National Review will release special issue slamming Trump: 'a menace to American conservatism'

The conservative National Review magazine is set to release a special issue devoted to denouncing Donald Trump's presidential candidacy, the New York Times reported.

"Donald Trump is a menace to American conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it underfoot on behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as The Donald himself," the magazine argued in an editorial, which will be published on Friday.

According to CNN, the issue will also include essays by conservative pundits from other publications, like RedState editor Erick Erickson and Weekly Standard founder Bill Kristol.

The Times noted the upcoming publication while highlighting what it described as a debate among Republicans over whether having Trump as its presidential nominee in 2016 would harm the party more than having Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the same position.

"He's not a conservative, he's an angry populist," conservative writer Peter Wehner said of Trump. "It would be dangerous if the party or movement hands control over to him."

At the same time, Kristol said, Cruz "is so hated in Washington that there's this distortion about him that he's outside the bounds of what is plausible in American politics."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) attracted attention earlier in the day on Thursday when he said that the party would lose the election if it nominated either Trump or Cruz.

"Whether it's death by being shot or poisoning doesn't really matter," Graham said. "I don't think the outcome will be substantially different."

Update, 10:17 p.m. EST:The editorial is now available online. It reads in part:

It is unpopular to say in the year of the “outsider,” but it is not a recommendation that Trump has never held public office. Since 1984, when Jesse Jackson ran for president with no credential other than a great flow of words, both parties have been infested by candidates who have treated the presidency as an entry-level position. They are the excrescences of instant-hit media culture. The burdens and intricacies of leadership are special; experience in other fields is not transferable. That is why all American presidents have been politicians, or generals.

Any candidate can promise the moon. But politicians have records of success, failure, or plain backsliding by which their promises may be judged. Trump can try to make his blankness a virtue by calling it a kind of innocence. But he is like a man with no credit history applying for a mortgage — or, in this case, applying to manage a $3.8 trillion budget and the most fearsome military on earth.

Update, 10:58 p.m EST: Trump responded to the magazine on Twitter by saying it was "dying," as seen below: