Republican strategist Karl Rove flamed President Donald Trump in the pages of The Wall Street Journal Wednesday, just days after Trump branded him a “total loser.”
The former White House deputy chief of staff for George W. Bush used the opportunity to share his confusion about what exactly he did to warrant the dressing down.
“Somehow on Sunday, I managed to spin up the leader of the free world in seven minutes,” Rove wrote, adding: “I’m glad he was watching but am a bit cloudy on how I got under the president’s skin.”
Trump’s attack followed a Fox News segment that saw Rove criticize several of the president’s most controversial moves—like posting a photo of himself as the pope, refusing to return deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and tanking the economy with his tariffs.
“I don’t need to have Karl Rove of FoxNews to tell me what to do,” Trump raged on Truth Social soon after. “The guy’s a total Loser who’s been wrong about almost everything!”
But Rove pushed back, writing that he hadn’t even been that hard on Trump. He pointed out that he hadn’t hesitated to laud what he saw going right for Trump’s administration.
“I praised Mr. Trump’s efforts to secure the border, saying the difference between the Biden and Trump administrations was ‘night and day,’” he wrote, adding: “I also pointed to his ‘great success’ in rebuilding the U.S. military, with enlistments rising for the first time in a while.”
Even when his commentary did turn to criticism, Rove maintained that it was well-intentioned advice, such as, “don’t stir up needless controversy like the president tweeting a picture of himself as the pope.”
At one point during the Fox segment, Rove called Trump “Mr. Scrooge” for dismissing concerns about whether his tariffs would mean fewer presents for American kids at Christmastime. Rove defended this remark by doubling down.
“Get less, pay more isn’t a winning message,” he wrote.
In any case, Rove made it clear that he wasn’t willing to prostrate himself to earn the president’s favor.
“What Mr. Trump found so offensive in all this is beyond me,” Rove wrote. “Maybe he doesn’t like to be second-guessed. Maybe my praise wasn’t lavish enough.”
Vowing to keep calling “balls and strikes” as he sees them, Rove suggested that Trump keep listening: “Americans want their president to succeed, no matter who he is or what party we are.”
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