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Preface

“I Was Prepared Not to

Like Donald Trump”

HE HAD THAT CELEBRITY handle, “The Donald,” but for most people he was just Trump, and I confess that I never cared much for Trump. Blowhard, raunchy playboy, controversial businessman, endless self-promoter, jerk—all these things defined the public Donald Trump as seen by his critics. Politics never seemed to be a top-shelf concern for this man, but when he did speak out, the narrative was doctrinaire liberal Democrat, championing Obama, Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton while celebrating Planned Parenthood, single-payer health insurance, environmental excesses, and the like.

In recent years he’d been singing from a different sheet. He was becoming increasingly critical of President Obama, but it came with an inexplicable fixation on that damn birth certificate, which all along was the least provable and therefore most irrelevant accusation against the President. It was little more than a clarion call for conspiracy theorists and certainly unbecoming of a dignified contender.

Trump had made noises about running in 2008, but virtually nobody took him seriously, and when nothing materialized, those who bothered to care chalked it up to another Trump publicity stunt. Again in 2012 he flirted with a presidential run. “I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election,” he boasted. But again nothing. Bluster? Fear? The realization that he couldn’t win? No telling. Trump was Trump.

But in 2014 and early 2015, things seemed to be changing. He was becoming more comprehensively outspoken in his condemnation of Obama and the Democrats, and though he didn’t seem to be wildly enthusiastic about the GOP, it was becoming evident that that was his destination. Word circulated that he was hiring staff in the early-primary states. More telling than this, Trump was doing deliberate outreach to some of the strongest voices in the conservative movement, such as my old friend talk radio giant Mark Levin, along with some of the most influential activist leaders in the movement, such as Citizens United head David Bossie, a longtime companion in the political trenches.

It was Bossie who urged me to meet Donald Trump. I was skeptical. When I questioned Trump’s sudden conversion to the side of the angels, Bossie was quick to defend it: “He’s the real deal.” When I questioned his seriousness of purpose, Bossie was equally enthusiastic. “I think this time he’s gonna do it!”

On December 5, 2014, I received an e-mail from then-Trump aide Sam Nunberg inviting me to meet Mr. Trump in New York. I accepted.

On February 26, I arrived at Trump Tower. Walking into the lobby of the twenty-sixth floor, I was struck by how dark it seemed. Staffers were coming and going, busily but quietly. There seemed to be something surreal about the place. We were ushered into “Mr. Trump’s” office. Everyone but everyone called him “Mr. Trump” or “sir.” I expected a vast gilded throne room akin to those pictures of his gaudy penthouse. To be sure it was polished, with a magnificent view of the Manhattan landscape, but it lacked the aura of a business tycoon, especially one who designs and constructs his own skyscrapers. The desk wasn’t even centered in the room; instead it was pressed against a wall. He sat behind that desk looking like just another corporate senior staff, not the Man Himself.

He came to life instantly. After introductions, we began to chat, but almost immediately a staffer, member interrupted. He approached the desk and handed “Mr. Trump” a report, maybe twenty or twenty-five pages long. Taking possession of it, Trump placed it on his desk and explained that this was his new bio. “It’s very, very good!” he enthused as he urged me to read it (though he never gave me a copy). There it was, Braggadocio Trump. He stood and gave us the tour of the trophies along his wall: Mike Tyson’s heavyweight championship belt, Tom Brady’s Super Bowl helmet, one of Shaquille O’Neal’s sneakers, and a framed photo of him shaking President Reagan’s hand, to name some of them. Each was a “good friend” of his, and as he recounted how each item came into his possession, you sensed you were being treated to the VIP tour every visitor entering that office received. But I was not turned off. There was something endearing here. It was clear that Trump thoroughly enjoyed being the Donald.

Off we went to lunch and to the next surprise. I expected that we’d dine in a private room or perhaps the private room in a swanky restaurant not just because of his pomposity but because of the vicissitudes of celebrity. No such thing. We took the elevator down to the now famous escalator to the Trump Grill. Tourists milling about all recognized him and called out his name. He waved simple hellos and smiled. He made it a point to stop and greet some of the staff, especially the waiters and vendors selling memorabilia at the kiosks. We took a table, ordered, and began to talk.

And for the next forty-five minutes I visited with someone else.

I’ve never spent almost an hour in conversation with a man who was the exact opposite of everything I knew—or thought I knew—him to be. Bombastic, yes, but now he didn’t come across as a braggart. He was proud of his successes, but now he was not boastful. He talked a lot, but by no means did he corner the conversation. He spoke in a low voice and earnestly. He asked questions and listened intently. He was razor-sharp, focused on his guest’s answers, prodding and probing, nodding quietly when in agreement, and when at odds he pushed back softly, gently—two words I would have thought could never appear in a sentence also containing the word “Trump.” His intelligence was clearly evident. But so was there a thoroughly unexpected—dare I say it?—humility and graciousness.

