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Monday, February 23, 2026

Tag: #NeverTrump
January 6, 2026
News
Politics

George Conway Finally Defects to Democrats, Announces Run for Congress.

PULSE POINTS

❓WHAT HAPPENED: George Conway, a former Republican and fanatical Trump critic, announced his run for Congress as a Democrat in New York’s 12th congressional district.

👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: George Conway, the former husband of Kellyanne Conway, and various other candidates running for the seat.

📍WHEN & WHERE: Conway announced his campaign on January 6, aiming to represent New York’s 12th congressional district.

💬KEY QUOTE: “I fought Trump publicly in every way I could, and I paid a price.” – George Conway

🎯IMPACT: Conway joins a crowded field for the Manhattan seat, with at least nine candidates vying for the position.

IN FULL

George Conway, a Trump-hating lawyer best known for his fanatical opposition to President Donald J. Trump, announced Tuesday that he is running for Congress as a Democrat in New York’s 12th congressional district. The Manhattan-based seat is open following the planned retirement of longtime Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and has drawn a crowded field of candidates.

In a campaign announcement video, Conway framed his bid as a direct response to President Trump and the America First movement surrounding him. “I don’t like what [Trump] has done to our great country,” Conway said. “And now I’m running for Congress to take the fight directly back to him on your behalf, on the behalf of New Yorkers to whom I owe so much—to protect the fundamental rights and basic economic needs of all New Yorkers.”

Conway is a former Republican who rose to national prominence as part of the anti-Trump movement within the GOP. Early in Trump’s first term, Conway was reportedly considered for the role of U.S. solicitor general, as his then-wife, Kellyanne Conway, served as a senior adviser in the White House. Over time, George Conway became increasingly critical of Trump, while Kellyanne Conway remained an ally of the president.

He later helped found the disgraced Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump political organization that gained attention for aggressive advertising campaigns targeting Trump and his allies. Conway has repeatedly emphasized his public opposition to Trump as a defining feature of his political identity. “I fought Trump publicly in every way I could, and I paid a price,” he said in the video. “I’ll never regret standing up to Trump.”

Conway has a history of making crass attacks against President Trump and his MAGA allies, for instance by likening Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk to a “[N]azi stormtrooper” following his assassination last year. Conway has also had a hand in lawfare against Trump, including the bizarre E. Jean Carroll case, with Carroll specifically crediting Conway for convincing her to take up the case when her book was not selling.

The Democratic primary for the 12th district includes several high-profile contenders, among them Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of President John F. Kennedy, and New York State Assembly members Alex Bores and Micah Lasher. The district is considered safely Democratic, making the primary the decisive contest.

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January 16, 2025
William Upton
TRUMP TRANSITION 2024/5

Pence, Haley Acolytes Need Not Apply: Trump Reveals Admin Blacklist.

President-elect Donald J. Trump announced on Truth Social that while his incoming administration has filled over 1,000 positions in the U.S. government, those who have worked for disloyal figures will be barred from executive branch roles. Every new White House is tasked with hiring over 4,000 political appointees, suggesting Trump’s second presidential transition is well underway.

“They are outstanding in every way, and you will see the fruits of their labor over the coming years,” Trump emphasized regarding the individuals who have received political appointments in his administration so far. However, Trump also warned: “In order to save time, money, and effort, it would be helpful if you would not send, or recommend to us, people who worked with, or are endorsed by, Americans for No Prosperity (headed by Charles Koch), ‘Dumb as a Rock’ John Bolton, ‘Birdbrain’ Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, disloyal Warmongers Dick Cheney, and his Psycho daughter, Liz, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, General(?) Mark Milley, James Mattis, Mark Yesper, or any of the other people suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, more commonly known as TDS.”

ANTI-TRUMPERS NEED NOT APPLY.

The list posted by Trump includes a who’s who of Republicans connected to the political establishment and corporate interests, along with several prominent apparatchiks of the Deep State. Despite eventually endorsing Trump for the presidency in 2024, Nikki Haley continues to push for anti-America First policies and opposes Trump’s pick of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

Additionally, The National Pulse has reported that Mike Pence’s political organization,  Advancing American Freedom, is whipping U.S. Senators against Trump’s choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Mitt Romney have also been vocal in their criticism of Trump. Ryan announced he planned to write in a Republican name instead of voting for Trump in 2024. Romney, one of the seven GOP senators who voted to convict in Trump’s 2021 impeachment trial, confirmed he did not vote for Trump in previous elections and would not support him in 2024.

