As conservatives prepare to support a Republican for the 2016 presidential race, a large number seem convinced that Donald Trump is their best choice.  Why?  He is certainly mouthing the right things on many issues, particularly immigration, but does Trump really believe what he is saying?  Surely that is the key.

Consider his history.  Trump has given money to Hillary Clinton, to Chuck Schumer, to Harry Reid, and to the whole rogue’s gallery of dreadful leftists who are ruining America.  He can have only two explanations for helping these corrupt Democrats. 

First, he was so dumb and ignorant about what Hillary or Harry represented that he had no idea that helping them would ruin America.  Millions of conservatives grasped the wickedness and deceitfulness of these leftists decades ago.  When did Donald learn that they were bad?  Why was he so much slower and stupider than the rest of us?

Second, Trump may have simply been buying influence in Washington with money.  If that is so, then why in the world would conservatives give him a second glance as a presidential candidate?  Buying influence in Washington is precisely what we are fighting.  Even if Trump were padding his bets by giving money to both sides, he is as bad as or even worse than any run-of-the-mill Washington politician.

Consider his flip-flopping on abortion and on gay marriage.  His position on socially conservative issues sure seems to follow what Trump needs to be popular.  Has Trump even articulated a serious critic of Abortionism or gay marriage?  He may, in fact, have changed his position on those issues, but the reasons why look like political expediency.

In fact, if Trump did not loudly say that he is a Republican (he didn’t use to be one) and that he is a conservative (although his positions on many issues have in the past been anti-conservative), then ordinary people would have a tough time seeing Trump as conservative at all.  And if Trump is not a true conservative, then what is he?

RINO doesn’t exactly fit, because even RINOs don’t contribute campaign money to Hillary Clinton or Harry Reid, and RINOs at least remain Republicans, unlike Trump, who is a Republican, then not, then Republican again.  What Trump looks like is a Beltway insider – a New York billionaire who acts like a New York billionaire. 

Then why is he running for president as a “conservative” Republican?  Why is Trump trashing every other Republican in the race?  One answer is consistent with everything Trump does (rather than professes to believe): Trump is Hillary’s secret weapon if her campaign continues to implode.

Trump’s threat to run as a spoiler candidate in the general election if Republicans aren’t nice to him tells the tale.  If he is running to save America, what difference does it make if Republicans treat him well or not?  Beyond that, who determines if he is being treated fairly or not?  Donald alone, it seems, makes that decision.

Trump’s recent attacks on Scott Walker tell even more of how Trump is acting in his notional run for the Republican nomination.  On the pretext that one volunteer Walker supporter calling Trump “dumb” meant that attacking Walker was justified, Trump then began to repeat Democrat talking points and to critique Walker for not behaving more like a leftist by allowing the infrastructure to decay, education to go underfunded, blah, blah, blah. 

This is a bookend to Trump’s attack on Rick Perry for not protecting the border.  Conservatives may have concerns with Rick Perry, but it was Perry, after all, who called out the Texas National Guard to patrol the border, and it was Perry who sought to get Obama to see firsthand the problems at the border. 

Trump seems to willing to attack any Republican contender for any reason at all, even to the point of making misleading statements in the case of Perry or attacking Walker from the left.  What this suggests is that Donald Trump would be happy to be the Republican nominee, but if he loses that battle, he will be happy to help elect Hillary Clinton, another super-rich Beltway insider. 

Why ought conservatives to trust Donald Trump?  Any conservative who thinks that Trump’s rhetoric in the Republican primary transforms him into a real conservative has not been paying attention to how the left wins elections in America.  It is at least as likely that Trump aims to make Hillary president.