He wanted to know: Did I think he should run? It was clear to me that he’d already made up his mind and it would take something extraordinary to dissuade him. He’d been told I was supporting Ted Cruz, but I reminded him of this immediately so that there would be no misunderstanding.

My answer was no and yes. I wasn’t going to lie. I was convinced he couldn’t win, and I owed it to my host to tell him so. But I urged him to run nonetheless. One, he needed to scratch the itch, and with all his scratch he might actually enjoy it. Two, in American politics it sometimes takes more than one attempt to reach the summit, especially when there is dirty laundry to be washed in the court of public opinion, and God knows he had plenty of that. But those were minor points. There was a much more compelling reason.

It’s my belief that no politician can control our runaway federal government, as large as it is inept—never mind reduce it. I reminded this businessman of the Grace Commission, launched by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 and chaired by the industrialist Peter Grace. His mandate was to use his business expertise to cut the size of the federal government as a means toward the end of reducing the power centralized in Washington.

I wanted Cruz to win, but wouldn’t it be terrific if he then tapped Donald Trump to form the Trump Commission to make sense of the federal mess? Wouldn’t it be music to America’s ears to hear “You’re fired!” several hundred thousand times to rid us of that obnoxious, arrogant, and criminally incoherent creature known as the federal bureaucrat? This, I told my host, was my dream, and it might happen if businessman Trump focused his campaign on this message.

Trump listened intently but was not convinced. “I think I can win. I really do.” He said this several times, but with no chest-thumping. He said it quietly, thoughtfully. “I really do think I can win.”

We chatted more about the upcoming race, and then it was time to wrap things up. Trump asked me if he’d supported the Media Research Center (MRC), which he praised strongly. I told him he hadn’t, and he advised that this would change. We walked back toward the elevators for a good-bye, but not before stopping at the gift stand, where he grabbed a handful of Trump ties, Trump cuff links, and Trump cologne, dutifully celebrating the merits of each item before bequeathing them to his guests.

(Sure enough, a week later a check for $5,000 from the Trump Foundation arrived with Trump’s handwritten emphasis, “In honor of the Great Brent!”)

Trump was about the most charismatic man I ever met.

Charismatic can mean different things, of course. St. John Paul II had a charisma that left a worldwide television audience hearing the roars of Santo Súbito! coming from tens of thousands attending his funeral. On the other hand, Vlad the Impaler probably exuded a certain charisma of his own as he ordered fields filled with thousands of Turkish prisoners shish-kebabbed into the soil. In Trump’s case, however, I had never expected to find the word associated with him in any capacity. I left lunch still believing he couldn’t win but now wondering just how far he might go if America got to know this Trump.

Three and a half months later Trump announced his candidacy in the same lobby, and the Greatest Show on Earth 2016 was under way. The man I met was nowhere to be found now that he was on stage. From start to finish Trump embraced the persona of the bad boy of politics, breaking all the rules of presidential campaign discourse, showing a striking inability to deliver a speech or, worse, as some stressed derisively, to deliver a complete sentence. There wasn’t a hint of humility, or gentility, or thoughtfulness, or kindness—all the things he’d shown me. Immediately he shot to the head of the class, so Team Trump was happy.

I didn’t like the way he was doing it, and he wasn’t convincing many of us that he was a conservative.

I had endorsed Cruz because I’ve never questioned his conservative bona fides on anything. I can count on one hand the members of Congress about whom I’d say this. I’ve grown weary of betrayals coming from faux conservatives who cynically wrap themselves around a movement they don’t support in order to get elected, and then reelected.

The GOP leadership is even more cynical.

In electing Obama in 2008, the American people had emphatically not endorsed the radical left-wing agenda that would follow. Within just two years the American people wanted the Democrats thrown out of the House, especially after the passage of Obamacare. The Tea Party was born and political insurrection was in the air. John Boehner read those tea leaves correctly, embraced the revolution, and rode it to victory in 2010.

But the Tea Party had not embraced Boehner. This was in no way an endorsement of a party that had betrayed conservatives time and again.

Did Boehner fundamentally understand this? Did he understand the GOP still needed to restore the trust of its conservative base? In a private meeting on the eve of the election I asked him that question. The look on his face betrayed his supreme displeasure. “Yes,” he conceded angrily through gritted teeth, and then abruptly turned away.

