As the 2024 election nears and the destruction Joe Biden is visiting on the country gets worse, some who may have felt they were NeverTrumpers are now finding themselves becoming Never Bidens instead.
The first ripple in this wave of Never Bidens is of Joe Biden’s own doing, according to Eli Lake of The Free Press.
Many who may have found their way clear to vote for Biden are now reconsidering their support in the wake of his sudden turn against helping Israel in its fight against Hamas.
Last week, news broke that Biden was working quietly to prevent the shipment of planned aid and weapons that had already been approved for the Jewish nation.
With this hanging over him, many otherwise NeverTrumpers and erstwhile Biden supporters are turning against him. As Lake noted, some of these virulent NeverTrumpers are now seeing Biden as the bigger threat to both America and Israel.
Former Nikki Haley supporter Cliff Asness, the co-founder of AQR Capital Management, told the paper that things have changed. “My ‘Never Again’ is trumping my ‘Never Trump’ these days,” he said.
“Biden is a huge disappointment, really a moral outrage with this arms embargo being only the latest and greatest outrage,” he continued.
“Despite my long opposition to him, this makes me more likely, though I haven’t quite gotten there yet, to see Trump as the better of two bad alternatives.”
Will more NeverTrump people change their minds in November?
Democratic supporters are also turning against Biden. Democrat and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, jumped to X to blast Biden’s recent CNN interview, saying, it was “crazy,” and adding, “This is one of the worst acts against an ally of a sitting president ever. Hopefully, this means he won’t be sitting for much longer.”
Crazy. This is one of the worst acts against an ally of a sitting president ever. Hopefully, this means he won’t be sitting for much longer. https://t.co/PFQXpNwjpn
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) May 9, 2024
Ackman donated cash to the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Al Gore, but Lake noted that Ackman recently reposted a message from Donald Trump, who was blasting Biden as “crooked” for helping Hamas instead of Israel. The fact that Ackman would repost anything written by Trump is notable.
Michael Granoff, a managing partner of venture capital firm Maniv, told the Free Press that he voted for Biden in 2020, but the president’s anti-Israel policies are forcing him to reconsider. “I am not voting for Biden. I’m not saying I’m voting for Trump, but it’s a nonzero chance now,” he said.
Even as far back as October, NeverTrump leader Bill Kristol noted how alarmed he was over the enthusiasm gap between the popular Trump and the floundering Biden, Breitbart News reported.
Lake quoted several other high-profile Democrats and Republican NeverTrumpers, but Lake is not the only one noting that Biden is in deep trouble only six months ahead of the election. The Washington Examiner’s Byron York noted that as things stand today, Biden’s campaign is “dead in the water.”
York added that the campaign is already entering into the stage where voters are hardening their feelings on the candidates — “particularly with respect to the economy” — and with polls still showing that Biden is in trouble on so many metrics, it is less and less likely that he will be able to regain their confidence in him.
Donald Trump should keep his nose to the grindstone on the issues that are cleaving Biden’s voters away from him. He should focus on Israel, the economy, and illegal immigration — all areas where the president is extremely vulnerable. Forget the personal vendettas for now. Stay laser focused on these issues, and he will both continue to pull voters away from Biden and maintain his own base.
If Trump can keep the campaign discipline he has shown so far, we might just be able to see him make a triumphant return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
