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Rush Finally Turns on Trump
Millions of conservatives have listened to Rush Limbaugh since his syndicated show first appeared on their AM dials. For more than a quarter century, the mighty El Rushbo has argued passionately for Constitutional principles from behind his golden EIB microphone, eviscerating liberals and also weak-kneed establishment squishes who deviated from the small government mantra of classic Republicanism.
Which is why so many conservatives have been bewildered by Maha-Rushi’s months of fulsome praise for the pro-gun control, pro-choice, pro-universal healthcare, Clinton-donating, eminent domain-abusing, Republican-as-of-last-Tuesday Donald Trump. Rush has always loved sticking it to the GOP establishment, but selling a literal RINO like Trump to his loyal listeners seemed distinctly out of character.
However, The Donald’s recent attacks on Senator Ted Cruz have finally prompted the nation’s most popular talk show host to give his Palm Beach neighbor a stinging brushback pitch. Over the weekend, Chris Wallace asked Donald Trump what he thought of Ted Cruz. Trump responded:
I don’t think he has the right temperament. I don’t think he’s got the right judgment. You look at the way he’s dealt with the Senate where he goes in there like a … you know, frankly, like a little bit of a maniac. You’re never gonna get things done that way. You can’t walk into the Senate and scream and call people liars and not be able to cajole and get along with people. He’ll never get anything done, and that’s the problem with Ted.
Rush was not amused. From the transcript of Monday’s show:
Whoa. Wait just a second here. Doesn’t that kind of describe the way Trump has been dealing with people he disagrees with? I mean, he’s been calling them stupid, he’s been calling them incompetent, he’s been saying you can’t get anything done with these people. But for the people in the Trump support base who are conservatives, and who may not even have any affinity for Cruz … The conservative base of the Republican Party likes a lot of different people.
But even people who are not particularly aligned with Cruz on the right have gotta be curious about this because this is no different than what the media would say about Ted Cruz. This is no different than what the Democrat Party would say. I mean, this is what the Republican establishment would say, for crying out loud. I mean, this is akin to saying, “I’m the guy who can cross the aisle and work with the other side.” That hasn’t been the way Trump has come off up ’til now. He’s not positioned that way.
He’s come across as somebody who’s gonna beat somebody in negotiations, who’s gonna beat them down. He’s gonna tell them how it’s gonna be. This… This is so obvious. You know, I’ll tell you what this is. This is obviously the Trump campaign deciding to use the most common criticism against Cruz because they see that Cruz has negatives. They see that Cruz is not liked by the Republican establishment, and so they’re just piggybacking on that, I think, as a way for Trump to maybe score some points with the Republican establishment.
‘Cause after all, he needs ’em on his side for the nomination if he wants there to be the respect and unity, and not have to go third party. So he’s decided to go after Cruz here in the way the establishment Republicans go after Cruz, in the way the media goes after Cruz, in the way the Democrats go after Cruz. He’s essentially put on his John McCain hat here and is saying, “I’m Donald McCain, and I’m the guy that can cross the aisle and work with the other side. Ted Cruz can’t.” I was kind of surprised by that.
Playing footsie with the loathed GOP establishment is as damaging as criticism gets for Limbaugh’s audience. For Trump to echo the claims of Sens. McConnell and Graham undercuts the “tell it like it is” persona that has made him so appealing to radio talkers.
Rush also was upset about Trump’s dig at Justice Antonin Scalia. When asked what he thought of the jurist’s reported comments about African-American students, The Donald said:
I thought it was very tough to the African-American community, actually. I don’t like what he said. I actually saw it in print, and I’m going … I read a lot of stuff. I’m going, “Whoa.” I have great African-American friendships. I have just amazing relationships. But, yeah, I was very surprised at Scalia’s statements, actually.
Rush’s response:
Well, they weren’t “Scalia’s statements.” They were arguments that had been submitted to the court that he was engaging in oral argument over. But these are two things that … If you’re a conservative voter in the Republican primary, these two things have gotta raise some red flags for you people, I would think.
A question for longtime Dittoheads: Will Rush finally move on from his pro-Trump enthusiasms, or will he be back to praising the GOP frontrunner tomorrow?
Update: Mark Levin isn’t pleased with Trump either.
Published in General
Gotta have a boogeyman to make your clown look acceptable. Bush did that for tRump. His more moderate positions made tRump appear conservative on a few issues that his followers liked and thus they used it to screen tRump with. I doubt anyone actually thought Bush was gonna win. Money is a symbol of value but so is everything else and not everyone values money over everything else.
Money maybe important but it is not the determining factor, we have the principle of diminishing marginal utility.
Sigh, JimGoneWild got it right. Rush has not been supporting anyone, his focus on Trump has been largely on how he has dealt with the media and the establishment. He has highlighted these things to help , show the other Republican candidates how it’s is done. How to deal with the media, that you CAN say certain truths and it,will be supported. He has been railing for years that the Republicans are more terrified of the media and that they might write a mean op ed about them then they are of their own base of voter (whom they do not appreciate) and he sees Trump as showing how it’s is done. You can say what everyone is thinking and talk over the media. I do not think he wants Trump to win the nomination
In my humble opinion, i think Rush is pulling for Cruz (like his brother) but can’t say that for obvious reasons, but as Rush is a pro he will always hold those cards close to the vest.
While Rush hasn’t endorsed him, he has certainly supported him, up until today. I agree that part of it has been the way trump tramples on the media, but he has also supported the positions that trump is taking.
That collapse isn’t looking too inevitable at the moment. Plus I wasn’t really thinking of the candidates being afraid so much as the donor class, who have been widely reported to be thoroughly vexed by Trump. But if Trump is such a terrible candidate, why is he in the lead?
And you can call spirits from the vasty deep, too, and so can I and so can any man. But will the media treat you with respect, or will it treat you like George Bush?
If you’ve already been screwed over by every other foxy girl in the GOP school of respectable ladies, sooner or later you’ll take up with one who hasn’t yet betrayed you.
That’s just reality. And a grim ugly problem the GOP has is that too many people remember getting screwed over by the party, and not fondly.
The GOP plan for this seems to be to let the left to pick the most idiotic and extreme candidate possible, then figure that the voters have no choice but to pick the goper. No need to make a case.
Hence Obama. And Trump.
Rush had been digging himself into a hole over Trump. (As an aside, Rush has disappointed me over Trump.) Now the backing and filling is underway.
Rush needed to make a U-Turn sooner or later anyway.
Trump won’t self destruct. He will be beaten by a better candidate. The better candidate will create the Republican coalition that will define US politics and policy for the next decade.
I’m not certain that there is anyone in the field who can pull this off. Maybe Cruz, but I’m suspecting that he is getting sucked in by the consultant driven process politics, and his proecutorial skills are about defeating not winning. Rubio has the chops but teeters on the edge of slime; I don’t think he has the depth.
The right has made gains since 2008 only by those who dare to change the subject. Shut down the government and suffer defeat by winning both houses. Campaign against a generous entitlement and win the house. Speak against immigration and a deeply flawed candidate becomes an unstoppable force. There is a powerful swell of something boiling in the US electorate, so far unharnessed that is going to steamroll over almost everyone. I saw this in Canada in the 90’s where a generation’s worth of political, cultural and economic assumptions were overthrown, and to their credit some wise politicians rode that wave and actually implemented policy that reflected the changes.
Obama has been the one riding the wave so far. Are there any good Republicans up to the task? Trump is the personification of the challenge. If you can’t beat him, you just aren’t smart enough.
And by the way, that is what people like Rush and Steyn have been saying. If you can’t beat a deeply flawed candidate, what does that say about you?
Actually I think both Trump and Rush are right. Trump on Cruz, Rush on Trump. They are not incompatible.