“Yes” became “Screw you” the moment he assumed the mantle of Speaker in January of 2011, beginning with the refusal to honor his pledge to defund Obamacare, which could have been accomplished with his very first spending bill. It wasn’t just Obamacare. Boehner refused to challenge Obama on anything of consequence. It is incorrect to blame just Obama for the crazy spending sprees that gave us the greatest expansion of federal power and taxpayer debt in history. The Boehner-led House went along, every step of the way.

In 2014, then Senate Minority Leader McConnell traveled from one campaign event to the next, roaring his pledge to repeal Obamacare “root and branch.” It was that pledge to America that led to the GOP’s stunning capture of the US Senate in November. Just one month later Republican liberals and Democratic liberals joined Majority Leader–elect McConnell in voting to write yet another check, this one for an entire year, funding all of the Obama’s priorities, including 100 percent of Obamacare. It was yet another betrayal from a GOP leadership that long ago abandoned its conservative principles, root and branch.

Now Donald Trump, a lifelong Democrat supporting one liberal position after another while funding and championing leftist politicians such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, was telling America he was a conservative Republican. Call me jaded, but I wasn’t buying it.

The more I heard him embrace a conservative agenda, the more I feared that this was nothing more than cynical manipulation, and I said so publicly. When National Review publisher Jack Fowler asked me to pen a statement that would reflect that sentiment for an upcoming issue of NR devoted in its entirety to a corporate denunciation of the Donald, I agreed to do so.

A real conservative walks with us. Ronald Reagan read National Review and Human Events for intellectual sustenance; spoke annually to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Young Americans for Freedom, and other organizations to rally the troops; supported Barry Goldwater when the GOP mainstream turned its back on him; raised money for countless conservative groups; wrote hundreds of op-eds; and delivered even more speeches, everywhere championing our cause. Until he decided to run for the GOP nomination a few months ago, Trump had done none of these things, perhaps because he was too distracted publicly raising money for liberals such as the Clintons; championing Planned Parenthood, tax increases, and single-payer health coverage; and demonstrating his allegiance to the Democratic Party.

I stand by what I wrote, without apologies. It was true. It is also true that since taking the oath of office President Trump has walked with conservatives as well as Ronald Reagan and in some respects even more than the Gipper did.

However, Donald Trump did not care for what I wrote. Seven days later “the Great Brent” was on the receiving end of a patented Trump tweet.

@BrentBozell, one of the National Review lightweights, came to my office begging for money like a dog. Why doesn’t he say that?

Maybe because it wasn’t true? I had not gone to him for money; he’d invited me for lunch to discuss his potential campaign. I hadn’t groveled. I hadn’t even asked for money. He’d offered it. That tweet was just another day at the office for Trump. I found myself laughing (my wife, Norma, found none of this humorous). It was going to be a wild and bumpy ride.

One by one Trump’s sixteen competitors were vanquished, beginning with Jeb Bush and his $100 million war chest. Bush was the moderates’ Chosen One, and the establishment was convinced he was unstoppable. Trump returned Jeb to the private sector brutally and immediately. Looking back, it should have been clear at that moment that this was The Year of Trump, and nothing was going to stop this juggernaut. Support for this candidate from his opponents’ followers was by no means automatic, and from some quarters, like Governor John Kasich, virtually nonexistent.

But once the GOP convention was concluded and its nominee was chosen, it was time for the Republican nominee to turn his cannon fire on Hillary.

Some who had submitted pieces in that National Review issue joined the #NeverTrump ranks. I never joined. Like millions of other conservatives, I did not like the way Trump had conducted his primary campaign. I found the personal attacks distasteful in general. Some of the attacks on good men like Ted Cruz were repugnant. Even if Trump did not personally orchestrate them (i.e., the ultimate “fake news” story in National Enquirer linking Rafael Cruz to JFK’s assassination), he did nothing to condemn them.

Trump the Entrepreneur promised to vastly reduce both corporate and personal tax rates while breaking the arrogant financial institutions—banks, insurance companies, defense contractors, and most especially the lobbyists servicing these entities—pillaging the US treasury. Fiscal conservatives were relishing the message, especially because it was coming from a billionaire businessman looking at America as a business itself.

Trump the Patriot energized the America First crowd. The promise to build the wall and halt the flow of unvetted immigrants, drug runners, and potential terrorists became the cornerstone of every speech. He was not only getting tough on America’s enemies (finally!), he was getting tough on dead-beat allies (finally!). Most importantly, he was committing to rebuilding America’s shattered defenses. Both military hawks and foreign policy isolationists were applauding.

Trump the Liberator wowed the libertarians. He was unequivocally declaring war on Washington, D.C., vowing to take a blow torch to regulations, beginning with the greatest federal disaster ever, Obamacare. He understood that while robbing Americans of their freedoms, these regulations were choking the life out of her economy. America needed a presidential Heimlich maneuver, and Trump was going to apply it. After 16 years of anemic growth (at best), very good times were almost here again.

