The aftermath of President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election has sparked widespread commentary on the state of the political left. From congressional Democrats and their media allies to commentators on programs like ABC’s The View, reactions have ranged from anger and disbelief to on-air meltdowns.
However, this article focuses not on the left’s response, but on a surprising shift within the ranks of “Never Trump” conservatives. Specifically, it highlights New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, who recently reflected on the movement’s misjudgments in a Tuesday op-ed titled “Done With Never Trump.”
In the piece, Stephens candidly admitted, “We [Never Trumpers] never quite got the point” of the MAGA movement and sought to understand why so many Americans embraced it.
He opened his column with a reflection:
“It’s been more than nine years since I first denounced Donald Trump as a ‘loudmouth vulgarian appealing to quieter vulgarians.’ I’ve called myself a Never Trump conservative ever since, even when I agreed with his policies from time to time. I also opposed him throughout his run this year.”
While Stephens’ op-ed wasn’t a full endorsement of Trump, it was a notable departure from the rigid opposition that has defined the Never Trump movement. He questioned whether the intense moralizing and fearmongering that characterized the group had rendered it politically ineffective.
Stephens wrote:
“Could his second term be as bad as his most fervent critics fear? Yes. Is it time to drop the heavy moralizing and incessant doomsaying that typified so much of the Never Trump movement — and that rendered it politically impotent and frequently obtuse? Yes, please.”
Stephens acknowledged that his stance and that of fellow Never Trump conservatives was partly rooted in their belief that Trump degraded core conservative values and embraced illiberalism. He explained:
“It wasn’t that we’d forgotten Clinton’s scandals or were ignorant of the allegations about the Bidens. It’s that we thought Trump degraded the values that conservatives were supposed to stand for. We also thought that Trump represented a form of illiberalism that was antithetical to our ‘free people, free markets, free world’ brand of conservatism and that was bound to take the Republican Party down a dark road.”
But Stephens also admitted they had overplayed their hand, ultimately undermining their own goals:
“Never Trumpers overstated our case and, in doing so, defeated our purpose.”
He pointed to specific areas where the movement failed to anticipate Trump’s success:
“We predicted that Trump’s rhetoric would wreck the Republican Party’s chances to win over the constituencies the party had identified, after 2012, as key to its future. But we missed that his working-class appeal would also reach working-class minorities — like the 48 percent of Latino male voters who cast their ballots for him last month. And we were alarmed by Trump’s protectionism and big-spending ways. But the economy mostly thrived under him, at least until the pandemic.”
Stephens expressed surprise at Trump’s ability to connect with everyday Americans and speak directly to their concerns:
“Why did Trump — so often deprecated by his critics as a fortunate fool — understand this so well while we fecklessly carried on about the soul of the nation? What else did we not sufficiently appreciate?”
He also noted broader frustrations among Americans, from perceived dishonesty about President Biden’s health to the institutional failings of entities like the FBI and higher education.
Stephens concluded with a call for pragmatism and good faith in the coming years:
“Let’s enter the new year by wishing the new administration well, by giving some of Trump’s cabinet picks the benefit of the doubt, by dropping the lurid historical comparisons to past dictators, by not sounding paranoid about the ever-looming end of democracy, by hoping for the best and knowing that we need to fight the wrongs that are real and not merely what we fear, that whatever happens, this too shall pass.”
It’s a rare moment when a staunch Never Trump conservative admits fault. Whether this signals a broader reckoning within the movement remains to be seen.
