FARMINGTON, N.H. — Donald Trump came to a high school gymnasium full of independents and former Democrats on Monday night and delivered the post-ideological message they came to hear. Ditching the Republican Party line, Trump defended eminent domain and dismissed the standard-bearers of conservative thought as irrelevant relics.

In Iowa, where movement conservatives and evangelicals hold outsize sway in Republican politics, Trump is locked in a heated contest with the rigidly conservative Ted Cruz. In New Hampshire, Trump’s grab bag of populist positions and singular persona match an ideologically promiscuous electorate, and Trump towers above the field.


Speaking for less than an hour to about 1,000 attendees, a hoarse Trump cast himself as a man apart from the entire political system, painting “Hillary and Ted and Jeb” as beholden to their donors. “I’m the only one that’s funding my own campaign on either side, Democrat or Republican, which makes me feel a little bit lonely,” he said.

In response to a recent anti-Trump issue of National Review, Trump did not just insult the magazine as an irrelevant money-loser — a common response of his to critical coverage. He also dismissed conservative intellectuals as a class.

Trump quoted at length from an open letter penned by Doug Ibendahl, a former general counsel to the Illinois Republican Party, describing the 22 conservative thought leaders who participated in the issue as ideologues whose time has passed.

“Just like the elected officials from both parties, the Gang of 22 has been great at complaining about stuff, year, after year, after year. But getting anything accomplished? Not so much,” Trump recited. “Many of the Gang of 22 have been hanging around and chattering for decades, and some are active cogs in the Conservative Entertainment Complex, deriving their income by pandering to conservative anger while offering no real solutions.”

The letter goes on to paint the thought leaders’ conservative orthodoxy as a limitation that Trump has transcended. “Trump is inspiring and exciting a broad spectrum of the country like no member of the Gang of 22 ever has, or ever will. In just seven months of campaigning, Trump already has more Americans listening to a Republican message than the entire Gang of 22 could muster over decades.”

Trump also defended his support of eminent domain — government seizure of private property for public ends — a boogeyman of conservative intellectuals that has made its way into anti-Trump attack ads but remains obscure to most voters.

“Do people even know what eminent domain is?” asked Trump, who has attempted to invoke it to evict homeowners and make way for his private developments. Without it, Trump said, “You wouldn’t have a country. You wouldn’t have any roads. You wouldn’t have any railroad tracks.”

When Trump touted his business opus, “The Art of the Deal,” he did not — as he often does in Iowa and the South — say that the book is a distant second to the Bible on the list of all-time greatest books. Nor did he mention his Presbyterian faith or his newfound opposition to abortion.

Before the rally, Al Bragden, 53, a veteran of Desert Storm, said he was deciding between Trump and Hillary Clinton, but leaning toward Trump. He wanted to hear what Trump said about Social Security, the military and veterans.

Trump went on to check all of Bragden’s boxes, saying he would “save Social Security,” build up the military and improve veterans’ health care — a list that hews to neither party’s current platform.

Milton Locke, 57, an installer of sprinkler systems, said he was raised as a Democrat but that in recent years felt condescended to by that party’s leaders. He said that listening to Democrats speak brought to mind the Titanic, because he felt like he was down in stowage and being told he could never make it to first class. Not so with Trump, said Locke. “When he speaks, it’s like he’s with us and we’re rising together.”

Introducing the candidate, state Rep. Al Baldasaro, co-chairman of New Hampshire Veterans for Trump, struck a similar chord. He confessed to being raised as a Democrat in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and told his fellow veterans that under a President Trump, “We’re not treated as second-class citizens anymore.”

D. Joseph Marma, 32, a consultant, said he would be voting for Trump. Marma, an independent voter — called “undeclared” in New Hampshire — is also a supporter of Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan. “I’m so tired of the candidates being called out for being too liberal, too conservative, too moderate,” he said.

Tess O’Brien, a former Democrat who began drifting from the party after 2000, drove from Connecticut for the rally. The country’s problems go “far beyond Democrat, Republican, conservative, liberal,” she said. “And finally, a leading citizen is willing to stand up and talk about these problems.”

