National Review on Trump in 2024: ‘No’

The editorial board of The National Review is rejecting former President Trump as a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

“A bruised Donald Trump announced a new presidential bid on Tuesday night, an invitation to double down on the outrages and failures of the last several years that Republicans should reject without hesitation or doubt,” reads the editorial from the conservative magazine, published minutes after Trump announced his candidacy and simply titled “No.”

Trump’s announcement came just a week after the midterm elections, during which a number of candidates he backed either lost to Democrats or performed more poorly than expected. After an expected “red wave” never materialized, some Republicans have called for the party to move on from the former president.

“Trump’s success in imposing his fixations and candidate choices on the GOP played a large role in the GOP debacle in the midterms. This political backdrop raises the possibility that his low-energy announcement speech may be a damp squib,” the National Review’s editorial board wrote, adding, “it’s too early to know what the rest of the field will look like, except it will offer much better alternatives than Trump.”

The National Review, which has long been critical of Trump dating back to his first run for president in 2016, is just one of several conservative media outlets that have grown sour on the former president in recent months. On Wednesday morning, the New York Post buried a story on Trump’s announcement well inside its print edition and teased it on its front page with the headline “Florida Man Makes Announcement.”