetical to the policies and approach of modern conservatism," Wehner explains. "Reagan was a fierce, relentless opponent of the Soviet Union…. Trump is the opposite. He admires and is enchanted by the world's most brutal dictators, including Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, and others. Trump is at best indifferent to the fate of Ukraine in its war against Russia; one suspects that deep down, he's rooting for his friend Putin."

Wehner continues, "Reagan mythologized America; Trump trash-talks it. Reagan was a great champion of NATO; Trump is a reflexive critic who, according to his former national security adviser John Bolton, would withdraw from the alliance in a second term."

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