President Trump’s first budget has won over longtime critic Glenn Beck.
On his radio show Thursday, The Blaze founder admitted he has been won over by Mr. Trump’s planned cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and a slew of federal programs — a surprise turnaround by Mr. Beck, who recently as September was calling the president a “danger to the republic.”
“That was the olive branch, and I’ll take that olive branch,” Mr. Beck said, The Blaze reported. “I am so pro-Trump right now.”
The proposals that have excited Mr. Beck include the disintegration of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
The political detente with Mr. Trump comes less than six months since Mr. Beck told CNN’s Don Lemon, “I think Donald Trump is so self-centered, so vindictive, doesn’t let things go, and quite honestly, he has said himself, he doesn’t read. He is so under-educated on the issues. He’s a danger to the republic.”
Mr. Beck has also criticized the nationalist policies favored by White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. During February’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., the radio host told CNN that Mr. Trump’s supporters were turning a “blind eye” to bad policies.
SEE ALSO: Glenn Beck: CPAC turning ‘blind eye’ to populism; reaction to Steve Bannon ‘frightening’
“What is frightening to me is the lack of reaction from the crowd at CPAC,” Mr. Beck said Feb. 24. “[Mr. Bannon] dropped economic nationalism two or three times during that [speech]. He talked about populism and nationalism a lot. … I don’t know what Steve Bannon’s plan is after he would burn down the system, but he has talked repeatedly about burning the system down to the ground. That’s not good.”
Mr. Trump’s $1.15 trillion budget calls for $1.4 billion for a border wall with Mexico to be allocated this fiscal year, along with $2.6 billion for fiscal 2018 starting Oct. 1.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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