Peggy Noonan Argues ‘Breathtaking’ Charges Against Trump Will Cost Him His ‘Quiet’ and ‘Honest’ Supporters

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan lit into former President Donald Trump this week and argued that his 37-count federal indictment will cost him some support in the GOP.

Noonan, a longtime commentator and former speech writer for President Ronald Reagan, began her column by looking back at what she has written about Trump since he joined national politics in 2015.

Noonan quotes herself, noting, “Donald Trump is an unstable element inserted into an unsettled environment. Sooner or later there will be a boom.”

She added that Trump “has poor impulse control and is never above the fray. He likes to start fights. That’s a weakness. Eventually he’ll lose one.”

“I have been startled at how much I said then that I’d say now,” Noonan concludes with her brief look back, noting that she was wrong, however, to conclude he wouldn’t last on the national stage.

Noonan then transitions into her analysis of the indictment. “The charges aren’t about press clippings, personal letters and autographed photos of foreign leaders. The federal criminal indictment charges Donald Trump with illegally keeping, hiding and showing to others national-security documents including information on U.S. nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of the U.S. and its allies to military attack, and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack,” she writes.

“You can’t get more serious, more breathtaking, in a charge against a former president,” Noonan argues, rebutting some Republican defenders who have claimed Trump’s retention of documents was a trivial, civil matter.

“The documents have to do with the most essential of our security interests. They are about how we keep our country safe from military attack,” Noonan insists before breaking down how she sees the indictment impacting Trump’s voters:

This won’t solidify his position with hardline supporters. Deep down they know “What about Hillary?” doesn’t answer the questions: “Why would Trump do this? Why would he put America in danger? Who did he show those papers to?”

As to soft Trump supporters, the charges do nothing to keep them in his camp. They reinforce the arguments of former Trump Republicans now backing other candidates: He was our guy but in the end he’s all danger and loss.

Noonan then takes on another regular pushback from Trump’s defenders, the idea Trump had no nefarious motive in taking the documents home.

“What were Mr. Trump’s motives? Why would he refuse to give the documents back, move them around Mar-a-Lago, mislead his own lawyers about their status and content?” Noonan asks.

She answers, writing, “Because of vanity: Look at this handwritten letter. Kim Jong Un loves Trump. See who I was? Look at this invasion plan.”

Noonan then lays out her rationale for why even Trump supporters will be concerned by his retention of military secrets.

“My fear is that Mar-a-Lago is a nest of spies. Membership in the private club isn’t fully or deeply vetted; anyone can join who has the money (Mr. Trump reportedly charges a $200,000 initiation fee),” she writes.

Noonan then goes through a brief history of various foreign nationals being arrested for infiltrating Mar-a-Lago.
“Mar-a-Lago isn’t secure. Those documents didn’t belong there. It is a danger to our country that they were. This story will do Mr. Trump no good with his supporters,” Noonan argues, concluding, “It will hurt him—maybe not a lot but some, maybe not soon but in time. I mean the quiet Trump supporters, not big mouths and people making money on the game, but honest people.”