Eric Greitens, the Republican who resigned as governor of Missouri nearly three years ago after a scandal-plagued year and a half in office, is vying for the GOP nomination to replace retiring Republican Senator Roy Blunt next year. And thanks to his dedication to Trumpism he’s earned Trump’s support, or to be more specific, the support of Kimberly Guilfoyle — the woman currently shacking up with Donald Trump, Jr. — who will be serving as the “National Chair” of Greitens’ senatorial campaign.
In a press release, the former Missouri governor said, “I am honored to have Kimberly’s support. Her work on behalf of President Donald J. Trump was unmatched. We know the Democrats will come after this campaign, just like they came after President Trump. With Kimberly Guilfoyle as our National Chair, I know we have a true fighter that will further elevate this campaign and help us win the support of every Missourian.”
In a statement issued through the Eric Greitens campaign, Guilfoyle gave her reasons for accepting the position: “Governor Greitens is a fighter who has stood with President Trump and has a proven record of advancing conservative, America First policies.”
Ah, yes. “Conservative, America First policies.” You remember those, don’t you? Record-breaking funding for Planned Parenthood, economy-destroying trade wars, history-making budget deficits.
Of course, the real reason Trump (via Kimberly Guilfoyle) is supporting Eric Greitens is his devotion to the twice-impeached president. Or could it be that he has earned Trump’s support because of the things they have in common with each other in the scandals department.
Like Trump, Greitens was involved in a sex scandal. As governor, Greitens faced felony charges related to an alleged blackmail scheme in which he was accused of threatening to release nude photos of a women with whom he had an affair. Also like Trump, Greitens faced financial scandal. The Missouri senatorial-hopeful faced allegations for improperly using a donor list to raise money for his gubernatorial campaign from a nonprofit he had founded.
Like Trump, Greitens faced impeachment for his actions — he resigned in June 2018 to avoid it — but had charges eventually dropped on a technicality when it was determined that his campaign committed the financial improprieties and not Greitens himself. The former Missouri governor was never cleared of his sex scandal, even though he claims he was “fully exonerated.”
Another example of Greitens’ Trumpism and how he takes after his idol is his claim that he’s not responsible for his actions; he’s just a victim of political attacks — at least that’s what he told Salem Radio Network’s Hugh Hewitt in a recent interview. “You’ve watched the way the mainstream media and the left have attacked President Trump for years because he was a conservative. He was an outsider. They do the exact same thing to me.”
Since making his announcement to run in 2022, Greitens has spent a lot of time bragging about his loyalty to Trump and how that qualifies him to be the next senator from Missouri, which has paid off with endorsements from Salem Radio Network’s Sebastian Gorka and former NYC mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.
If Kimberly Guilfoyle succeeds in getting Greitens elected, he will join Josh Hawley, a rising leader in the Republican Party who many consider a strong “conservative” worthy of the presidency, despite the fact that his 2024 aspirations are tied to Trumpism and constitutional ignorance, not conservatism.
It’s inevitable that Greitens and Hawley will immediately go to war against each other to see who can out-Trump the other, but Greitens has another issue with Hawley that could impact his chances.
Hawley was Missouri attorney general when evidence was uncovered that Greitens had used the charity donor list to solicit donations to fuel his 2016 campaign for governor. Hawley, who was running for the Senate seat he now occupies at the time, was one of the leading Republicans calling on Greitens to step down after a Missouri House committee investigating him released the report the documented the accusations of violence and sexual misconduct.
There are many establishment Republicans who see Greitens as politically toxic and believe that his potential Senate nomination could give Democrats an opportunity to win the seat currently held by Roy Blunt, but don’t be fooled.
Mitch McConnell made mowing down conservative opposition to the party establishment a top priority in 2014, and it remains so today. It’s been abundantly clear since then that Mickey and the Republican Party he “leads” just don’t care about issues important to the conservative base of the party. They’ve been content to bide their time, raise their money, and buy the votes they seek to win elections every two years.
Thanks to the help of Trump over the past four years, Mickey succeeded in having conservatism destroyed within the Republican Party and replaced by Trumpism and Nationalism, giving us a mixed bag of socialism-friendly policies diametrically opposed to our conservative values.
Having successfully blurred the lines between conservatism and socialism, Trump, McConnell, and other faux conservatives like Josh Hawley and Eric Greitens have reaffirmed the far-left’s longstanding opinion of conservatives as hypocrites and political opportunists — giving the far-left a long list of valid reasons to reject conservative ideals.
I wrote in my 2020 year-end post about how the survival of conservatism ultimately depends on allies banding together against Trumpism and Nationalism, along with every other form of lie peddled by faux conservatives and Republicans. It’s up to us to be a bulwark against every attempt of party leadership to redefine conservative principles in their vain attempt to preserve the party.
Trumpists and nationalists are still trying to fool us into believing America will be free as long as we work to get rid of Democrats by embracing Trump and his “America First” rhetoric, but the bottom line is this: Unless we dedicate ourselves to putting the Constitution above party politics and Trumpism, conservatism will be destroyed and liberty will not survive.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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