Opinion: Why the tide may be turning on Trump

On Nov 19, 2021

It’s too soon to know, of course, and there’s plenty of evidence that those who stand up against the vindictive Trump will end up crushed by either his bullying ways or by his loyal followers, with little support from the rest of the GOP. And yet, it is noteworthy that in the past few days we have heard from two major figures in the conservative camp telling Trump that he should stop whining about the election he lost and let the Republican Party focus on real issues, instead of his self-serving fantasies.

The statements from Rupert Murdoch — who controls a media empire that includes, among other properties, the shamelessly pro-Trump Fox News — and from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — an adviser who worked with the former president and helped him prepare for the presidential debates during the 2020 election — may serve as a test for Republicans who understand just how harmful Trump’s dominance of the GOP is, and how it could ultimately sink the party.

It was startling when Murdoch, addressing his company at the annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, said that the United States faces a number of major political decisions that conservatives will fail to shape unless Trump moves on. “The current American political debate is profound,” he said, citing education, welfare and economic opportunity. “It is crucial that conservatives play an active, forceful role in that debate,” he added, “but that will not happen if President Trump stays focused on the past.”

Murdoch is not alone in arguing that Trump is a threat to conservatives. Christie, who has just published a new book that looks very much like his unofficial entry into the 2024 presidential race, is making the same case, only more forcefully.

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Consider the title of Christie’s book — which effectively labels Trump a threat to the GOP: “Republican Rescue: Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden.” Notice that Trump fits two of the three reasons the party needs saving (by Christie, presumably).

Murdoch and Christie are not the first Republicans who have stood up to the former president — but their rebukes of Trump are markedly different. Trump’s early critics, like Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and others, melted into passionate defenders once their criticisms proved perilous to their own standing. Their reversals bring to mind a quote often attributed to Groucho Marx: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them…well, I have others.”

Christie says many in the GOP are frightened of Trump, whose “conduct is meant to instill fear.” Conservative Republicans who refuse to fall in line, such as Rep. Liz Cheney, are being hounded out of a party that is increasingly remade into the former president’s raging, iconoclastic and intolerant brand.

Sure, it’s possible Murdoch and Christie’s words may also fail to change the course of the GOP, but their criticism is different. They both helped Trump throughout his…