Perhaps you’ve heard of Stockholm syndrome — it’s the phenomenon when hostages develop a psychological bond with their captors. The “captive begins to identify closely with his or her captors, as well as with their agenda and demands.” In reality, of course, the captor has no regard for the well-being or interests of the hostage.
It seems to me that a Stockholm syndrome–like malady has befallen certain individuals and institutions associated with the “New Right.” Take the national conservatives. It’s a group with which I have some sympathies — I’m not inclined to treat them unfairly. The NatCons largely adore Trump. Saurabh Sharma, the executive director of the Edmund Burke Foundation — the organization behind the national-conservatism conferences — boldly claimed at this year’s gathering that Donald Trump and Nigel Farage are the “West’s two great statesmen.” “It is still they,” he added, “and great men like them, who turn the wheels of history and will originate our advances in the coming years.”
Except that Trump is not a national conservative! The NatCons, in general, oppose cutting the corporate-tax rate. Trump already lowered it once and wants to do it again. The NatCons tacitly endorse an “immigration moratorium” in their statement of principles. Donald Trump merely walks the traditional Republican path in opposing only illegal immigration. As he recently told Bloomberg, “I want them to come in. I want a lot of people to come in, but they have to come in legally.”
The NatCons’ statement endorses “the traditional family, built around a lifelong bond between a man and a woman.” They are socially conservative and pro-life. Trump, in sharp contrast, dictated a 2024 Republican platform that lurched the GOP farther to the left than it has ever been on these issues. The NatCons, meanwhile, continue to lampoon the conservative “establishment” for “surrendering” in the fight on behalf of social conservatism.
Also at this year’s conference, Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, praised Trump for “the revived conservative movement he leads.” Yesterday, the Trump campaign released the following statement regarding Project 2025, the policy agenda prepared by Roberts’s organization: “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you.” And Trump himself has previously said of Project 2025: “Some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”
Trump’s humiliation of New Right organizations and his manifest disagreement with the movement’s principles and policy goals is not a surprise. They have no leverage over him. They will continue to worship him in public regardless of what he says or does. And if it becomes too hard to square their principles with Trump’s policy or rhetoric, they’ll simply act as if Trump himself was taken hostage by a cabal of saboteurs intent on undermining his innate New Right and NatCon intuitions. See, for example, Mollie Hemingway, who blasted “Trumpworld” for bowing down to “left-wing media lies” and “signaling he doesn’t want his most loyal foot soldiers.” Hmm. If only it was possible to identify the leader of “Trumpworld.” That one is a real tough nut to crack.
The New Right will continue to lose policy battle after policy battle because it refuses to even engage in the fight. When it comes to Trump, the selection of online grifters who style themselves as fighting the conservative “establishment” will come up with post hoc justifications for anything and everything Trump does, even for policies to the left of figures such as Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Bill Clinton. Because of its worship of Trump, the New Right is seemingly capable of conserving nothing.