Never Trump
The Revolt of the Conservative Elites
Robert P. Saldin and Steven M. Teles
Reviews and Awards
"What was the Never Trump movement within the Republican Party: the last rattle of something old--or a harbinger of something new? Saldin and Teles delve deep into the conservative resistance to Trump's ascendancy, seeking to predict what happens next, not only for conservative politics, but for American democracy."-David Frum, author of Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic
"This is a fascinating study of the Republican Establishment's utter failure in 2016 to prevent its nightmare candidate, Donald Trump, from becoming its party's presidential nominee. Filled with amazingly candid on-the-record interviews with the major players, it offers a fair-minded and precise portrait of the Never Trumpers. There are lessons for Democrats here, too, and not just about life in the other party." -Nicholas Lemann, Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism and Dean Emeritus, Columbia Journalism School, and author of Transaction Man
"Who are the Never Trumpers, what do they want, and what are their stories? Robert P. Saldin and Steven Teles have produced the go-to work on a movement that will likely prove of enduring influence in American politics." -Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics, George Mason University, and author of The Complacent Class
"An object of both scorn and celebration, the Never Trump movement has yet to be the subject of serious analysis. Never Trump fills this vacuum with fresh arguments, evidence, and revelations. Drawing in part on dozens of interviews with prominent Never Trumpers, Saldin and Teles explain why, even as virtually all elected Republicans bent the knee, a broad set of conservative intellectuals and policy insiders remained (and remain) in opposition. Whatever your view of Never Trumpers, you will be enlightened--and challenged--by this book." -Jacob S. Hacker, Professor of Political Science, Yale University, and co-author of Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality
"A fascinating contemporary history of the Conservative Establishment and its astonishing defeat in 2016 by Donald Trump. Featured are the eddies and counter currents typical of political thinking and the authors' own even-handed analysis. As ever in politics, the theme is honor and how it is construed." -Harvey Mansfield, Kenan Professor of Government, Harvard, and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford