Conservative editorial board slams Trump: Making 'Americans poorer' while 'degrading the rule of law'

MAGA media outlets like Newsmax TV, One America News (OAN) and Breitbart News are full of relentless cheerleading for President Donald Trump's second term. On those outlets, Trump is often praised for, MAGA pundits claim, getting a lot done at breakneck speed.

But Trump's policies are by no means universally loved on the right. Liberal-leaning MSNBC features plenty of Never Trump conservatives, The Bulwark is a bastion of right-wing Trump-bashing, and The Lincoln Project continues to crank out anti-Trump videos.

The conservative website The Dispatch offers in-depth analysis of Trump's second term in an editorial published on April 10, attacking Trump on everything from the economy to foreign policy.

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"Donald Trump has literally made America — and Americans — poorer, bringing the United States to the brink of a recession in recent weeks by threatening to unilaterally impose one of the most regressive tax hikes in U.S. history," The Dispatch laments. "He's momentarily been talked into standing down, but an economic environment in which the whims of one famously mercurial man can upend the international trade system and wipe out trillions of dollars in stock market value is not one conducive to sustained growth."

The Dispatch continues, "For the next 90 days — and really, for the remainder of Trump's term — decision-makers at businesses across the country and the world will be forced to speculate: Are the president's tariffs merely a negotiating tool, or an effort to fundamentally remake the global economy? Even key White House officials seem not to know."

The Dispatch stresses, however, that the "financial volatility of recent days is just one symptom of a broader, more deliberate descent."

"Decline doesn't solely mean impoverishment; it means degeneration, to sink backward and down," The Dispatch argues. "And that is what the United States' current leadership class is choosing for this country by willfully dismantling the free-market system, abandoning America's role as a global leader, and degrading the separation of powers and rule of law."

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The Dispatch adds, "Even worse, it is doing so based on a suite of false assumptions: that Americans are weak, unable to compete in an open market, and incapable of responding to any incentives or exhortations more high-minded than rank self-interest or partisan contempt."

The editorial, headlined "Slouching Towards Tyranny," also lambasts Trump for failing to respect "the rule of law."

"Nowhere is the evidence of the new right's willful decline more obvious than in its rejection of fidelity to the rule of law and the Constitution," The Dispatch warns. "As the Trump Administration ignores due process, encroaches upon press freedom, and subverts the independence of the judiciary — all central pillars of self-government — top executive branch officials and Republican members of Congress turn a blind eye, or cheer it on."

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The Dispatch's full editorial is available at this link.