Liz Cheney, who campaigned with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, has consistently opposed Trump. Most recently, the former Wyoming Congresswoman was accused of tampering with witnesses before they testified in front of the January 6 Select Committee.

John Bolton, another Trump detractor, publicly denounced both 2024 presidential candidates’ fitness for office, stating he would write in Iraq War architect Dick Cheney.

Image by Gage Skidmore.

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President-elect Donald J. Trump announced on Truth Social that while his incoming administration has filled over 1,000 positions in the U.S. government, those who have worked for disloyal figures will be barred from executive branch roles. Every new White House is tasked with hiring over 4,000 political appointees, suggesting Trump's second presidential transition is well underway. show more
September 23, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Election 2024
Politics

Liz Cheney Wants a New Party for Neo-Cons.

Liz Cheney, the former chair of the House Republican Conference, wants the GOP to lose control of the House of Representatives and says that a new, neoconservative party may be needed to supplant it if it does not shed former President Donald J. Trump’s influence. Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, have already endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

“The [Republican] party itself really has rejected the Constitution in the name of supporting Trump,” she alleges, suggesting a new party may be required “because, again, so much of the Republican Party today has allowed itself to become a tool for this really unstable man. It certainly has moved away from standing for anything of substance, anything of policy. We’re going to have to have some entity that actually can be making the case for the kind of conservative causes that I believe in.”

Cheney and her father—regarded as a chief architect of the Iraq War—are far more in favor of foreign military interventions than Trump, the first President not to start any new conflicts since the 1970s. Trump believes there has been a permanent shift away from neoconservatism since he became the GOP’s leading man, vowing conservatives are “never going back to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, and Jeb Bush.”

BIG SHIFT.

Cheney seems to fear he is right, saying of organizing a new party, “Look, it’s hard for me to see how the Republican Party, given what it has done, can make the argument convincingly or credibly that people ought to vote for Republican candidates until it really recognizes what it’s done.”

“There is certainly going to be a big shift, I think, in how our politics work… I don’t think it will just simply be, well, the Republican Party is going to put up a new slate of candidates and off to the races. I think far too much has happened that’s too damaging,” she added.

The 58-year-old says it is “really important that Mike Johnson not be the Speaker of the House on January 6, 2025,” claiming “the Republicans have shown that they will not certify the results if Donald Trump is not the victor.”

Cheney says she has already spoken to Harris, advising people to “stay tuned” for her next moves. She already has a history of collaborating with the Democratic Party, joining the corrupt January 6 Committee in 2021.

Image via the Hudson Institute.

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Liz Cheney, the former chair of the House Republican Conference, wants the GOP to lose control of the House of Representatives and says that a new, neoconservative party may be needed to supplant it if it does not shed former President Donald J. Trump's influence. Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, have already endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. show more
January 25, 2024
Media

NeverTrumper David French Admits: ‘I Was Completely, Embarrassingly Wrong… I Missed The Extent of Republican Anger’.

‘Never Trump conservative’ turned New York Times columnist David French has admitted to being not “just wrong” but “completely, embarrassingly wrong” about Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

While making clear that he is not coming around to the notion of putting America First, French explains in a new New York Times column that just before Trump burst onto the political scene, “The winds were shifting. I could sense it, but I didn’t fully understand it. Not until Trump made it all plain.”

French, who has now spent the best part of a decade bemoaning the 45th President, now acknowledges the “bond” between Donald Trump and most Republican voters and concludes:

“I don’t regret my arguments against Trump. I’d make them again, and I will continue making them. I do ask myself how I missed the sheer extent of Republican anger. And I’m deeply, deeply grieved by the thought that I did anything in my life before Trump to contribute to that unrighteous rage.”

Read the whole piece here.

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‘Never Trump conservative’ turned New York Times columnist David French has admitted to being not “just wrong” but “completely, embarrassingly wrong” about Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. show more

Editor’s Notes

Behind-the-scenes political intrigue exclusively for Pulse+ subscribers.

RAHEEM J. KASSAM Editor-in-Chief
Too little, too late, buddy boy
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Too little, too late, buddy boy show more
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asa hutchinson
August 24, 2023
Jack Montgomery
News

Asa Hutchinson Made The Debate Stage by PAYING FOR DONATIONS And Promising MSNBC He Would ‘Prosecute’ Trump.

