Donald Trump is “dangerous” and “unfit to lead” the country, the New York Times editorial board argued in a scathing, multi-part article ahead of next week’s GOP convention.
“He has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and the American people,” the article on Thursday argued. “Instead of a cogent vision for the country’s future, Mr. Trump is animated by a thirst for political power: to use the levers of government to advance his interests, satisfy his impulses and exact retribution against those who he thinks have wronged him.”
The editorial board pointed to a variety of factors in making this claim, from Trump’s continued false claims about the 2020 election and support for January 6 rioters to his stated plans for mass deportations and unilaterally using military force on domestic protesters.
It also slams the wider Republican as a “once great political party [that] now serves the interests of one man, a man as demonstrably unsuited for the office of president as any to run in the long history of the Republic.”
The Independent has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
The newspaper’s Editorial Board is a group of opinion journalists and the Times says it “does not speak for the newsroom or The Times as a whole.”
Trump may have lost the nation’s paper of record, but he heads into next week’s Republican National Convention as politically strong as ever, despite unprecedented marks on his record like being the first US president in American history to be convicted on criminal charges.
Most national polls show him beating Joe Biden in the general election, and the Democratic party is currently engaged in an embarrassing public debate over whether another candidate should replace Biden ahead of November, following his disastrous debate performance and questions about his mental fitness for office.
The editorial board’s striking statement now means the Times has come out against both major party candidates.
In a piece earlier this week, the editorial board described Biden as a “man in decline” who “has disregarded the concerns of those voters — his fellow citizens — and put the country at significant risk by continuing to insist that he is the best Democrat to defeat Mr. Trump.”
“He does not seem to understand that he is now the problem — and that the best hope for Democrats to retain the White House is for him to step aside,” the article argued.
For his part, Biden has insisted he’s still the man to beat Donald Trump in 2024.
He’s expected to give a major solo press conference on Thursday as part of the Nato summit in Washington DC marking the alliance’s 75th anniversary.