NeverTrumper Bill Kristol Announces He's a Dem, Gives Most Preposterous Reason for the Change
In the most stunning revelation since it was confirmed Liberace liked the dudes, Bill Kristol — neocon, publisher, and one-time Republican operative extraordinaire — has announced he’s now a Democrat.
Kristol is best known both for his punditry in print and on various cable news hits, as well as publishing The Weekly Standard, long known as one of the pillars of the conservative establishment.
However, while the conservative establishment generally didn’t like Donald Trump as he became a serious candidate during the 2016 cycle, Kristol had an anaphylactic reaction to suddenly being displaced by the populist rabble. Fast-forward 10 years and the professional NeverTrumper has become yet another professional mouthpiece who has decided he’s so much of a Not That Kind of a Republican™ that he’s not a Republican.
His reasons, alas, can be described — at best — as strange.
“I’m pro-freedom, pro-law and order, pro-limited government, and pro-the Declaration and the Constitution,” Kristol said in a post this past week.
“And so today I’m a Democrat.”
I’m pro-freedom, pro-law and order, pro-limited government, and pro-the Declaration and the Constitution.
And so today I’m a Democrat.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 16, 2026
This, from pundit and U.K. Spectator writer Melissa Chen, may have summed up the fatuousness better than anyone has or could:
I’m pro-feminism, pro-LBTQIA2S+, pro-free speech, pro-Zionism and pro-alcohol
And so today, I am converting to Islam
— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) May 16, 2026
If one needs any explanation why this is risible, look at Zohran “Warmth of Collectivism” Mamdani, who not only got elected as a Democrat but seems to be the future face of the Democratic Party.
It’s not as if Kristol tried to stop this, mind you. In fact, before he was officially Democrat, he was shilling for Mamdani: “New York is a huge city. [Mamdani is] not going to destroy it, I don’t think. He’s gonna set up five silly government-run grocery stores, I guess. I don’t think he even will do that [inaudible]. And so they’ll be fine,” Kristol said.
It’s hardly like he’s the only Republican neocon apparatchik who’s decided to make their Democrat conversion official. George Conway, that carbuncle on the body politic who broke up his marriage because his wife committed wrongthink by helping Donald Trump win the presidency, is running for Congress as a Democrat.
Jen Rubin, the longtime token conservative-ish writer at The Washington Post, came out even earlier in 2020, in a piece called “NeverTrump becomes NeverRepublican.”
NeverRepublican became NeverWaPo when she left the sinking ship in early 2025 to start a Substack with Norm Eisen called The Contrarian, aimed at the demographic who pine for the days of Nelson Rockefeller as “the right.”
They say narrowcasting is the future, so maybe the six people who actually care about the publication will really make some serious changes in the Republican Party from the Democratic side, but forced to wager on Kalshi on either that outcome, or whether the staff of The Contrarian could bioengineer pigs so they could fly, I’d place every dollar on the latter proposition.
The reaction to Kristol was expected and on point.
Buddy you were a democrat 15 years ago. Which is exactly how and why Donald Trump happened.
Take your bow. Enjoy the result.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 16, 2026
You’re pro-whatever-gets-stupid-people-to-give-you-money.
And so you’re a Democrat.
— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) May 16, 2026
Pro law and order. 🤣
Remember when the last guy left the border wide open, stopped deportations, and supported sanctuary cities ignoring federal law?
— MAZE (@mazemoore) May 16, 2026
The answer: No, he doesn’t remember. What he remembers is when he held court at whatever cable network he pleased, relaying whatever moderate establishment line had come across the email list that morning.
He tried all sorts of ways to sway the GOP back to his vision of the future, all with less than astounding results. He was one of several NeverTrump Republicans speaking at a much-ballyhooed, profoundly underdelivering summit of the tribe, including Kristol, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former Republican Rep. Joe Walsh.
Before the 2020 election, he teamed with (for Pete’s sake) Anthony Scaramucci to try and find an anti-Trump Republican to mount a serious challenge to Trump, then the incumbent president.
Prospective candidates either didn’t answer the phone or, if they were unlucky enough not to recognize the number before picking up, said they couldn’t possibly run because they had to go wash their hair and take out the trash, thanks for calling, see you later!
And now he pretends that the Democrats, a party which embraces socialism and violence and annihilating institutions like the Supreme Court and Senate, is actually “pro-freedom, pro-law and order, pro-limited government, and pro-the Declaration and the Constitution.”
The only question is the same as with Liberace: Why pretend for so long?
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