Everyone agrees that the Republican establishment has a visceral hatred of Donald Trump, and has made it known subtly (and not so subtly) since last summer when he announced his run for the presidency. But few of us really have a clear idea of just who these antagonists of Trumpian chutzpah and populist Americanism are. And most of us would like to know more about such people. So what follows is a listing of 10 of the more prominent conservative pundits, scholars, and bureaucrats who are GOP establishment “Trump haters.”
All of them are neocons and support the big government brand of conservatism that dominates Washington today. Some of them have high visibility in the media, while others maintain a more subdued presence in the political-economic affairs of the country and are not as easily recognizable. But all of them play influential roles in the direction of the Republican Party. And all of them have voiced their dislike of Donald Trump, some of them quite vigorously. They can be considered as a “who’s who” of right-wing crony capitalism, i.e., corporatism, in addition to a police-the-world foreign policy.
They now know that they are up against a very formidable adversary in Trump who has them in his gun sights, and has the American people behind him. Their fundamental worldview, which they have given their lives to for several decades, is being shown up for what it is, a dictatorial, imperialistic, anti-American array of policies geared to gratify their warped ideology and grant them ever more personal power and status in Washington and New York.
Freedom, individualism, and strict constitutionalism are not values highly prized in their playbook. Neocons do not believe in laissez-faire, and are dubious of the Founders’ brilliance for the modern world. They prefer instead a centralized statist world where American sovereignty has been relegated to the dust bin of history. They feel uncomfortable embracing the original ideas that America was founded upon. Their goal is to perpetuate the steady shift of America into a massive “conservative” welfare-state and submission to world government to whatever degree possible.
Challenging Neoconservatism
With Trump’s Mayflower Hotel address on foreign policy in Washington, April 27, 2016, he showed the globalist-neocons once again why their game is up if he wins the White House. He hit all the right notes. An end to “aggression and war,” an end to “nation building,” with emphasis on leading the world to freedom by example rather than by regime change, an end to lopsided trade deals, a reworking of NATO, etc. But where he really shined was with this near the end:
“We will no longer surrender this country or its people to the false song of globalism. The nation-state remains the true foundation for happiness and harmony. I am skeptical of international unions that tie us up and bring America down….[U]nder my administration, we will never enter America into any agreement that reduces our ability to control our own affairs.”
Trump haters are now writhing in paroxysms of anguish upon hearing that he intends to end “nation building” in his foreign policy. These pseudo-patriots are horrified, for under a Trump presidency, their cushy places of prominence and intellectual respect will be scorned and greatly diminished. Their dream of “militaristic global hegemony” will be abandoned. Thus they instinctively have struck back with counter attacks to try and fend off the discrediting of their globalist way of thinking, which, of course, is what all history’s losers do when facing invalidation of the guiding ideology they have lived their lives upon. There are thousands of such prominent statists in America today on both the left and the right. Below is just a small sample of the more salient ones on the political right.
I have omitted from the list the well-known Trump haters who are politicians – such as Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan – because we all know of them. Omitted also are the prominent and outspoken conservative Trump haters, such as Glenn Beck, Erick Erickson, and George Will because they are not advocates of “militaristic global hegemony.” They merely dislike Trump for his style and populism.
The following list is 10 of the more intellectual Trump haters who are all neocons and have spoken out strongly against him. They are powerful voices in the GOP and behind the scene promoters for today’s imperial state and all-pervasive governmentalism.
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William Kristol – Editor of the prestigious Weekly Standard, a widely recognized pundit, and influential Washington political operative. Director at the Foreign Policy Initiative and member of numerous think-tanks in Washington as well as a Fox News regular.
Rich Lowry – Editor of the long-standing conservative magazine, National Review and an influential nationally syndicated columnist. Ambivalent about “American global hegemony,” but too weak to resist the orthodox neocons headed by William Kristol’s crowd. Frequent guest on Fox News.
Robert Kagan – Cofounder with Bill Kristol of the Project for the New American Century, and an influential policy pundit based at the Brookings Institution. He serves also as a contributing editor at The New Republic and speaks proudly of his statist interventionism.
Max Boot – Prolific columnist, essayist and author. Contributing editor to the Weekly Standard, blogs for Commentary, and appears in a vast array of top newspapers. The quintessential neocon who advocates unabashed militarism and nation building.
Michael Hayden – Retired four-star Air Force general who served as head of the ominous NSA from 1999 to 2005 and as the CIA Director from 2006 to 2008. One of the architects of the justification for the Iraqi War and spying on American citizens.
Eliot Cohen – Professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University, he has been described as “the most influential neocon in academe.” A fervent hawk who served multiple roles in the Bush administration. Enthusiastically advocates militaristic global hegemony for America.
Daniel Pipes – Son of the famous historian, Richard Pipes, who is an accomplished historian in his own right. Author of a dozen books, he heads up the Middle East Forum and served in the Bush Administration. Grasps the danger of Islamism, but advocates wholesale regime changes to confront it.
Robert Zoellick – Chairman of Goldman Sachs’ International Advisors and a former President of the World Bank, 2007-2012. Served in the Bush administration as the U.S. Trade Representative and Deputy Secretary of State, also at the U.S. Treasury and State Department, 1985-1993.
Niall Ferguson – Professor of history at Harvard and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Prolific author of controversial historical books. Erudite champion of Western civilization, but unfortunately also an enthusiastic advocate of the neocon goal of a new American empire.
Ken Adelman – American diplomat and political policy analyst who has served in GOP administrations since the 1970s. Aggressive advocate of nation building and American militaristic hegemony wherever needed. Career bureaucrat, in the likes of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.
