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    Tuesday, May 21, 2024

    New York Post endorses Trump: He reflects the best of 'New York values'

    The New York Post tweeted, "The Post endorses Donald Trump"

    He's from New York; it's from New York. He likes to grab headlines with brash comments; it likes to write them.

    Now, this relationship is going to another level. Surprising few, if any, the New York Post's editorial board has endorsed Donald Trump in New York's upcoming Republican presidential primary.

    "Trump is now an imperfect messenger carrying a vital message," the editorial board wrote. "But he reflects the best of 'New York values' - and offers the best hope for all Americans who rightly feel betrayed by the political class."

    The editorial from the conservative outlet - founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1801 and now a part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire - came Thursday night, five days before a contest is which Trump is favored over rival Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas. Though Trump is a "rookie," according to the paper, he is a "potential superstar of vast promise."

    "Should he win the nomination, we expect Trump to pivot - not just on the issues, but in his manner," it wrote. "The post-pivot Trump needs to be more presidential: better informed on policy, more self-disciplined and less thin-skinned. Yet the promise is clearly there in the rookie who is, after all, leading the field as the finals near."

    The editorial board didn't let Trump entirely off the hook. It dinged him for "rookie mistakes": a desire to pull U.S. troops out of Japan and South Korea, a "far too simplistic" plan to build a border wall and that "downright coarse" language.

    But Trump's redeeming qualities won the day, it concluded. Trump is "a plain-talking entrepreneur with outer-borough, common-sense sensibilities" and a "do-er," it wrote.

    "His political incorrectness is one of his great attractions - it proves he's not one of 'them,'" the editorial read. "He's challenging the victim culture that has turned into a victimizing culture."

    The endorsement is in tune with the paper's largely positive coverage of Trump.

    The New York Post has been criticized for partisanship in the past; in 1980, the Columbia Journalism Review said that the paper, which plays to "fear and rage," "is no longer merely a journalistic problem," but "a social problem - a force for evil." In 1997, editor Steven Cuozzo countered that the tabloid "broke the elitist media stranglehold on the national agenda."

    This is not the first New York tabloid endorsement Trump has scored. Just days ago, he was endorsed by the New York Observer, which is owned by Jared Kushner, his son-in-law.

    "Donald Trump is the father-in-law of the Observer's publisher," the paper wrote. "That is not a reason to endorse him. Giving millions of disillusioned Americans a renewed sense of purpose and opportunity is."

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