The Never Trump movement began in 2015, when Donald Trump descended the escalator in New York City's Trump Tower, marking the start of his meteoric rise to the top of the Republican Party and ultimately to the White House.
Back then, before he ever had the power to pursue any agenda other than attaining power to Make America Great Again, the only thing we knew for certain was that he was an economic nationalist and wanted to restrict illegal immigration. That and, of course, that Trump had a crude way of speaking compared to conventional politicians.
The objection to Trump was, at the time, and I believe mostly remains, aesthetic. He is less like a Roman Senator in style than like a Tribune of the Plebs. He is crude and anti-establishment--the characteristics that endear him to so many and repel the establishment so much. At the time, the most populist Republican President in recent memory was George W. Bush of all people--he of Yale and Harvard Business School. He would occasionally throw in anti-establishment lines into his speeches, but that was about it. Even Ronald Reagan surrounded himself with establishment figures, such as George H.W. Bush and James Baker III.
Trump is a genuine populist, and he is hated by the Never Trumpers for it. They often voice objections to his policies, but it's clear that their hatred of him is based on their hatred of the class to which he appeals. Many of his critics have reversed their policy preference--evangelical David French, for instance, has gone from vehemently pro-life to an abortion advocate--mostly because they hate Donald Trump and his rhetoric.
So...where are they on Jay Jones, who famously and multiple times and ways wished for the death of Speaker Todd Gilbert and his children? He didn't do so twenty years ago as a Sophomore in college, but three years ago as a prominent Delegate and rising star in the Democratic Party of Virginia. He was not ambiguous, went to great lengths to explain his reasoning, and seems utterly unrepentant. His apologies amount to "I'm really sorry I got caught."
Anchor: How can Virginians trust a man that said something so horrific?
— Based Electrician⚡️🇺🇲 (@RyanHugeBrain) October 6, 2025
Jay Jones: Once again I apologize. Sheesh 🙄 pic.twitter.com/IakUC6LEMe
The entire Democratic Party of Virginia, including former Congresswoman and current candidate for governor Abigail Spanberger, has circled the wagons to defend Jones. Spanberger herself is running on a platform of "rage," and all this in the midst of an outburst of political violence from the left.
In other words, if the Never Trumpers abandoned the Republican Party over Trump's rhetoric, why are they so unconcerned with actual violent rhetoric from their current allies?
A few have made pro-forma statements that amount to the usual "I don't approve of violence, but..." statements we have been subjected to lately, but none have called for his ejection from the race. Donald Trump's crudity offended them so much that they abandoned all their political principles in a failed effort to derail his rise to power, but they are silent in the face of assassination-speak.
Jay Jones literally fantasized about killing a man and two children and Abigail Spanberger still doesn’t have the guts to tell him to drop out. pic.twitter.com/8CAjNqqWBI
— Winsome Earle-Sears (@winwithwinsome) October 3, 2025
Democrats have no reasonable excuse for backing him save a lust for power--winning elections matter more than anything else for politicians, after all--but what is the excuse for the Never Trump people? They claim they left the Republican Party out of principle, but their principles don't extend far enough to reject fantasies about actual murder? Deporting illegal alien gang members is a step too far, but fantasizing about children dying in a mother's arms is within the bounds of decency?
Not to go all Occam's Razor but perhaps the reason every single Democrat is standing behind Virginia Democrat AG candidate Jay Jones, who fantasized about Republicans getting assassinated and their children dying, is because they more or less agree with him. pic.twitter.com/IhXFdnemoI
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 6, 2025
I think the answer is "Yes" for many of the people standing behind Jay Jones. They are so marinated in the politics of rage that expressing such fantasies aloud is not that unusual in their circles. A quick perusal of Bluesky, the liberal version of X/Twitter, shows that a whole hell of a lot of liberals fantasize about killing conservatives. They tell each other this all the time and find it perfectly normal.
BONKERS. Neera Tanden excuses Virginia Democrat AG candidate Jay Jones calling for the assassination of a Republican leader and his kids as just merely just a “private conversation.”
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 5, 2025
Utterly disgraceful. 🤡🤡🤡🤡
pic.twitter.com/N5KEyFZHPU
Donald Trump was caught on camera many years ago making the crude but probably true observation that many celebrity-obsessed women would allow men to sexually assault them because they enjoy being next to powerful or famous people. We know that this is probably true because people like Bill Clinton, Harvey Weinstein, and Matt Lauer got away with worse things for years, and their victims just took it until a movement gave them a moment when they could object and be heard.
Trump's opponents went insane over the revelation, but seem quite sanguine about a Democratic politician who wants to be the chief law enforcement officer of a state, will muse, quite seriously, about killing an opponent (whom he argues is worse than Pol Pot) and having his children die in their mother's arms.
My point is obvious: these people, who preen like peacocks, performatively displaying their incorruptible virtue, are either so twisted by hatred of Donald Trump or so hypocritical that they will stand by even the very worst people.
It is--just--possible that at least some of them can stand up against their new allies in the Democratic Party and denounce this descent into madness, redeeming themselves. They can display the same reverence for high-minded rhetoric and "norms" they espouse.
But we haven't seen it yet.
