There’s always been much tension between the Donald Trump orbit and the people who worked for the Republican president before him, George W. Bush. Trump’s rise in 2015 and 2016 was partly a rebuke of the Republican Party of the previous era, and Trump was never shy about insulting Bush and his administration, especially when he was running against Bush’s brother, Jeb.
When Bush was president, Karl Rove was George W. Bush’s top campaign adviser and a key White House aide; he was sometimes described as “Bush’s Brain.” After Bush left office, Rove became a media figure, regularly appearing on Fox News. While an arch-conservative, Rove has never been much liked by supporters of Trump, leading to headlines like “Why far-right conservatives hate Karl Rove.”
This past March, Trump was calling for Fox News to get rid of Rove, as he often does when any Fox News figure is anything more than purely sycophantic. And now, it appears Rove has returned the volley.
Some Republicans are claiming that Trump really won the debate against Harris or arguing that the debate was “rigged” by biased moderators. Karl Rove is not saying that.
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🚨BREAKING: Republican strategist Karl Rove has BLASTED Donald Trump’s disastrous debate performance, saying “There’s no putting lipstick on this pig. Trump was crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as ‘dumb as a rock.’ Which raises the question: What does that make him?”… pic.twitter.com/93IL8XYDGy
— Really American 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) September 12, 2024
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published on Thursday, Rove called Trump’s debate performance “catastrophic,” and specifically called out Trump for losing a debate to a candidate whose smarts he has questioned in the past.
“He was angry and fixated on the past, and he failed to define Harris or her policies,” Rove said of Trump, echoing how most non-Trump-aligned observers judged the debate.
Rove also called the debate performance “far worse than anything Team Trump could have imagined” and caleld Trump easily “rattled” by Harris, a woman Trump has called “dumb as a rock” before.
“He took the bait almost every time she put it on the hook, offering a pained smile as she did,” Rove added. “Rather than dismissing her attacks and launching his strongest counterarguments against her, Mr Trump got furious.”
He even praised Harris.
Karl Rove on ‘a catastrophic debate for Trump’, via WSJ: pic.twitter.com/XnzvaZvybl
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) September 12, 2024
“Harris came across as calm, confident, strong and focused on the future,” Rove wrote. “Mr Trump came across as hot, angry and fixated on the past, especially his own.”
“There’s no putting lipstick on this pig,” Rove concluded.
