December 16, 2015


Donald Trump is a con man perpetrating a fraud against Republican voters and the American public at large. Somehow, some way, Trump has convinced people that he is a right-wing Republican. He is lying. On issue after issue — from guns to taxes to immigration — Trump has consistently espoused views that reveal him to be, at best, a left-leaning narcissist whose ravenous hunger for fame is so overpowering that he is willing to forsake any core belief in order to obtain more of it. He cannot be trusted by anyone, especially movement conservatives.
Let's start with taxes and the economy. Real conservatives uncompromisingly oppose counterproductive and unfair taxes and understand that free trade is the only way to preserve America's status as the leader of the free world. Trump disagrees.He wants to raise taxes on the wealthy, impose tariffs that restrict free trade, and increase the tax burden on American corporations. As David McIntosh, the president of the viscerally anti-tax Club for Growth, has explained, Trump's ideas about taxes would "drive the economy into the ground and we'll see huge drops in GDP, and frankly I think it would lead to massive loss of jobs."
Trump is equally weak on property rights. He has stated, on national television, that he is 100 percent comfortable with the government using its power of eminent domain to violate the property rights of it citizens.
What about guns? Sure, Trump now claims he is carrying a gun off and on to keep us all on our toes, but this is a decidedly new tune for the Donald. Not so long ago, Trump adopted a decidedly middle-of-the-road position in his book, expressly stating that he supports the Clinton-era assault weapons ban.
Immigration? Trump has taken to making ridiculous promises about making Mexicans build a wall to keep themselves out of America, and he has called for a ban on allowing Muslims to immigrate to the United States. This extreme immigration rhetoric seems awfully hollow given that in November 2012, Trump told Newsmax that Mitt Romney lost in part because he was too tough on immigration. Moreover, for all of Trump's comments about the evils of undocumented workers, it seems Trump does not practice what he preaches. No less an authority than a federal district court judge has, in court documents, confirmed that the crown jewel of theTrump empire was built on the back of labor performed by undocumented workers. Even now, Trump is still using undocumented workers at his worksites.n era
On health care, Trump is to the left of Hillary Clinton. Replacing ObamaCare is certain to top any real conservative's list of to-dos once in office, but not Trump. In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, Trumpfawned over the prospect of possibly adopting a Canadian-style single-payer healthcare system. Trump reiterated his fondness for single-payer healthcare in an interview with 60 Minutes earlier this year.

 At least Trump wants to kill the terrorists. Maybe so, but in order to do so, it would be helpful to be able to identify who they are. On an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt, Trump was unable to identify the leaders of some of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the world.
What about national security? Trump has been pretty great on national security, right? Not so much. For all of his bluster about killing terrorists, Trump wasn't even able to tell conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt who the terrorists are.

As Warren Buffett once said, "Writing a check separates a commitment from a conversation." This is especially true when it comes to political spending, which is, after all, speech. In this space, Trump's choices are revealing. Time and time again, Trump chose to spend his support on Democrats in general, and Hillary Clinton in particular. As federal election disclosures reveal, Trump gave money to Hillary Clinton's campaigns in 2002, 2005, 2006, and 2007. Trump donated $5,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $20,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the 2006 cycle, as compared to just $1,000 to the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.
It is a testament to Donald Trump's powers of persuasion that he has managed to convince so many in the media that he is a right-wing extremist. But a leopard cannot change its spots, and Trump has not changed his political beliefs, no matter what he says or how loudly he says it. A choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is no choice at all — they are both typical, rich New York City liberals who would (further) socialize our healthcare system, raise our taxes, shrink our economy, and castrate our military. In reality, there is only one conservative candidate with the chops to take down Hillary Clinton, and that candidate is Marco Rubio.

 But whoever we settle on, it shouldn't be Trump. The Republican nominee for President should, after all, be a Republican.​