Asa Hutchinson hit the 40,000 donors required to make the GOP debate stage by paying people $20 for every $1 donation they could solicit, and appealing to MSNBC viewers that he would use the platform to “prosecute” former president Donald J. Trump.

The so-called texting-for-pay scheme was the brainchild of Austin Barbour, who heads Hutchinson’s America Strong & Free Action super PAC: “My thought was, if you get somebody to call their friends, family, somebody they know – all they’re asking for is $1 – certainly they’re going to say ‘yes’,” he explained.

Barbour’s own 18-year-old son somehow “found” 100 donors, which should have netted him a a cool $2,000.

Hutchinson, a former Governor of Arkansas, has attempted to run as the anti-Trump candidate. However, despite receiving the tacit endorsement of The Washington Post, he has had less successful cutting through to Never Trump diehards in the GOP than the similarly positioned Chris Christie, whose alarming physical appearance and outlandish statements on fighting Trump in a cage have garnered more public attention.

 

 

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Asa Hutchinson hit the 40,000 donors required to make the GOP debate stage by paying people $20 for every $1 donation they could solicit, and appealing to MSNBC viewers that he would use the platform to "prosecute" former president Donald J. Trump. show more
ryan frederick
August 15, 2023
Jack Montgomery
News
Politics

DeSantis PAC Chair Pledges to Resign GOP Job If Trump Is The Nominee.

Governor Ron DeSantis’s Super PAC boldly announced 99 new Iowa county chairs last week, leading to revelations that Washington county chair Matt Wells had recently called Trump supporters “degenerates” and told leftist media outlets that he would not “piss on Trump if he was on fire.” Now, another of the Florida Governor’s picks has declared himself a hardline ‘NeverTrumper’, in comments unearthed by The National Pulse.

Ryan Frederick, who chairs the Never Back Down PAC in Adair County, Iowa, described himself as a “party loyalist” in comments to the press, but declared on X (formerly Twitter) that he “will resign as a county party chairman and probably not participate in the party apparatus again until people come to their senses,” in response to a Trump primary nomination.

Frederick, who has lauded the British monarchy “the ultimate form of government” for “national prestige and accumulat[ing] wealth and status through stability,” also railed: “If we think for 5 minutes that Trump is somehow superior to DeSantis, we don’t deserve to have a political party. The man is a farce, and always has been.”

In a comment to The National Pulse, Frederick elaborated: “I wouldn’t say my mind is totally made up on that point, but I’ve been a county party chairman for nearly 20 years, and frankly I think we’re foolish if we think Donald Trump is a better candidate than Ron DeSantis. The most important thing this party has to do right now is to nominate someone who can win the election next year, and the obvious choice is Gov. DeSantis. We have the opportunity to make generational change and to move the Republican Party light years into the future, rather than brooding on the past. If we squander that opportunity, I’m not sure I’ve got energy left to continue at the level I’ve been involved heretofore. Simple as that.”

Several of Never Back Down’s county chairmen in Iowa appear to be NeverTrumpers, including Joel Kurtinitis (Dallas County) who penned lengthy articles against Trump in 2016, and Matt Wells, who has lambasted Trump supporters in worse-than-Clintonian terms as “degenerates”.

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Governor Ron DeSantis's Super PAC boldly announced 99 new Iowa county chairs last week, leading to revelations that Washington county chair Matt Wells had recently called Trump supporters "degenerates" and told leftist media outlets that he would not "piss on Trump if he was on fire." Now, another of the Florida Governor's picks has declared himself a hardline 'NeverTrumper', in comments unearthed by The National Pulse. show more

Editor’s Notes

Behind-the-scenes political intrigue exclusively for Pulse+ subscribers.

RAHEEM J. KASSAM Editor-in-Chief
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa: a monarchist?! Maybe these DeSantis people aren’t so bad after all! Ha! But really, I think it’s Mr
for exclusive members-only insights
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa: a monarchist?! Maybe these DeSantis people aren’t so bad after all! Ha! But really, I think it’s Mr show more
for exclusive members-only insights
August 13, 2023
Jack Montgomery
News
Politics

DeSantis PAC Chair: MAGA Are ‘Degenerates’, ‘ I Wouldn’t Piss On Trump If He Was on Fire’.