Yesterday, after the discussion which brought about this post, Limbaugh mentioned the Monmouth national poll which shows Trump at 41% and Cruz in second at 14%.
He then said, “If this poll is accurate, then this is getting close to wrap-up time… You can’t take San Bernardino out of that. The fact that the San Bernardino thing happened and the Regime’s response to it has been pathetic, and Trump is the one guy who has stood up, and without any excuses, proclaimed what he would do.”
So, Tuesday’s Ricochet headline should be: Rush Finally Supports Trump
Or… maybe people comment on Rush who don’t actually listen to his program. Riffing on what Media Matters and their friends say Rush said is more common than discussing what he actually did say.
I say this with love, but if you think the media treats (or will in the general election) Trump with respect, you’re nuts.*
Never, ever forget the media belongs to the Democrats. Their wet dream (is that COC compliant?) is a Hillary v. Trump matchup. We will be treated to a daily barrage of his past comments and be bludgeoned with how misogynistic, racist, insensitive, and crude he is. Whether Trump is those things won’t matter.
Look at McCain; the media loved him, up until he won the nomination. Same thing will happen with Trump, Rubio, Cruz, Christie, Kasich, etc, etc.
*I just realized it’s possible I misread your comment. If so, ignore my reply.
I’m sorry to say that Rush has jumped the shark. He is pandering to his listeners just like Hannity and Levin, which he didn’t used to do. Rush is a smart guy, I think he knows the country is toast so he’s just pumping the angry conservatives for ratings. Anyone who is playing or has played footsie with Trump is either ignorant or pandering.
i DEFER to the Ever-Wise Rob Long who, a long time ago in a ricochet podcast, told everybody “just chill.” It would work itself out. Well it has. Now the real battle begins. Can conservatism get Ted Cruse over the line or will Ted get RINOed to death?
Normally, I would join the “better later than never crowd.” Except that everything about Trump that’s now being complained about has been known about Trump pretty much from Day One. As Leigh said, when Trump went after Scott Walker for wasting his time on taking on the public sector unions and not using it to spend lots and lots of money on government spending on roads, there were nothing but crickets from too many on the Right. I think a lot of people have been playing Cruz’s cynical (yet seemingly effective to this point) strategy and now that Trump has turned on Cruz, we’ll see whether they were right. The more I think about it, the more I am torn between mercy (Cruz wins) and justice (Trump wins and governs from the Left).
There is a loooong way to go before November and I’ve got to say I’m already sick to death of Trump, Trump, and more Trump. I hope I’m not alone. I hope his asininery reaches critical mass and he implodes. Every time I read or watch what he says my I.Q. drops.
Rush has admited for a while that Trump is not a conservative, but has heralded his pro-Americanism. Still, he should have all along been saying that though he appreciated the way Trump dealt with immigration and the media, he is in no way suited to be the Republican nomineee for President.
No, I was too vague to clear.
One of things I find interesting about Trump is that he has refused to give the so-called press the gibbering respect and abject deference Republican candidates usually serve up.
For example, he booted Jorge Ramos out of his press conference and was infamously rude to Megyn Kelly.
This gives me hope than when he would get confronted by the usual gotcha questions intended to him look bad, instead of clumsily attempting to come up with an answer that can’t be used against him later, he might just tell the reporter right then and there to go jump in the lake, or point out that it wasn’t an honest question.
Trump has complained when he thinks he is being treated unfairly, instead of accepting unfair treatment as normal, which is what Republicans usually do.
It seems to me it is high time the press started getting treated as part of the democrat party, which it is, and stops getting respect it hasn’t earned.
Trump isn’t perfect- I didn’t like the rudeness directed at Megyn Kelly- but he’s treating the media much closer to way they should be treated.
Xennady- The “so-called press?” What do you suggest we call George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Jonah Goldberg, Steve Hayes et al.? You know, people who write in magazines and newspapers printed using a press.
