Republicans Are Winners without Trump

As president, Donald Trump was not a Nazi, or anything like it. If the most convincing evidence that he was a racist is that he accurately described some of the worst places on earth as “s***hole countries,” or the deliberately misleading spin on his remarks after the Charlottesville march in August 2017, I remain skeptical. And Trump improved his performance among black voters from 2016 to 2020. The reason the Left kept describing Trump as a “Nazi” and “racist” is that they reach for the worst words they can think of whenever they encounter someone they see as being extremely, unusually awful. Those are the two that keep coming up, regardless of whether they fit.

Trump was, however, extremely unusual. I say that as someone who largely supported his policy agenda — with some exceptions — and as someone who wrote many columns mocking the media and celebrities for their hysterical overreactions to him. He wasn’t a Nazi, he was just . . . a horse in a hospital.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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As president, Donald Trump was not a Nazi, or anything like it. If the most convincing evidence that he was a racist is that he accurately described some of the worst places on earth as “s***hole countries,” or the deliberately misleading spin on his remarks after the Charlottesville march in August 2017, I remain skeptical. And Trump improved his performance among black voters from 2016 to 2020. The reason the Left kept describing Trump as a “Nazi” and “racist” is that they reach for the worst words they can think of whenever they encounter someone they see as being extremely, unusually awful. Those are the two that keep coming up, regardless of whether they fit.

Trump was, however, extremely unusual. I say that as someone who largely supported his policy agenda — with some exceptions — and as someone who wrote many columns mocking the media and celebrities for their hysterical overreactions to him. He wasn’t a Nazi, he was just . . . a horse in a hospital.