Matthew Yglesias Can’t — or Won’t — Read

By Charles C. W. Cooke

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

 

Matthew Yglesias thinks that National Review isn’t covering the Republican trifecta, but is instead interested only in “lib-owning.” He writes:

This is a great point — if you ignore that, since Trump became president, we’ve run institutional editorials that called on Trump to enforce the TikTok ban — and outlined why it’s not optional; criticized some of his pardons; assessed the executive orders we liked and disliked; praised his anti-DEI initiatives — and explained why; called for the reinstatement of the protection of John Bolton and Mike Pompeo; advised the Senate to reject Tulsi Gabbard; endorsed Trump’s removal of the United States from the Paris climate accords; and made the case against the abuse of the FACE Act.

 

It’s a great point — if you ignore that we’ve run five (one, two, three, four, five) bylined pieces on Trump’s argument against birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants; multiple bylined pieces on Trump’s pardoning those responsible for January 6; plus a bunch of bylined pieces and posts on the rescission of the EV mandate, on the correct scope of anti-DEI efforts; on the wisdom of the removal of security clearances; on how Republicans should reform the budget process; on the “three tough calls Republicans have to make”; on whether tariffs are constitutionally within the president’s remit; on whether tariffs are populist; on “Trump’s inchoate trade policy”; on the “Iron Dome” executive order; on the new makeup of the Pentagon; on the new administration’s Iran policy; on that Iran policy’s results thus far; on whether Trump’s inauguration speech was expansionist; on the appropriateness of conditioning federal aid; on Trump’s belligerence against Colombia — and another on that; on Trump’s approach to Israel; on the effect of pro-life laws; on the future of AI policy; and more.

 

And that’s before we get to the podcasts, which have looked at the inauguration and Trump’s pardons; the first policy moves Trump has made as president; Trump’s executive orders; Trump’s spat with Colombia; and Trump’s visit to California.

 

Yglesias says, “There’s a Republican trifecta! Cover what they are doing! Tell us why it’s good!” We, uh, are. That’s literally all we’ve done since Trump was sworn in. As for the notion that NR is interested only in “lib-owning”? What tosh. Certainly, we’ve published a lot of praise for Trump’s early days, because a lot of what Trump has done is conservative, and we’re conservatives. We’ve also criticized him a lot — on pardons, on tariffs, on foreign policy, on some of his nominations and some of his orders. And — get this! — we’ve disagreed with one another, too.

 

If, unlike Matthew Yglesias, you are capable of reading and absorbing information, you might want to join NR Plus today. You can do so here.