Many who support Trump do so out of deep frustration with the direction of our country and a yearning to see the renewed flourishing of the American experiment. We understand, share, and respect that frustration. At the same time, along with the almost two-thirds of Republican primary voters have chosen candidates other than Trump, we have discerned him to be anything but a conservative and untethered to any principle deeper than his own self-interest. Rather than solving problems, Trump would greatly deepen and exacerbate them by undermining our constitutional system and heightening our country’s already significant social, economic and political challenges.

This faux-Republican has appealed not to the better angels of our nature, but has preyed on misunderstanding, propagated ignorance, and fostered bigotry, resentment, and even violence. He has been vulgar, coarse, lawless, dangerous, and demagogic and flouted and mocked the country’s history, traditions, and institutions. He is, in fact, the very type of politician our Founders warned against as a threat to limited government and individual liberty.