Trump the Traditionalist emerged and the evangelicals were born yet again. He called for judges that would interpret, not rewrite the Constitution. That’s standard fare for Republican presidential candidates, of course. But then he did what Romney never dared. And McCain never dared. And neither did 43. Ditto for Dole and before him Bush 41. In fact, not even candidate or President Reagan did it. Donald Trump announced, unequivocally, that he would name a pro-life Supreme Court justice, and even released his short list of candidates, all of them pro-lifers. It was the most significant pledge ever made to the pro-life movement (and one he would honor immediately with the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch).

Late into the night of November 8, Donald Trump pulled off one of the greatest upsets in modern political history. The man who had told me nineteen months before, “I really do think I can win this,” and who registered 3 percent in the polls the day he announced his candidacy, was elected as the forty-fifth President of the United States.

It’s been only two and a half years, and President Donald J. Trump has changed America and stunned the world.

On the domestic front he has honored one promise after another. Trump first delivered Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, then Brett Kavanaugh, another strict constructionist. He’s cut taxes, the corporate ones dramatically, the domestic ones not so much, but combined the tax cuts have spurred a dramatic resurgence of the economy, aided also by an astonishing assault on the regulatory beast that has kept its paws firmly placed on the neck of corporate America, especially small business, for decades.

On the international front he’s all but declared economic war on the nations, along with the European Union, that have been abusing this country for decades with tariffs that have made a mockery of free trade. Simultaneously, in a striking reversal from the tepid, or in the case of Iran, astonishingly accommodationist policies toward America’s enemies, Trump has broadcast a desire to be confrontational, speaking loudly and carrying an even bigger stick. His successful push to increase defense spending speaks volumes.

This is not to say that he’s not had his share of defeats and promises unkept. The national debt is a national disgrace, and neither the GOP-controlled Congress, whose leadership and most of its members cannot be trusted, nor this administration have shown the courage to reduce it by a penny. All the posturing to the contrary, Obamacare still exists. The wall is unbuilt and underfunded. Planned Parenthood continues to receive money to kill babies. (It’s fungible, folks.) Free traders believe that tariffs are a monumental mistake. He’s now completed his second historic summit with Kim Jong-un and there’s no denuclearizing in sight. Evidence still points to “Rocket Man” in relentless pursuit of an ever-expanding military threat against the United States. And then there’s Russia, always Russia.

Trump should not be considered immune from valid criticism, and this book is not a whitewash. There are the policy and political shortcomings.

And then there are the unforced errors, mostly caused by his incessant—and so often plain obnoxious—tweeting. While his hardened base tends to embrace the tone of that which so readily offends the elites in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Tinseltown, even they shake their heads in disappointment at some of his targets. LeBron James? Arnold Schwarzenegger? Meryl Streep? The Freedom Caucus? Time and again we awake to read he’s just viciously assaulted someone from the immensely popular to the thoroughly irrelevant, even his own friends and staff.

At the head of the so-called Resistance is the national so-called news media. It is the height of dishonesty that these “journalists” deny they have joined the far left in common cause and with undisguised brio. Today they are simply incapable of just reporting the news. They must be judgmental at all times. This bias is found in many ways. It is found in the story selected and the story ignored. It is found in the spokespersons quoted and the ones silenced. It’s in the headlines and in the conclusions and everywhere in between.

Every elected Republican since Dwight Eisenhower—Nixon, Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43—has been treated with nothing but hostility. (Ford doesn’t count. He was both unelected and too irrelevant for anyone to care.) The hostility extends to most GOP presidential candidates as well. Dozens in the last fifty years have been kneecapped by the news media in pursuit of their mission to elect their Democratic alternative.

But Trump is in a category of his own. The national news media were obsessed with the man from the start, laughing at the idea of this buffoon running and then, when his campaign was under way, ridiculing him at every opportunity, still dismissing any thought that he might win his party’s nomination as his numbers continued to climb. When he became the nominee and posed a threat even they couldn’t ignore, they waged scorched-earth warfare against him, breaking all the rules of journalistic ethics in a desperate attempt to change the outcome of the election. It wasn’t that they thought he could win (they didn’t). It was that he needed to be destroyed just in case. But he won, and they’ve been on a jihad ever since to remove him from office.

Trump is unique in another regard. As opposed to every other Republican who has ignored this enemy or, worse, fled for the tall grass in terror, from the start Donald J. Trump understood that the news media were his most powerful enemy, hell-bent on preventing his election and, when that failed, destroying his presidency.

So he went to war.

This is the story of a media that set out to destroy a president and his administration, but destroyed themselves instead.

L. Brent Bozell III