The Never Trump Grift Goes On, But It Has a Shelf Life Now
Top O' the Briefing
Happy Monday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Ephemesae was known to rage-whistle Flock of Seagulls B-sides when her blood sugar got a little wonky.
There's still gold in them thar hills, but it's running out.
The Low-T doyens of the Never Trump movement who've been turning vitriolic obsession into cash since 2016 are still cashing checks, which may surprise a lot of people. Sadly, there's still a lot of money to be made when any Republican wants to stab other Republicans in the back. That's been true for a long time but, as with so many things, it's gotten more intense since President Trump's first White House tenancy.
The standard sales pitch from the Never Trump Circus of Mental Unwellness is that all involved are motivated by the deepest, truest principles in the history of principles. They lie a lot for such principled people though. They spent all last year insisting that Trump was too dangerous to be near power again and that they were working hard to prevent his return to the Oval Office.
Poppycock.
The worst thing that could have happened to the professional Never Trump class would have been a Trump defeat. His victory gave them four more years of fear-mongering and slobbering love fests with CNN and MSNBC hosts. A lot of them will have time to write more books about how much Orange Mad Bad is harshing their mellow.
Because it's so early in the new Trump term, the Never Trump ugly mugs are trying to scare people about what might happen. That will probably work out for them for a couple of years. The longer President Trump is in office and none of their dire predictions come true, the slower the money will roll in.
They know that they're term-limited too, you can see it in their eyes. Over the weekend, Ben wrote about an MSNBC appearance by former CIA director and chief mean girl of the Never Trump movement John Brennan. The drama queen was whining about being on new FBI Director Kash Patel's "enemies list" and the disruptions to the mission or some such nonsense. Like so many of Trump's haters, Brennan knows that he's been whipped. Yeah, there's still the grift, but I get the distinct impression that it's difficult to enjoy it as much with Trump's very existence trolling them 24/7.
Over at RedState, my friend and colleague Teri Christoph wrote about the laughably named "Principles First Summit" in Washington, D.C. Here's her description of the gathering:
Across town, however, the vanquished remnants of the Never Trump movement gathered to collectively lick their wounds under the guise of a "Principles First" summit. The agenda included speeches from relics like John Bolton, Adam Kinzinger, George Conway and Chris Christie, and the audience seemed to be made up of establishment Republicans who were distraught that the party passed them by and was given new life by Trump and his supporters. Sounds fun, right?
That sounds more like a penance than a summit.
There are no doubt plans in the works for the Never Trump scam to be repurposed for the GOP's 2028 candidate. It's not going to work, however. No one inspires the intensity of emotion that President Trump does. They're already losing steam and there's not going to be any new anger for them to bring into their dysfunctional fold.
Watch an interview with any of the "principled" major players in the Never Trump movement and they don't even sound like they're buying their own spiel anymore. They felt that last year was their big shot to once again be movers and shakers in the GOP.. That gravy train has run off the rails, and the turncoats are crestfallen.
Fake principles don't bring many smiles to faces.
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