Trump 2.0 Is Exactly What Conservatives Should Want | Opinion

There's not much left to say about the last remaining members of the Never Trump movement. The overwhelming majority of conservatives embraced Donald Trump either during the 2016 election or once they realized that his administration better represented their views than the D.C. uniparty establishment. Some members of Congress might still long for the old pre-Trump GOP, but even they know that it's extinct and that a populist party that cares about the working class makes for better policy and better politics.

Some may wish Trump could be more disciplined and avoid saying or doing outrageous things. But Salena Zito's famous rule about Trump remains true: his critics take him literally but not seriously while his supporters take him seriously but not literally.

That's why the reaction to Trump's latest gaffe about Russia and NATO hasn't moved the needle for or against him. Like a thousand stories before it since 2015, Democrats may hope that it's the beginning of the end for the former president. But Republicans know he's trolling both liberals and America's European allies. His conduct in office—which was tougher on Russia and did more to impel NATO members to contribute to their defense than prior administrations—reassures them that he isn't about to hand the continent over to Vladimir Putin.

But some Never Trumpers still argue that a putative second Trump term would be more unhinged than his first and therefore be bad for conservatives, democracy, and everything they hold sacred.

They're clearly wrong about that.

If Trump gets back into the White House—and with him currently winning in battleground state polls, it's a real possibility—he will provide the only and perhaps last chance for conservatives to roll back the woke tide that is damaging America in ways that overshadow any minor differences some on the Right may have with him on other issues.

The most important issue facing the nation in 2024 isn't that most Americans would probably prefer new choices for president. Nor is it Trump's bad manners or the question of whether he or Biden are too old to govern effectively, though that appears certainly true for the incumbent. It's whether the next administration will continue Biden's work in implementing the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) throughout both government and society and further exacerbate racial tensions. The Left's infatuation with critical race theory, intersectionality, and toxic ideas like "white privilege" is part of a war on Western civilization that aims at tearing down not just American history but the foundational values that conservatives revere. That it has also provided a permission slip for a new surge in antisemitism since the October 7 Hamas massacres in Israel—the Jews are always the canaries in the coal mine—makes this all the more imperative.

Though he's no intellectual, that's something Trump instinctively understood about the "1619 Project" and the way it helped pave the way for the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020. Though liberals mocked his "1776 Project," it was exactly the response conservatives should have applauded.

With a stroke of a pen, he could undo the executive orders by which Biden compelled every federal agency and department to implement DEI plans and installed woke commissars to enforce them. A Republican-run Department of Justice could also help speed along the lawsuits that could also unravel the DEI orthodoxy that has overtaken the corporate world and conquered academia.

Conservatives should also look forward to a Trump administration that is determined to undo the damage of Biden's border policies, which have created a humanitarian crisis in border states as well as deep-blue urban enclaves where many illegal immigrants have gone.

Defending borders and the rule of law against corporate interests is exactly what Republicans failed to do in past GOP administrations. That won't be the same for Trump. Conservatives should be cheered by the realization that the next GOP administration will be one that defends the values as well as the economic interests of working class Americans who now belong in the Republican Party, not with the Democrats.

Nor would Trump be an isolationist. He proved to be a realist in foreign policy who understood that Iran was an enemy and that Israel and the Saudis were friends. It's not unreasonable to wonder about his unpredictability and his transactional approach to everything. But the fact that the world was a lot safer and more peaceful on his watch should convince skeptics that the country is in better hands with him than with the pack of Obama alumni whose blunders created the catastrophe in Afghanistan and bear a great deal of the responsibility for the Ukraine war and the Iranian adventurism that led to the current fighting in the Middle East.

It is true that another Trump administration will have an air of chaos that is missing under Biden despite the incumbent's manifest failures. But that will be due to the open hostility and partisanship of the media figures that pumped life into the Russian collusion hoax that undermined Trump's efforts to govern for his first three years in the White House. We can expect similar sabotage from the D.C. establishment and the media the next time around. But the next Trump administration would not be handicapped the way the first was.

In 2017, the Republican governing class largely refused to serve under Trump. Even when some of them did, they tried hard not to implement the conservative and populist policies GOP voters thought they had voted for. That won't be the case in 2025. Conservatives have been preparing for their time in government and won't be caught short handed again. Efforts like Project 2025—which is backed by a number of conservative think tanks—are preparing the Right to govern effectively.

Moreover, conservatives are finally ready to reform the vast federal bureaucracy which is dominated by liberals and remove its ability to stop Republicans from governing. Though he was no match for Trump in the 2024 race, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has provided the blueprint for how to combat a liberal deep state.

Another Trump presidency won't be perfect. But politics isn't about perfection, something that conservatives are supposed to understand. If Trump wins in November, liberals will have good reason to worry about an administration that will roll back the wins Biden and his predecessors gave the hard Left—and conservatives will have every reason to celebrate.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS.org and a senior contributor to The Federalist. Follow him at: @jonathns_tobin.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.