As his odds of reelection dwindle, the marriage of convenience between Trump and the conservative old guard is starting to fray
Photo-Illustration: Megan Paetzhold. Photos: Drew Angerer/Mark Wilson/Getty Images The marriage between Donald Trump and the Republican Establishment was born of convenience not love. The buttoned-up, Burke-quoting worshippers of Mammon who occupy the commanding heights of American conservatism didn’t get into bed with a gauche, grimy Clinton donor until they saw no better way to move up in the world.
Thus, this January, National Review’s ex–Never Trump pundit David Harsanyi candidly articulated the conservative old guard’s satisfaction with its own unscrupulous opportunism: Truth be told, there was reason to doubt that notion even in January. Given that Republicans retained control of the House and Senate in 2016, president Hillary Clinton’s legislative agenda would have gone nowhere, while her court picks would have been blockaded by McConnell’s minions. Which is to say, conservatives could have maintained most of the policy status quo, while demobilizing the Democratic base ahead of the 2018 elections.
Federalist Society co-founder Steven Calabresi answers in the affirmative. As the architect of the conservative judicial project explained in an op-ed for the New York Times Thursday, he had long been an unimpeachably obsequious supporter of Donald Trump. When the FBI dared to investigate the mogul’s myriad attempts to obstruct its probe into Russian interference, Calabresi insisted that the real threat to the rule of law was Robert Mueller’s investigation itself.
To be sure, the more dim-witted conservative true believers recognize no conflict between their political and ideological interests; they genuinely believe that fiscal transfers will only delay the onset of economic recovery. And others may care more about keeping McConnell at the helm of the Senate than starving state-level social programs.
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