A conservative former radio host and editor-in-chief of The Bulwark penned a scathing — and at times obscene — takedown of the Republican Party, which he said has been transformed into a rubber-stamping "cult" that elected a convicted felon for president despite a laundry list of warning signs, and left Americans holding the bag.
Charlie Sykes, an NBC and MSNBC contributor, author and longtime conservative talk radio host, wrote on his Substack Wednesday that "TDS" — President Donald Trump's acronym for "Trump Derangement Syndrome" — "turns out to have been prophetic."
Sykes noted that he sounded the alarm about Trump in 2015, calling the then-candidate “a cartoon version of every left-wing media stereotype of the reactionary, nativist, misogynist right.”
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But he and other never-Trump Republicans were roundly dismissed, "accused of suffering from TDS." They were told that despite his warts — he was brash and crude — his policies were more or less in line with "conventional conservatives," supporting tax cuts and deregulation.
Republicans, Sykes said, then returned Trump to power — "angrier, more bitter, and still unburdened by either principles or guardrails."
"You elected a convicted felon to the most powerful office in the world — broadly immune from accountability, and literally above the law in his official duties. WTF did you think would happen?" Sykes raged.
"Now look at you, with the chaos bubbling all around you. On again, off again, pointless trade wars with our allies; endless graft; a slash and burn through the government that endangers everything from air travel to Social Security; pardons for rioters and crooked politicians; assaults on the rule of law and free speech; the abandonment of allies; and now a crumbling stock market," he continued.
"What you called Trump Derangement Syndrome turns out to have been a warning — and a prophecy. And you ignored it, you cowardly, ignorant, servile scum," Sykes railed.