WSJ on Trump criticism: He is ‘unhappy with us for recognizing reality’

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board on Thursday fired back after facing criticism from former President Trump, saying he is “unhappy with us for recognizing reality.”

“Former Presidents and Vice Presidents have told us how psychologically difficult the early months of lost political power can be. We can therefore empathize if former President Trump is frustrated these days, and perhaps that explains his attack on us Thursday over his role in the GOP’s loss of the Senate,” the editorial board said. 

The piece came hours after Trump bashed the outlet for calling on Republicans to abandon him and blamed his GOP critics for the party’s Georgia Senate losses.

“They fight for RINOS that have so badly hurt the Republican Party,” Trump said in a statement about the paper’s traditionally conservative opinion section. “That’s where they are and that’s where they will always be. Fortunately, nobody cares much about The Wall Street Journal editorial anymore. They have lost great credibility.”

The editorial board, however, quipped back: “For someone who says we don’t matter, he sure spends a lot of time reading and responding to us. Thanks for the attention.”

“What really seems to rankle the most famous resident of Mar-a-Lago isn’t his caricature of our policy differences,” the Journal board wrote. “It’s that we recognize the reality that Mr. Trump is the main reason Republicans lost two Georgia Senate races in January and thus the Senate majority. Mr. Trump refuses to take responsibility for those defeats, contrary to all evidence.”

The outlet’s initial editorial had detailed the GOP’s many electoral losses since Trump came into office.

The paper wrote that despite Trump’s claims about his dominance, he lost to President Biden by 7 million votes and failed to win two traditionally red states: Arizona and Georgia. 

During Trump’s tenure, Republicans lost the House, Senate and White House. The former president’s approval rating never reached above 50 percent in most polls, the editorial stated.

“He cost the GOP two Georgia Senate races on Jan. 5 as he made his claims of election fraud the main issue rather than checking Mr. Biden and Nancy Pelosi,” the editorial board wrote. “Mr. Trump essentially told his Georgia supporters their votes didn’t matter, and many stayed home. The GOP lost the Senate.” 

The Journal reiterated all of its initial arguments after Trump lashed out, saying “it matters to GOP fortunes going forward.”

“Losing to Joe Biden of all people, and by 7.1 million votes as an incumbent President, must be painful. Counseling could be in order. Any good analyst will explain that the first step toward recovery is to accept reality. The same applies to Republican voters who want to win back Congress in 2022 and the White House in 2024,” the board wrote.