Trump picks up his first major newspaper endorsement.
With polls showing him sliding nationally, Donald Trump received a bit of welcome news in one battleground state on Sunday as the editorial page of Nevada’s largest newspaper, the Las Vegas Review Journal, endorsed him for president.
It is the first major newspaper to give Trump its blessing, though it may come with something of an asterisk: The Review Journal was bought late last year by the casino magnate and billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a Trump supporter and longtime Republican benefactor.
The editorial described Trump as flawed but nonetheless preferable to Hillary Clinton.
“Mr. Trump’s impulsiveness and overheated rhetoric alienate many voters,” its endorsement said. “He has trouble dealing with critics and would be wise to discover the power of humility.”
“But neither candidate will ever be called to the dais to accept an award for moral probity and character,” the editorial continued. “And we are already distressingly familiar with the Clinton way, which involves turning public service into an orgy of influence peddling and entitlement designed to line their own pockets — precisely what a disgruntled electorate now rises up to protest.”
The editorial warned that an administration led by Clinton “would indulge the worst instincts of the authoritarian left and continue to swell the bloated regulatory state while running the nation deeper into the red in pursuit of ‘free’ college and health care.”
The endorsement comes at a time when Trump is in growing need of support: An ABC News tracking poll released Sunday showed Clinton beating him nationally by 12 percentage points.
Clinton has stacked up newspaper endorsements, including from unlikely quarters: The Arizona Republic broke with longstanding tradition and made her the first Democrat its editorial page has ever endorsed. The Dallas Morning News editorial page gave her its first endorsement of a Democrat since 1940. And The Cincinnati Enquirer, whose editorial page also endorsed Clinton, said that the last Democrat to receive its endorsement was Woodrow Wilson.
Until Sunday, the biggest newspapers to endorse Trump were the Santa Barbara, Calif., News-Press and St. Joseph, Mo., News-Press.
The Review-Journal’s editorial page rejected what it suggested was overwrought fear-mongering about Trump.
“Mr. Trump represents neither the danger his critics claim nor the magic elixir many of his supporters crave,” the endorsement said. “But he promises to be a source of disruption and discomfort to the privileged, back-scratching political elites for whom the nation’s strength and solvency have become subservient to power’s pursuit and preservation.”