Hey y’all, welcome back to Unfit to Print.
We’re doing something a little bit different today.
CONSERVATISM AT A CROSSROADS
Republicans just lost both chambers of Congress, and the party has some serious soul-searching to do.
President Donald Trump has been the center of Republican politics for more than a decade.
He shattered the old GOP consensus on immigration, trade, foreign policy, and the relationship between the party and working-class Americans.
But identifying the failures of the party is not the same thing as building a durable political movement to replace it.
There’s an important distinction between MAGA and America First. MAGA is a movement built around Trump. America First is a governing philosophy that predates him and ought to outlast him. Trump may have brought those principles back into the political mainstream, but he doesn’t have a monopoly on defining them.
The conservative movement now faces an important question: What does America First actually mean beyond Trump? And who gets to set the agenda?
You may think these questions are premature. Trump is staring down a lame-duck presidency, but he still has at least two years as the de facto leader of the party. He’ll also have a major say in who inherits his political mantle in 2028.
My former boss Geoffrey Ingersoll, however, once said something really important about political media and the Daily Caller’s role in it: “It’s like pursuing a football on the football field. You want to go to where it’s going. You don’t want to go to where it is.”
That philosophy has stuck with me, and it’s a big part of how I think about my job as editor-in-chief.
The Daily Caller’s responsibility isn’t just to cover whoever is feuding on the Hill, what bill is being introduced in Congress, where the president’s next rally is going to be, or even who won the midterms.
Our job is to identify and cover the issues, ideas, and tensions that are going to shape American politics — and your lives — in the future, without waiting for permission from Washington’s political establishment.
That approach has ruffled some feathers.
Semafor published a piece Sunday about the Daily Caller’s editorial direction under my leadership, titled “More MAGA than MAGA: How the Daily Caller turned on MAGA and Trump.”
The article focused heavily on our coverage of the war with Iran, Israeli influence in Washington, and the backlash we’ve received for daring to question uniparty orthodoxy.
I spoke to the author of the article for about 45 minutes. He included just one of my quotes: “The Iran war is a huge turning point for the conservative movement.”
It’s true. I stand by it.
But the reporter didn’t include anything I said after that.
What I explained is that the war is exposing tensions within the MAGA coalition that have existed since Trump first brought it together.
Trump’s coalition shared a distrust of Washington, resentment toward the political class, and a desire to put American interests first. But beneath that broad agreement were competing ideas about the role of government, the economy, foreign policy, and the relationship between ordinary Americans and powerful institutions.
For years, Trump’s personality helped paper over those differences.
Now, those disagreements are coming to a head.
For years, Trump railed against forever wars and promised to put American interests first. Now the United States is stuck in another quagmire in the Middle East, and conservatives are confronting fundamental disagreements about what the America First approach is to military intervention, foreign alliances, our obligations to other countries, and the impact on Americans’ pocketbooks.
Meanwhile, young Americans are struggling to find jobs, afford homes, get married, and start families. American workers are confronting the consequences of legal and illegal immigration, artificial intelligence and automation, and an economy that’s increasingly dominated by powerful corporations. The proliferation of online pornography and gambling is raising serious questions about addiction, socialization, and community. Americans also remain suspicious of government surveillance, censorship, and the influence of wealthy donors and special interests.
And we’re taking a particularly hard look at foreign influence in Washington, whether it’s coming from Israel, China, or any other country seeking to shape American policy. The question isn’t whether we consider a particular nation a friend or an adversary. It’s whether its interests are being placed ahead of those of the American people.
These are precisely the issues we’ve been putting front and center at the Daily Caller.
Frankly, I don’t think the question should be why we’re covering these issues. It should be why more conservative media outlets aren’t.
Semafor describes us as “more MAGA than MAGA,” but that misses the point. We’re not competing for the title of Trump’s most faithful disciples. We’re asking hard questions about whether the movement that promised to shake up Washington is actually changing it — or simply replacing one set of powerful interests with another.
Our slogan is “Your Rebels in the Swamp.”
“Your” refers to our readers — the American people.
“Rebels” means we don’t toe the partisan line or adopt narratives just because they’re popular or convenient.
And “the Swamp” signals that we are in the heart of Washington, reporting the truth just blocks from the White House.
This rebellious spirit goes back to our founding. When political media was largely dominated by liberal cable outlets and progressive digital blogs, our founders had a vision for a new kind of conservative publication — one that would challenge the prevailing media narratives, break stories the establishment press ignored, and have a little fun while doing it.
That didn’t just apply to Democrats. One of the Caller’s first big scoops exposed the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) nearly $2,000 expenditure at a bondage-themed Hollywood nightclub.
Our commitment to the truth doesn’t change depending on who occupies the seats of power in the nation’s capital. Neither does our willingness to make powerful people uncomfortable.
And frankly, anyone who thought otherwise wasn’t paying attention.
So the online chatter that the Daily Caller is going through some sort of radical transformation has got it wrong. We’re not pivoting. We’re recommitting.
I haven’t seen our newsroom this excited about its mission in years. Our reporters know exactly what we’re trying to accomplish, and they’re fearless in pursuing the stories that matter.
That’s what a newsroom with a clear sense of purpose looks like.
I don’t expect everyone to agree with every story we publish.
In fact, over the past few months, we’ve increasingly been accused of being foreign-funded puppets, haters, or controlled opposition by folks who mistakenly viewed us as a member of their “team.”
So let me be clear now about whose team we are on:
Team America.
Which brings me back to yesterday’s election results.
There will be no shortage of people assigning blame, questioning what went wrong, and declaring themselves or their faction the future of the party.
We can’t let those debates obscure the more important point:
What is the conservative movement actually trying to conserve, and what kind of country is it trying to build?
Is keeping the left out of power enough, or do we have a positive vision for America that leaves our children and grandchildren something worthwhile to inherit?
The Daily Caller isn’t interested in anointing Trump’s successor or pretending we have all the answers.
But we are going to make sure Washington can’t ignore the voices of ordinary Americans.
It would be a dereliction of duty to let the next chapter of conservatism be written exclusively by politicians, wealthy donors, consultants, and the loudest voices on social media.
The people who have to live with the consequences deserve a say, too.
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Ironic that your "request to let us know why you're stepping away" button leads to an error page.
You sound great in this article, and then I read another of your contributors' articles and I'm left scratching my head. Your group is on the bubble, for me.