In an editorial on Sunday, the right-leaning editorial page of The Wall Street Journal made clear that it’s not endorsing the Republican or Democratic nominees for president.
The editorial, titled “the Gamble of Trump,” says the upside of a Trump presidency is “political disruption” that comes with “manifest personal flaws.” A vote for Hillary Clinton, by contrast, comes with “four more years of brute progressive government,” according to the editorial board:
A broken Washington needs to be shaken up and refocused on the public good, and who better to do it than an outsider beholden to neither political party? If only that reform possibility didn’t arrive as a flawed personality who has few convictions and knows little about the world.
The Wall Street Journal has not endorsed a candidate since it backed Herbert Hoover, a Republican, in 1928. But The New York Post, which is also owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, endorsed Trump during his primary bid earlier this year.
On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal also published a second editorial titled “the Costs of Clinton” that provided a list of consequences for voting for the Democratic nominee.
Editorial boards have overwhelmingly favored Clinton this year, with at least 57 major newspapers backing the Democratic frontrunner. Trump, meanwhile, has received two major endorsements, according to the American Presidency Project: the Las Vegas Review-Journal (owned by GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson) and the Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville.
