Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. media empire is again trying to influence who former President Donald Trump chooses as his 2024 running mate, this time The Wall Street Journal An editorial praising North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and slamming Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
Murdoch’s empire was heavily involved in the selection process. New York Post As Breitbart News previously reported, its editorial board endorsed Burgum last week, while Fox News host Sean Hannity has reportedly been arguing for Rubio to be selected. New York Post Earlier, in an editorial in the newspaper, Wall Street Journal, He hit Vance.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) speaks with members of the media on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, after Sen. Mitch McConnell announced he would step down as Senate Republican leader in November. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
All of these are great choices, but what’s more interesting here is: The Wall Street Journal The paper is coming to terms with the fact that former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley won’t be Trump’s running mate after all, and while it has used its pages to rail against Vance, it has returned to pushing Burgum as an alternative. Interestingly, the paper also lists another name it calls an “excellent choice”: Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley speaks at a Republican campaign event in Needham, Massachusetts, Saturday, March 2, 2024. (Michael Dwyer/Associated Press)
“We are on record as endorsing Nikki Haley as the candidate most likely to broaden Trump’s coalition. Trump seems upset that she stayed in the primary for too long, but many presidents have ignored primary opponents in the interest of party unity.” The Wall Street Journal The editorial board wrote: “Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin would also be a good choice, given his administrative experience and popularity in a battleground state where this year’s presidential polls are surprisingly close. Youngkin would signal to college-educated Republicans who are skeptical of Trump that he wants to expand the party. Many voters will think: ‘Interesting. They’ve picked someone who could clearly be a future president.'” Still, leaks from the Trump campaign suggest that the final running mate for vice president is North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. If that’s the case, Burgum is the front-runner.”
WSJ finally admits Nick can’t be Trump’s VP, defends Burgum pic.twitter.com/tZOuuUmU3U
— Jonathan Martin (@jmart) June 26, 2024
Republican presidential candidate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum waves during the Iowa Republican Party’s 2023 Lincoln Banquet in Des Moines, Iowa, Friday, July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Charlie Nibergal)
The fact that Murdoch’s media empire, having spent the last few years since Trump left office trying to stop Republican voters from selecting him as their nominee again this year, literally employing former House Speaker Paul Ryan as a member of Fox’s board of directors, is now jumping on the bandwagon and trying to steer the conclusion of Trump’s VP selection process to the preferences of the globalist leadership, is intriguing to say the least. Ryan continues to oppose Trump’s candidacy to this day, most recently stating on Fox News Channel that he will not vote for Trump and will oppose his campaign.
House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin delivers his farewell speech in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018. Speaker Ryan lamented America’s “broken politics” and called Washington’s failure to reform expensive federal entitlement systems its “greatest unfinished business.” (AP Photo/Carolyn Custer)
But the deeper irony of this raises a larger question: Why are these same people who have actively worked to thwart Trump for years now offering him all kinds of positive “advice”?
There are many reasons why someone like Burgum should take this position. journalThe editorial did not list them, instead stating that he [then-Microsoft CEO] As evidence of Burgum’s value, he cited “Steve Ballmer” and his “global business experience giving him an advantage in global affairs, particularly in China.” journal Burgum’s work on energy policy is important to North Dakota and a key tenet of Trump’s vision for the nation. For example, Burgum is openly opposed to electric vehicles, and he makes no mention of Burgum sending the National Guard to the border from his state. These are actually points in Burgum’s favor, but journal In the eyes of most Republicans, the policies imposed are viewed as more negative.
This fundamental misunderstanding of Republicans is journalVance and Rubio were removed from the running. First, regarding Vance, the paper’s first main argument against him was that, after a sarcastic and meaningless online comment that he resembled Donald Trump Jr., Vance was journal“He was a political opportunist who opposed military aid to Ukraine with arguments that ignored the threatening axis of Russia, Iran and China.”
Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance arrives to speak before former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at Wright Brothers Aero at Dayton International Airport in Vandalia, Ohio, Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Polls show that a majority of Americans are against continuing to waste American tax money in Ukraine, and pouring billions of dollars of American treasure into that waste doesn’t bring us any closer to ending the war there. On the contrary, continued escalation from the West risks escalating into a world war that would embroil the United States. Vance was very cautious about this, and rightly so. In fact, a big reason why Trump won in 2016 was the condemnation of endless wars by the political elite of both parties in the United States, from Clinton to Bush. Even the current president, Joe Biden, seems to at least understand something about the politics of war, because he ended America’s longest war in Afghanistan, even if it was in a terrible way and brought the Taliban back to power. Trump has vowed to end the war if he wins, and Vance would be a staunch partner for peace.
If that’s not funny enough, journalBut the next line in his rebuttal to Vance is even more ludicrous: “He opposes Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel out of loyalty to union leaders, but Japanese investment is good for American workers.” The Wall Street Journal The Ohio senator is ineligible to be Trump’s vice president because he doesn’t want Japan to buy the most important American steel manufacturer. Seriously, this argument is astonishingly stupid. Who wants a foreign company to control the production of a critical metal that goes into the construction of literally everything in America? To some extent, this crazy argument seems reasonable coming from the same newspaper that opposes Trump’s steel and aluminum import tariffs, but again, if anything, this is a big argument in favor of Vance, not against him. If Trump picks Vance, he should air $1 billion worth of TV ads, if he can afford it, to spread this Vance stance across America. That would get him 500 electoral votes.
And then journal They attack Rubio with similar nonsensical arguments: “The union label also applies to Rubio, who transformed himself from a 2010 Tea Party insurrectionist into an advocate of income redistribution through industrial policy and taxation. He has been a tough man on foreign policy, yet he voted against aid to Ukraine.”
This whole “industrial policy” thing is a deep intellectual debate on the populist nationalist right. Some people agree, others disagree, but the fact that Rubio has actually laid out a thoughtful vision of how to use government tools to strengthen American industry with important products is an added advantage for him if Trump picks him as his running mate. There are many other things about Rubio that are attractive, including his complete overhaul of immigration. He used to be a pro-amnesty guy, a member of the fearsome “Gang of Eight” that drafted a massive amnesty plan and got it passed by the Senate about a decade ago. But Rubio has now proven that he understands what was wrong with that plan and has made a big America First move on this issue. Of course, journal Perhaps they think the Gang of Eight amnesty bill would have been great for America and hate that Rubio opposed it, which makes the fact that the Murdoch empire is trying to manipulate VP Trump to get their way even more ridiculous.
In summary, Burgum, Vance, Rubio, and many other candidates under discussion all have significant merits and some flaws. But it is time for Trump to tell Murdoch and his Paul Ryan cronies to change their minds and make their own decision for the reasons they think are right. God knows Trump doesn’t owe them anything. In fact, Trump doesn’t owe anyone anything, which is why a second election is so dangerous for a politician, and maybe this is why Murdoch and his cronies are trying to take the helm before an unfettered Trump chips away at what’s left of the globalists if he returns to the Oval Office. If Trump is influenced by them now, he may regret it later when it comes to actually achieving something like really ending the Ukraine war, because these globalists obviously want to keep it going as long as possible.
