Brooks’ Trump Writer’s Block

Donald Trump has won over wide swaths of the Republican electorate, but a paragon of the Establishment conservative media made clear Thursday the GOP front-runner is anathema to the party’s elite wing.

Perhaps no one personifies the New York-Washington Republican elite — and its disdain for Trump — better than New York Times columnist David Brooks, who dumped on the real estate magnate during an appearance on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

Brooks demurred when Ingraham asked if he would vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton over Trump, but he added, “I really would have trouble writing positive articles about Donald Trump. Government is like a craft, and I believe in people who have done it before.”

Brooks said he believes former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush would be a good administrator and that Bush enjoys that part of the job. But, he added, Bush was “born in the wrong decade” and is “pretty much done.”

Brooks also lectured conservatives who favor more aggressive confrontations with President Obama, saying they are unrealistic.

“The idea that we can shut down the government through unilateral action when the Democrats control the White House is just not reality, and you have to deal with the power centers that exist,” he said.

Former House Speaker John Boehner understood that, Brooks said. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz does not.

Ingraham asked Brooks if there is any issue over which he would be willing to shut down the government. Not federal funding of Planned Parenthood. Not Obamacare. But he said there might be an issue worth taking that step: slavery.

So why do rank-and-file Republican voters, measured by low approval ratings of their own party’s congressional leaders, so roundly reject the measured governing approach favored by Brooks?

He attributed it to “overpromising and underdelivering.” He said he understands the frustration.

“Republican voters at least want their agenda thrown out there,” he said.

Plus, Brooks said, “Who likes (the) Establishment these days?”