The Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post and Wall Street Journal ― both previous boosters of Donald Trump ― put the blame for the Republican Party’s less-than-stellar showing in the 2022 midterm elections squarely on the former president and his choice of candidates.
On its Thursday front page, the Post depicted Trump as the hapless nursery rhyme character Humpty Dumpty. “Don (who couldn’t build a wall) had a great fall — can all the GOP’s men put the party back together again?” the tabloid newspaper asked:
Analysis from Post columnist John Podhoretz declared the GOP’s “red trickle” in the elections was down to Trump’s “terrible candidates” who “dragged Republicans down.”
On Wednesday, the Post suggested Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantiswas “DeFUTURE” of the GOP with this front page. DeSantis is widely tipped to run for president in 2024 and convincingly won reelection this week.
The Journal’s editorial board, meanwhile, on Wednesday dubbed Trump “the Republican Party’s biggest loser.”
“Trumpy Republican candidates failed at the ballot box in states that were clearly winnable,” the board wrote. “Since his unlikely victory in 2016 against the widely disliked Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump has a perfect record of electoral defeat.”