Never Trump, Still a Republican
Former Republican Senator Jeff Flake discusses his ongoing opposition to Donald Trump and his decision to endorse a Democratic candidate. Flake reflects on the shift in Republican party values and his belief that the current political climate is temporary.
Why it matters
Flake's perspective illustrates the internal ideological struggle within the American conservative movement regarding the influence of populism and Trumpism.
Why Jeff Flake still believes the spell over his party will break
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Jeff Flake is something of a maverick in today’s Republican Party. He was an early and consistent critic of President Trump. In December 2015, when then-candidate Trump floated a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering” the United States—a preview of what became his now-infamous executive order barring travel to the U.S. by people from several Muslim-majority countries—Flake, then a United States Senator from Arizona, immediately spoke up. The idea repulsed him. He made a visit to a mosque in Scottsdale days later to declare that what people were seeing from Trump on the campaign trail was not representative of America.
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