Trump's Two Publication Endorsements: The National Enquirer And His Son-In-Law’s Newspaper

Written by Andrew Lawrence

Published

The New York Observer, a publication owned by Donald Trump’s son-in-law, endorsed Trump for president, joining The National Enquirer as the only publications to endorse the Republican front-runner for president.

The Observer’s April 12 endorsement disclosed that “Donald Trump is the father-in-law of the Observer’s publisher,” but claimed “that is not a reason to endorse him.” The endorsement from the editorial board criticized “the media elite” for their inability to “grasp the profound alienation, anger and disillusionment” that fueled Trump’s rise and compared Trump to Ronald Reagan:

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

Explaining the phenomenon that is propelling the Trump candidacy is easy, despite the nattering of the cognoscenti—the media elite, the professional political class and the people largely insulated or directly benefitting from the failures of the last seven years. Their opinions have become increasingly irrelevant. For in the 10 months since Mr. Trump’s campaign announcement, their “insights” have been uniformly wrong and their influence has dwindled.

[…]

In 1980 Ronald Reagan said, “The time is now for strong leadership,” and by 1984 was able to declare, “It is morning again in America.” Today, Donald Trump says it is time to make America great again. We agree.

While the Observer’s endorsement praised Trump’s accomplishments as a businessman and attacked his GOP rivals, the paper failed to mention any of Trump’s extreme proposals, and extreme rhetoric.

The Observer’s endorsement comes after the paper’s editorial staff issued a statement vowing they “would no longer aid or advise Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, after a report that the paper’s editor had helped write a major foreign policy speech,” according to The New York Times.   

The Observer joins The National Enquirer as the only publications to endorse Trump despite dozens of newspaper endorsement made for Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and John Kasich. The Enquirer’s endorsement also came under scrutiny after it was revealed that Trump and the CEO of Enquirer publisher American Media, Inc., David Pecker, were in fact close friends, with Trump even recommending Pecker become the next CEO of Time magazine.