Donald Trump Buries William Kristol’s The Weekly Standard

President Donald Trump give remarks at the Unleashing American Energy event at Energy Department headquarters.
June 29, 2017 Photo Simon Edelman, Energy Department

The print-media home of the neocon movement in the Republican Party, The Weekly Standard, is closing up shop. The magazine’s founding editor, Bill Kristol, is probably America’s best known and most ardent neoconservative (though there is certainly plenty of competition). But after the magazine’s editors took an explicitly anti-Trump stance, its Republican readers fled. Jeffrey A. Tachtenberg and David Marcelis report on the closure at The Wall Street Journal:

The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine critical of the Trump administration, is closing after a 23-year run, its parent company said Friday.

Fred Barnes, The Weekly Standard’s executive editor and also a founder, said the publication’s financial issues stemmed in part from its stance on President Trump. “We’ve discovered that criticism of Trump affects circulation negatively.

Mr. Barnes, one of The Weekly Standard’s founders, said he believes the publication will be remembered as a conservative magazine that was livelier than most, well written, and one that identified with the “younger conservative forces” in the Republican Party.

“We supported tax reform, Paul Ryan, and an aggressive foreign policy that believed the U.S. should support the spread of democracy around the world,” he said.