Sixteen months after I became the editor of the Chattanooga Free Press opinion page in 2014, reality TV star and real estate mogul Donald Trump came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower in New York City to announce his bid for president of the United States in 2016.
At the time, I couldn’t imagine the blustery, ego-driven but successful businessman would dominate the rest of my tenure as an opinion editor.
Now, in my penultimate Sunday commentary for this newspaper, I want to wrestle for a few hundred words why the editor of a historically conservative editorial page couldn’t be more supportive of a man who some would swear is the best and most conservative president this nation has ever had.
This page through the years, if it has stood for anything, has stood for capitalism, small government, low taxes and regulation and family values. Since I also personally believe in those things, I have had no trouble defending them, especially when Trump stood for them.
But, as an opinion editor and a conservative, I also have thought it was my responsibility to tell you when I thought the president was wrong. Some of you, I know, thought that was too often.