Karl Rove Undeterred In New WSJ Editorial After Trump Called Him A ‘Total Loser’

There’s a new chapter in the spat between Karl Rove and President Donald Trump, and Trump’s not going to like it very much.

In a Wednesday editorial in the Wall Street Journal, the veteran Republican strategist doubled down on his earlier assessment that Trump’s in “very bad shape” on some issues, especially the economy.

That opinion, offered last week on Fox News, triggered an immediate response from Trump on social media, where he called Rove a “total Loser who’s been wrong about almost everything!”

Rove seemed to find the situation almost amusing as he mulled it over Wednesday.

“I’m glad he was watching but am a bit cloudy on how I got under the president’s skin,” he wrote.

“Maybe he doesn’t like to be second-guessed,” he ventured. “Maybe my praise wasn’t lavish enough.”

Rove then returned to the same line of thought that seems to have irked Trump in the first place, assessing all the ways the president is self-sabotaging his second term.

As before, Rove argued, Trump remains very weak on the economy, keeps shooting himself in the foot with weird distractions like imagining himself as the pope, and his repeated claim he can’t bring back immigrants he’s wrongly imprisoned in an El Salvador prison seems especially feeble.

“Don’t waste more time arguing about whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a bad guy,” Rove advised Trump. “Or intimate he can’t be retrieved from the El Salvador prison. The latter reeks of weakness.

“Bring Mr. Garcia back to the U.S. and put him in a courtroom. If he’s as bad as the president says, then it’s game, set, match. If not, he’ll get justice and the issue will fade.”

Turning to tariffs, Rove marveled at how poorly Trump has tried to sell them to the American public by repeatedly saying young girls will have to sacrifice by getting fewer dolls at Christmas.

“These comments made him sound like Scrooge,” Rove wrote. “Get less, pay more isn’t a winning message.”

Rove closed with a pledge to keep doing what he’s been doing, presidential name-calling be damned:

“My job as a commentator remains: call balls and strikes. I’ll keep doing that. And I’ll be grateful whenever the president tunes in. Americans want their president to succeed, no matter who he is or what party we are.”