One of the Iowa county chairmen announced by Ron DeSantis’s Super PAC this week has declared that Trump supporters are “degenerates” and that he “wouldn’t piss on Donald Trump if he was on fire!”

Matt Wells, who boasts of having spent “the whole day” with Governor DeSantis in Iowa, was even more explicit about his disdain for the 45th President and his supporters, in yet another embarrassing saga for the botched DeSantis campaign:

“He could be burning to death, I would find a bathroom five miles away,” seethed Wells, a supposedly committed Christian who chairs the Never Back Down PAC in Washington County, in comments to the far left Huffington Post.

Wells had been infuriated after an airplane carrying a banner reading ‘Be Likable, Ron!’ had passed over an event where the Floridian was speaking.

“Trump people are degenerates,” he told POLITICO.

Figures like Wells seem unlikely picks to be able to win over MAGA conservatives that DeSantis has been courting.

Wells was a fierce Never Trumper in 2016, leaving the GOP altogether after the election and vowing he would never support Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds in 2017 – although he is now once again a GOP official, and white-knighting for Reynolds on social media due to her perceived alignment with DeSantis.

The fact Wells was chosen by Never Back Down as a leader of its high-profile ground campaign speaks to the failure of DeSantis, long billed as “Trump without the baggage,” to win over MAGA converts, forcing his surrogates to rely on unreconstructed Never Trumpers and a handful of questionable mega-donors to campaign.

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One of the Iowa county chairmen announced by Ron DeSantis’s Super PAC this week has declared that Trump supporters are "degenerates" and that he "wouldn’t piss on Donald Trump if he was on fire!" show more

Editor’s Notes

Behind-the-scenes political intrigue exclusively for Pulse+ subscribers.

RAHEEM J. KASSAM Editor-in-Chief
In their haste to make an announcement of something positive this week, it looks like Team DeSantis has put together quite the questionable group of Iowa county chairs
for exclusive members-only insights
In their haste to make an announcement of something positive this week, it looks like Team DeSantis has put together quite the questionable group of Iowa county chairs show more
for exclusive members-only insights
August 5, 2023
William Upton
News

NYT’s NeverTrumper Asks if Globalists Are in Fact the ‘Bad Guys’.

New York Times NeverTrumper columnist David Brooks published a rare, self-reflective column this week asserting that he and our America’s political, corporate, and media elite may in fact actually be the “Bad Guys.”

Brooks’s column is served up with his usual overbearing degree of pseudo-moralistic handwringing, lamenting the overlooked virtues of the American elite and the dangers of Donald Trump. But buried in its verbosity is a recognition that the U.S. elite have enriched themselves at the expense of Americans middle and working classes:

Armed with all kinds of economic, cultural and political power, we support policies that help ourselves. Free trade makes the products we buy cheaper, and our jobs are unlikely to be moved to China. Open immigration makes our service staff cheaper, but new, less-educated immigrants aren’t likely to put downward pressure on our wages.

The column goes on to point out that the elites’ social libertinism has resulted in the breakdown of the American family with an increased rate of divorce and out-of-wedlock births among the non-elite classes. It should be noted that in 2013, David Brooks divorced his wife of twenty-seven years, Jane ‘Sarah’ Hughes. In 2017 David Brooks married his research assistant Anne Snyder. She was 32 at the time, Brooks was 55.

The reaction to Brooks’s column has varied on social media. The neoliberal Tax Foundation’s Alan Cole, a self-described neoliberal, perhaps unintentionally re-enforced the thrust of the columns complaint in a thread on X (formerly Twitter): “Mentioning Trump support invites a comparison that makes it easy to diminish the examples raised. Lots of readers will say “sure, some of these things are bad, but Trump is far worse.”

Glenn Greenwald noted that Brooks is correct that the elite media focus on cultural and ethnic newsroom diversity has come at the expense of economic diversity in the newsroom, making our media blind to the experience of the American working class. And perhaps as expected, famed American writer and unhinged social media liberal Joyce Carol Oates posted: “[T]hat David Brooks column in which a handwringing pretend-liberal blames liberal “elites” like himself for the racism, misogyny, anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-education bigotry of T***p followers like a mugging victim blaming himself for being mugged.”

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New York Times NeverTrumper columnist David Brooks published a rare, self-reflective column this week asserting that he and our America’s political, corporate, and media elite may in fact actually be the "Bad Guys." show more