The Dallas Morning News editorial board said Tuesday they would not give their blessing to Donald Trump in 2016, ending a streak of endorsing every Republican presidential nominee since 1968.
In an editorial titled “Donald Trump is no Republican,” the paper’s editors rebuked the GOP hopeful, advising Texas voters that Trump is “not qualified to serve as president and does not deserve your vote.”
They argue that Trump “inexplicably” won the primary despite being “the one who thumbed his nose at conservative orthodoxy altogether. Trump is — or has been — at odds with nearly every GOP ideal that this newspaper holds dear,” they wrote. “Donald Trump is no Republican and certainly no conservative.”
The Morning News, which backed Ohio Gov. John Kasich during the primaries, cited Trump’s “authoritarian streak that should horrify limited-government advocates” and his “open admiration of Russia’s Vladimir Putin” as “alarming” reasons to oppose his candidacy. They also criticized the real estate mogul’s economic policies, saying that “his protectionism would likely force the U.S. into trade wars, increase the deficit, and sink the U.S. economy back into a recession.”
“His ideas are so far from Republicanism that they have spawned a new description: Trumpism.”
And without mentioning Trump’s rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, the paper made clear it would not be getting behind Trump’s movement.
“We have no interest in a Republican nominee for whom all principles are negotiable, nor in a Republican Party that is willing to trade away principle for pursuit of electoral victory. Trump doesn’t reflect Republican ideals of the past; we are certain he shouldn’t reflect the GOP of the future.”
CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on the Morning News’ editorial, but did not immediately receive a response.
In late July, another prominent Texas newspaper with a history of conservative political endorsements — the Houston Chronicle — also made headlines when it endorsed Clinton and labeled Trump a “danger to the Republican Party” in an op-ed.