David French, a lawyer who served as a Judge Advocate General in Iraq, used to write intelligent opinion pieces at the National Review. However, when National Review embraced the NeverTrump ideology, David French was the leader of the pack. Since then, like other well-known NeverTrumpers, French has turned on conservatives and on most conservative principles. No wonder, then, that he's now the New York Times’s newest “conservative” columnist.

I’ll open this essay with a true story about when I met French shortly after Trump was elected for the first time in 2016. It was no secret that French despised Trump and was unhappy that Trump had been elected. When I challenged him to explain why Trump would be such a disaster, one of the main things French called upon in support of his argument was the now-infamous “grab ‘em” video that Trump haters interpreted to mean that Trump was boasting about sexually assaulting women.

By this time, I was a strong Trump supporter (he couldn’t be worse than Hillary and, as proved true, he might well be better), so I suggested that he watch the Diana Davison video, below. I said that the video makes a very strong case that Trump was not admitting to sexually assaulting women. Instead, he was simply shooting the bull with the guys and making the completely accurate statement that there are women who will give free sexual access to rich, powerful men:

I’m not saying you must accept Davison’s argument but, if one of the main reasons you’re having something akin to an emotional breakdown over Trump is that Access Hollywood tape, if you were intellectually honest, you’d at least consider the point.

I don’t remember French’s exact words, but he explicitly told me words to the effect that “I don’t want to hear that.” He practically stuck his fingers in his ears while saying, “la, la, la.”  French was the juror who, having made up his mind about the defendant during the prosecution’s case, refuses to listen to the defendant’s evidence, including something that clearly exonerates the defendant. I struggled for months after that to maintain my respect for French as he became more viciously hostile to anything conservative while still hiding behind the “I’m conservative” banner. Eventually, I gave up.

Since Trump was elected, French migrated to The Dispatch, Bill Kristol’s home for formerly conservative Trump haters. Here are some recent examples of French’s conservativism.

He thinks those who are hostile to Democrats instructing kids in transgenderism have crossed a line.

He accuses DeSantis of attacking the First Amendment for daring to protect children from LGBTQ++ porn and grooming. Apparently French, who identifies as a First Amendment expert, forgot that the First Amendment has always bowed before giving children special protection from porn, cigarette and alcohol ads, and even advertising as a whole.

He believes that the government has the right to correct misinformation by asking allies to censor people. All lawyers who have gotten through their first day of law school know how wrong this is. And again, French is a First Amendment “expert.”

He thinks Twitter wasn’t that bad for censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story because there was really nothing politically scandalous about it.

He’s a self-styled Evangelical Christian who is proud of having evolved on the gay marriage issue, Bible be damned.

He’s thrilled that Kari Lake lost because getting rid of her purifies America and the GOP.

He’s horrified that Evangelicals supported Georgia’s flawed pro-life candidate rather than just embracing the pro-abortion candidate.

He thinks it’s great to give amnesty to the people who masked children, destroyed the economy, and forced dangerous vaccines on Americans.

You get the idea: David French is a “conservative” whose “conservative” values align very closely with the Democrat party’s values. No wonder that the New York Times is thrilled to welcome their newest “conservative” columnist:

We’re excited to announce that writer and legal scholar @DavidAFrench is joining @NYTOpinion as the newest columnist. https://t.co/BXHrnfA12G

— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) January 3, 2023

As with other so-called “conservative” columnists at leftist outlets (Jennifer Rubin at the WaPo, Brett Stephens at the Times), readers of the New York Times can have the thrill of finding that they agree with a “reasonable” conservative, one who marches in lockstep with all of their views. It’s all those other conservatives, the ones who don’t take orders from the New York Times, who are the real haters in America.

Image: David French. YouTube screen grab.