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Passionate Trump supporters have a duty to respect the validity of prior Reluctant Trump concerns and to persuade them to ultimately vote for Donald Trump.It seems that Reluctant Trumpers often draw considerable fire – if not open hostility – from some elements of MAGA conservatism. Leaning into this issue, the purpose of this essay is to posit that being a Reluctant Trumper is (certainly was) a legitimate position to hold, and more importantly, argue that Reluctant Trumpers are our allies, deserving our respect and our thoughtful persuasion.
There appear to be at least three kinds of Reluctant Trumpers:
- Those who are bothered by Trump’s personal behavior, including philandering, insults, and blatant narcissism. This is the least important reluctance reason at this time. But this did concern many conservatives during his first presidential campaign.
- Those who thought he wasn’t conservative enough. Trump was a New York Democrat, essentially non-political. There was legitimate fear that his roots wouldn’t lead him to embrace conservative principals. Looking back at his largely successful first term, there were aspects of his governance that, a case could be made, were less than optimal and not fully conservative.
- Poor personnel choices. Too many to list but think of Christopher Wray as a prime example.
- Rolled by Fauci. Probably his biggest failing, one that likely contributed to his defeat.
- Reticence to use his executive power. This is especially the case with the George Floyd/ “summer of love” riots where Trump could have called out the National Guard to quell the destruction.
- Star-struck by the “Five-stars.” Trump absolutely should have tried Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley for treason given his back-channel communication with the CCP.
- Those worried about Trump’s electoral chances. He is a highly polarizing figure that polls show 40% -45% will never vote for.
We simply must be clear eyed about the situation we face.
Over the years, Reluctant Trumpers included conservative luminaries such as Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Powerline’s John Hinderaker, and The Daily Wire talent Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro. In fact, Shapiro is now holding fundraising events for the Trump campaign after supporting DeSantis in the recent primaries. There is nothing quite like the zealotry of a convert, especially when the stakes are this high.
<img alt captext="Defense Visual Information Distribution Service” class=”post-image-right” src=”https://conservativenewsbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/calling-all-reluctant-trumpers.jpg” width=”450″>In the 2016 election, most of the conservative Trump reluctance was largely based on point #1 above, along with a dose of concern about his political inexperience and outsider status. Trump proved to many persuadable voters that he was a generationally gifted politician, meeting the globalization moment with a MAGA message. He won! And in winning, helped the country dodge a huge bullet, preventing the corrupt and unappealing Hillary Clinton from becoming President. If nothing else, the country owes Donald Trump a debt of gratitude for this.
During the primaries of 2023/24, many solid conservatives wondered if it was the best course of action to go back to Trump, given the electoral challenges outlined in point #3, along with a deep bench of young rising star Republican political talent, the most notable being Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and his remarkable governing success. Looking back at three plus years of the historically disastrous Biden administration, compounded by the hard-left Democrat party showing its true fascist colors, it became existentially mandatory that a Republican return to the White House.
Donald Trump emerged from a spirited primary process to be the clear favorite to be the Republican nominee. Reluctant Trumpers now have a duty to get on board and support Donald Trump for President.
But in like fashion, those of us all-in, passionate Trump supporters have a duty to respect the validity of prior Reluctant Trump concerns and to persuade them to ultimately vote for Donald Trump. Persuadable Reluctant Trumpers are our allies in the fight to save our republic. Convince them, yes. Insult them, no. However they come to the right action is desirable, maybe even admirable. Elections are about addition, not subtraction. Let’s welcome the Reluctant Trumpers into the tent and win this crucial election overwhelmingly, beyond the margin of Democratic fraud.
It might even be productive to take things a step further and make some effort with NeverTrumpers. I personally persuaded a handful of NeverTrumpers to vote for Trump in 2020, convincing them about the dangers of a Joe Biden presidency. (And as bad as I knew this would be, it has proved to be even worse). One of these individuals is a very prominent long-term conservative operative, who would be well known to many readers of American Thinker. Part of my strategy was to expose them to sources such as author Peter Schweizer, who wrote Secret Empires and Profiles in Corruption, books that, among other topics, meticulously uncover the lifelong corruption of the Biden “crime” family. I will concede that that those infected with a virulent strain of Trump Derangement Syndrome are beyond hope.
In conclusion, anyone with conservative leanings and an open mind are allies in this fight. Let’s treat them that way.
Jeffrey Wright is a Minneapolis-based investment banker, entrepreneur and concerned citizen
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