The Josh Hammer Report

Josh Hammer

Newsweek Opinion Editor And Host,
"The Josh Hammer Show"

This week, my column used the news of former South Carolina Governor and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley's impending 2024 presidential run announcement to make a broader point about the nature of the emerging field. I argue that, now seven years after former President Donald Trump upended the 2016 GOP presidential primary like a hurricane, the GOP has a serious choice to make: Regardless of whether Trump himself is the actual nominee again this time around, will the party move forward and advance the ball on the various fronts where he amended the sclerotic Conservatism, Inc. status quo ante, or will the GOP simply return to the pre-2016 status quo ante?

The GOP primary electorate's choice of nominee will say much about the direction the party's faithful seeks to go when it comes to issues pertaining to trade, immigration, foreign policy, and, perhaps most important, a willingness and indeed eagerness to eschew illusions of faux-"neutrality" and wield political power to fight the culture war against an ever-recalcitrant Left.

On this week's podcast, I monologued on the nefarious Chinese "spy balloon" before being joined by CJ Pearson, a PragerU personality and rising Gen Z conservative star. CJ and I had a wide-ranging conversation about his experience as a black conservative student at the University of Alabama, the state of higher education and free speech on American university campuses today, the extent to which conservatives and the GOP might be able to make inroads with Gen Z, the emerging 2024 GOP presidential field, and other timely topics.

It was difficult not to come away from this conversation with CJ feeling at least slightly more hopeful about the state of everything happening around us. I generally think it is very important for right-of-center commentators to avoid coming off as overly bearish and "doomer," and that task was easier for me after my conversation with CJ. Go ahead and give it a listen on Apple, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In terms of media appearances over the past week, I joined my friend Seth Leibsohn (who was last week's guest on my own Newsweek podcast) for a wide-ranging interview about conservatism and the post-2016 GOP, and (as usual) co-hosted the Edmund Burke Foundation's most recent episode of the "NatCon Squad" podcast. Also, in case you missed it, I was on FOX Business's "Mornings with Maria" last week to discuss the latest updates with the scandal-ridden Hunter Biden.

I'm on the road for much of this week—I have four events this week in Illinois, including one debate I am particularly looking forward to at my alma mater, the University of Chicago Law School. Related, a friendly reminder: I will be speaking at CPAC in Washington, D.C. in early March! I hope to see some of you there.

Our highlighted right-leaning Newsweek op-eds this week include selections from Kristen Waggoner, Delano Squires, Charlie Kirk, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY). Thanks for subscribing! Please share the word about this newsletter throughout your social circles.

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MARK CUNNINGHAM/MLB PHOTOS VIA GETTY IMAGES

The 2024 Test for the New American Right

After former President Donald Trump formally launched his 2024 presidential run in November, a favorite parlor game of the chattering class has been to guess the identity of his first formally announced challenger for the Republican nomination. This week answered that question: Nikki Haley. The former governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is set to declare her candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in Charleston, South Carolina, on Feb. 15. (N.B. deeply unpopular former National Security Advisor John Bolton made an offhand remark to a British television station last month that he would also run, but since then has merely intimated he is considering such a bid.)

Haley's announcement will likely open up the floodgates for additional Trump challengers. Just as Haley had barely made an effort of late to contain her 2024 presidential ambitions, so too might we expect announcements to soon follow from other not-so-thinly-veiled aspirants, such as former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and perhaps former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. Later this spring or early summer, numerous other candidates are poised to also enter the fray: chief among them Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and perhaps also Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, 2016 GOP presidential primary runner-up Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), or Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has also been teasing a possible presidential run, despite his rather dubious credentials.

All of this will be sorted out in due time—by June or July of this year, at the latest. And as we approach that time, the key question facing the Right, and the Republican Party that is the Right's natural partisan vehicle, is whether it will seize upon the Trump phenomenon and move forward, or instead move backward to the pre-2016 GOP status quo ante. Put another way: Was "Trumpism" a one-time flash in the pan based around an eponymous larger-than-life personality and universal celebrity status, or was it a substantive wake-up call for the GOP to ditch its outmoded bromides and sober up on issues pertaining (especially) to trade, immigration, and foreign policy?

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