God, Trump and the Closed-Door World of a Major Conservative Group
From a hostile Washington Post: "What internal recordings and documents reveal about the Council for National Policy — and the future of the Republican Party."
Disclosure: I am a longtime member of the Council for National Policy's Gold Circle and Board of Governors. — RDM
by Robert O'Harrow Jr.
The Washington Post
October 25, 2021
In October 2015, Donald Trump was still a laugh line for right-wing Christian activists. By their lights, he was a failed casino owner and thrice-married playboy. He had no apparent principles, no policy blueprint, and no grasp of the Bible. He didn’t even understand free-market theory, something they consider to be a fountainhead of American liberty. Yet here he was in a conference room at the Ritz-Carlton in McLean, Va., soliciting support from a closed-door group of conservative leaders called the Council for National Policy.
Trump looked the part. He wore a blue suit, white shirt, and shiny blue tie. But he seemed to lose his way during the pitch and began riffing about his hair. He turned his head to various angles for the crowd. “It looks pretty good back here,” Trump said, as CNP’s president, Bill Walton, would…