The NeverTrump Elitist Bubble Finally Pops

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens seems to want back into the fold of rational conservatism. But like a true elitist, he also wants his cake and to eat it too.

While Stephens admits to missing the mark on Donald Trump, he stops short of a full reckoning. His pseudo-mea culpa, expressed in the aptly titled column “Done With Never Trump,” reveals a lot about the arrogance and delusion that defined the NeverTrump movement.

Stephens starts by reflecting on his early disdain for Trump:

“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.”

Even now, Stephens downplays Trump’s historic achievements. Trump didn’t just succeed in his first term; he thrived under relentless opposition, battling what many consider the most corrupt government in modern American history. Stephens’ concessions are begrudging and calculated, as he hedges his bets:

“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.”

This half-hearted acknowledgment underscores the NeverTrumpers’ persistent refusal to confront reality. Stephens suggests that Trump and his supporters degraded conservatism but fails to recognize why millions embraced Trump in the first place:

“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,” Stephens wrote.

NeverTrumpers like Stephens viewed Trump as an affront to their polished, idealized version of conservatism. Yet they failed to see that Trump’s authenticity resonated with working-class Americans who felt abandoned by the very elites claiming to champion them. Stephens grudgingly admits the NeverTrump movement overplayed its hand:

“In this we weren’t wrong: There’s plenty to dislike and fear about Trump from a traditionally conservative standpoint. But Never Trumpers also overstated our case and, in doing so, defeated our purpose.”

Here’s the truth: NeverTrumpers were wrong about everything. Trump didn’t change; his unapologetic style exposed the elitism, hypocrisy, and ineffectiveness of both the Left and establishment conservatives.

Misjudging Trump’s Leadership

Stephens admits to buying into the hysteria, including the absurd prediction that Trump might accidentally get America into World War III. Anyone paying attention could see Trump’s strategy was to wield America’s economic power as a weapon, avoiding unnecessary conflicts.

Stephens also acknowledges the baseless nature of the Russian collusion allegations.

The Hillary Clinton Russian collusion allegations ‘were a smear,’ he concedes—something even casual observers recognized early on. Furthermore, he admits Trump was “much tougher” on the Kremlin than either the Obama or Biden administrations. Indeed, Trump kept Putin in check through a combination of economic sanctions, energy independence, and strategic diplomacy—all of which the Ivy League crowd dismissed.

Misjudging Trump’s Appeal

The biggest blunder of the NeverTrumpers was their inability to grasp Trump’s broad appeal. Stephens writes:

“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.”

This isn’t a minor oversight; it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of American voters. NeverTrumpers prioritized abstract ideals like “democracy” while ignoring the bread-and-butter issues that matter to everyday Americans. They dismissed concerns about open borders, economic fairness, and a dual system of justice, leaving Trump as the only champion of the “Average Joe.”

Stephens admits as much when he asks:

“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?”

Still Missing the Point

While Stephens now sees some of the cracks in the establishment’s facade, he still clings to his elitist disdain for Trump. He writes:

“As much as Trump might lie, Americans also felt lied to by the left — particularly when it came to the White House-cover-up of Biden’s physical and mental decline… As bigoted as elements of the MAGA world can be, there is plenty of bigotry to go around — not least in the torrent of Israel-bashing and antisemitism that emerged from the cultural left.”

This false equivalence shows Stephens still doesn’t fully understand Trump’s appeal. Americans weren’t duped by Trump’s rhetoric—they recognized it as a stark contrast to the blatant lies and hypocrisy of the Left.

A Glimmer of Hope?

Stephens ends with a resolution to give Trump a fair chance:

“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 start, but Stephens has a long way to go. Until he fully acknowledges Trump’s transformative impact on American politics and governance, he remains just another elitist clinging to a failed narrative. But if history has taught us anything, it’s that Trump has a knack for winning over even his fiercest critics.

Over the next four years, don’t be surprised if Bret Stephens becomes one of Trump’s most vocal converts.