Commentators? Pundits?
They aren’t news reporters, though they sometimes give us news that the so-called news media have kept from us.
Just read through all the comments, and I’m surprised how few Ricochetti understand Rush and Levin (but kudos to those few.) Both guys have been delighted that Trump showed up to say the stuff that lots of ordinary Republicans and Americans think, and to put a spanner in the wheels of the establishment bandwagon. But Rush and Levin are conservatives who know their own principles, and have big influential megaphones. Just because they didn’t throw away the opportunity Trump gave them doesn’t mean they want Trump as President.
If you think Levin and Rush don’t know who Trump is, and if you think he’s their preferred candidate, you either don’t listen to them or are too clueless to help. But big government is so dominant in Washington with almost all politicians, it’s always going to be a big ask to get anyone else nominated. We shall see.
(Special mention: Mona Charen, who on an episode of NTK a few months ago actually accused these guys of pandering for ratings. I guess she thinks they’re desperate and unable to attract listeners.)
I was too young and not yet following Mr. Limbaugh. Can you recall what his approach to or opinion of Ross Perot was at the time? (sincere inquiry)
From my memory he mocked Perot. But that was long ago and my memory is somewhat vague.
Nice. I like.
I think you’re right, though my memory is vague, too. I first learned about Rush early in the 1992 campaign. My high school-aged kids had been making fun of him, so I learned how to find him on AM radio to find out what it was about. Then after listening to him for a while, I chided my kids for having misled me.
For those who say Rush doesn’t support or endorse anyone in the current campaign, that may be true now but it wasn’t true back in 1992. He very much supported George H.W. Bush, and even appeared at a campaign rally with him. I liked Rush but thought it was a mistake to tie himself to a particular person that way.
Rush helped me to stay sane during the early Clinton presidency. He’s my hero, but I haven’t been able to stand to listen to him for many years, now. I found him to be whiny and woefully uninformed about some topics. And that is far from the end of his faults. But he’s my hero, because he hasn’t backed down in the face of the leftist onslaught.
He knew that Perot was a Bush spoiler and he used to make fun of Perot. One thing I have always thought is that Bush was stupid for letting Perot on the stage for the debates — esp. after he dropped out for a while and then came back in when Clinton was in trouble. I’m pretty sure that Rush felt the same way about this whole episode. I listened all the time in those days and I honestly don’t know where his ideas stop and my own begin — sometimes I thought he was reading my mind. But, this was a common comment in those days. We were all thrilled that someone was actually saying all these things that we believed. He really brought us all together.
I love Rush — ain’t he grand?
Agreed, I recall Rush ridiculing Perot. But it’s a bit apples and oranges; that was the general, not the primary.
Rush became the king of his medium because he has an extraordinary sense of tone. Liberals would guffaw at the absurdity of that statement, but, as Rush has pointed out, he’s talking nationwide for up to 15 hours a week, and in the expanse of the last 25 years, he’s put himself in a sticky situation only once or twice. Scores of times the left thought they had him, and he ended up making them look bad instead.
My point is that he’s tactically extremely effective and knows what he’s trying to achieve. And it’s hard to find someone with better small government principles, so I’m not betting against him this time.
I actually listen to Levin a lot more these days (podcasts, you know.) Pretty hard to question his constitutional conservative knowledge and intent.
I really enjoyed “The Trump Show” when it first started, but I found his act got tired really fast. If it wasn’t for immigration and his lack of political correctness he’d be down in George Pataki territory. I don’t ever agree with Jeb!, but Trump is not a serious person. Has Trump ever said anything that shows he’s ever thought about the Constitution? He just blows things out of his mouth without a thought about how things fit into a Conservative worldview. Has he even referred to himself as a Conservative? If he has I sure don’t remember it. It’s time to get serious about who we’re going to vote for, because bottom line after President Hillary we won’t even have a country left. I’m leaning heavily towards Ted Cruz.