Conservatives shaken by the rise of Donald Trump appealed to Republicans yesterday not to support his presidential candidacy, uniting in a full-blown attack from the pages of an influential conservative magazine.
“Against Trump,” declared the cover of the National Review, a leading voice of the American right founded by the late commentator William F Buckley.
“Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favour of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones,” it said in a lead editorial.
The publication followed up with essays by 22 conservative figures who took turns denouncing Trump, the frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Calling him “astoundingly ignorant”, a “charlatan”, a “glib egomaniac” and plain “crazy”, the conservatives expressed revulsion at the prospect of a President Trump – and what he might do to the nation and to the Republican brand.
With just over one week to go before the first presidential nominating vote in Iowa, their views also reflected the panic that Trump has set off within a Republican establishment deeply at odds with the celebrity billionaire real estate mogul’s angry, populist message.
But the magazine’s broadside nonetheless triggered an angry response from the Republican National Committee (RNC), which disinvited the National Review from being a partner of the party’s February 25 candidate debate.
“Debate partners can’t have a predisposition towards or against any candidate,” RNC spokesman Sean Spicer said, confirming that the magazine is no longer a debate partner.
Review publisher Jack Fowler appeared to take the move in stride.
“We expected this was coming. Small price to pay for speaking the truth about The Donald,” he wrote yesterday in a blog post.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who trails his rival Trump considerably in the polls, warned the RNC was wrong to punish such a “cherished conservative mouthpiece” as the Review.
“They’re just telling the truth,” Bush told Fox about the criticisms of Trump.
Contributors to the magazine’s did not hold back in trashing Trump.
“This is a crisis for conservatism,” said talk show host and author Glenn Beck in one of the essays.
“Trump beguiles us, defies the politically correct media, and bullies anyone who points out that the emperor has no clothes,” wrote David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth.
Edwin Meese, who served in president Ronald Reagan’s administration, upbraided Trump for vilifying rivals with personal attacks.
“Our people need positive, unifying leadership, not negative, destructive political rhetoric,” he said.
In an introduction, Review editors warned that Trump “wobbled all over the lot” politically, at times embracing abortion rights, gun control and a universal healthcare system.
Having held views so contrary to the Republican platform shows he cannot be trusted to carry the conservative mantle, they said.
The accusers also drilled into Trump’s policy choices, with novelist Mark Helprin offering a comprehensive takedown in a single sentence.
“He doesn’t know the Constitution, history, law, political philosophy, nuclear strategy, diplomacy, defence, economics beyond real estate, or even, despite his low-level-mafioso comportment, how ordinary people live,” Helprin wrote.
Several contributors blasted Trump for his xenophobia, and particularly his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Trump has “made racial and religious scapegoating so central to his campaign”, warned David Boaz, vice-president of the Cato Institute.
Trump shot back in a series of fiery tweets condemning the “failing” publication.
“The late, great William F Buckley would be ashamed of what had happened to his prize, the dying National Review!” Trump posted on Twitter late Thursday as the magazine was rolled out online.
The feature follows a similar move on the left by prominent actors like Harry Belafonte, intellectuals including Noam Chomsky, and other celebrities who have joined a “Stop Hate Dump Trump” campaign denouncing the real estate mogul as a threat to America.

Poll: Voters don’t think candidates would make good presidents
Most US voters are sceptical that any of the top candidates would make a good president, a poll released on Wednesday showed.
More than half of those surveyed think Republican front runner Donald Trump would make a poor or terrible president, while 44% say the same of Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a Pew Research Centre survey.
Some 35% of those surveyed think Clinton would make a good or great president, and 31% say the same of Trump.
Both were viewed more positively by members of their own party, with 56% of Republicans saying that Trump would be a good or great president and 64% of Democrats calling former state secretary Clinton a good or great president.
Views of other candidates are more divided, with Democrat Bernie Sanders and Republicans Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio drawing roughly similar amounts claiming they would be good or great versus poor or terrible.
The first votes in the state-by-state primary process to choose the candidate of each party will be cast in the Iowa caucuses on February 1.
The Republican and Democratic nominees will face each other in November 8 elections.