OPINION:
Now that Donald Trump has locked up the Republican presidential nomination, the only people who can stop him from becoming our 47th president are not President Biden and Democratic operatives like Marc Elias. It is a fifth column of well-heeled and influential RINOs — Republicans in name only — who have put roadblocks in Mr. Trump’s path since Mr. Trump and the elegant Melania went down the escalator in 2015 to announce his candidacy for president at Trump Tower.
We know who these RINO elites are — and Mr. Trump knows them, too. They are but a sliver of the American population. Yet they control a highly disproportionate share of the wealth, information flows, and power in this country even as they embrace a globalist vision starkly at odds with Main Street and Mr. Trump’s America.
Message to these elites: Donald Trump will offer you nothing in exchange for your support. Nonetheless, you must heed the Trump call for unity for one simple reason: Whatever complaints or quibbles you may have had with Mr. Trump over the years, all of these grievances pale in comparison to the very real and enormous damage that Mr. Biden as president is doing to our economy, our fiscal balance, our border security, our social and political fabric, and most dangerously, our national security. To oppose Mr. Trump is to support a Biden agenda that threatens the very viability of our republic.
At the top of this RINO pyramid of power is Rupert Murdoch. Through Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, Mr. Murdoch’s empire has fanned the flames of Never Trumpism all the way back to the 2020 presidential campaign.
Fox News, in particular, is far more dangerous to Mr. Trump than any “wear their leftist hatred on their sleeves” networks like ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. This is because far too many conservatives and Republicans still think that Fox News is pro-Trump.
Because of this broad misperception, Mr. Murdoch’s minions inflicted a thousand nicks and cuts on Mr. Trump during the 2020 campaign and have already tried to bloody Mr. Trump this cycle. Now, however, the word must now go down from Mr. Murdoch himself to those who run Fox News — principally his son Lachlan, CEO Suzanne Scott, President Lauren Petterson, Karl Rove, and former House Speaker Paul Ryan on the board of directors. Fox News must end its fifth column attacks on Mr. Trump.
It’s not just strident anti-Trump critics like Neil Cavuto, Brett Baier, Juan Williams, John Roberts, Brian Kilmeade, and former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany who should be told, Roger Ailes style, to tone it down. Fox News producers also play an outsized role in shaping anti-Trump messaging and enforcing the cancellation of Trump surrogates from appearing on the network.
I have experienced this cancellation myself, but I am hardly alone. Top voices from the Trump campaign including Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, Mike Flynn, Kash Patel, Donald Trump Jr. and senior adviser Jason Miller, have been canceled or muted. This must cease if Mr. Trump is to run his most effective campaign.
Next in the pyramid are the wealthy donors who mistakenly thought that, in this election cycle, they could buy the Republican nomination by heaping lavish sums on the various Keebler elf challengers. These donors go by names like Steve Schwarzman, Ken Griffin, Paul Singer, Stanley Druckenmiller and Larry Fink. Their primary political motive is to add to their already obscenely large fortunes — often by supporting the offshoring of American jobs and importing cheap labor across our southern border and always by pursuing tax breaks for the rich.
Show your true colors now, you big wallet boys! Either get behind Mr. Trump with no expectation of access or favorable treatment, or work to beat Mr. Trump and help the Democrats destroy this country.
Third on the list are the misnamed “conservative” think tanks like the Peterson Institute, the Cato Institute and The Heritage Foundation. Only Heritage appears to be tacking away from the RINO wind. The others may continue to relentlessly attack Mr. Trump with fancy “studies” that cast doubt on the effectiveness of Mr. Trump’s policies. I likewise say to them: Show your true colors now, and we’ll see if you are, in fact, the treasonous, profit-motivated scumbags hiding behind a veneer of academia that we always thought you were.
Fourth, there is a small cadre of potentially lethal political action groups, a poster child of which is the Lincoln Project. Led incongruously by the RINO George Conway — he’s the estranged spouse of Trump loyalist Kellyanne Conway — this lethal weapon spent almost $50 million attacking Mr. Trump in the 2020 cycle.
Others include the infamous Koch Network and its PAC Americans for Prosperity Action and the Bipartisan Christian Group. Don’t be fooled by its name; it’s trying to chip away at Mr. Trump’s Christian base. All of these groups need to stand down. A vote for Mr. Biden is a vote for America’s demise.
Finally, I don’t want to hear any more from former Trump officials about Donald Trump’s alleged failings and foibles. So zip it, Bill Barr, John Bolton, Mark Esper, John Kelly, Mick Mulvaney, and especially Mike Pence and Nikki Haley.
Every time you open your ungrateful mouths, you are desecrating the oath of office you took. You know damn well just how severe an economic and national security threat Mr. Biden represents. (Don’t even get me started on the turncoat Alyssa Farah, now feathering her next appearance on “The View” with anti-Trump spin.)
My bottom line: We must have Republican unity behind Donald Trump if this nation is to survive and prosper. Come now, all ye RINOs of the world, unite behind Mr. Trump and show us your better angels.
• Peter Navarro served in the Trump White House as manufacturing czar and chief China strategist. This piece originally appeared at http://peternavarro.substack.com.
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