‘Enough of the chaos’: The Orlando Sentinel takes down Trump before his re-election rally

On the day President Donald Trump kicks off his re-election campaign in Orlando, one newspaper said it will not endorse him. That paper just happens to be just down the street from where Trump is speaking.

In a scathing takedown, the Orlando Sentinel’s editorial board wouldn’t say which candidate it was endorsing, but it already knows who it won’t endorse: Trump.

The board, which operates independently of the newsroom, wrote:

“Some readers will wonder how we could possibly eliminate a candidate so far before an election, and before knowing the identity of his opponent.

Enough of the chaos, the division, the schoolyard insults, the self-aggrandizement, the corruption, and especially the lies.

So many lies — from white lies to whoppers — told out of ignorance, laziness, recklessness, expediency or opportunity.”

That was only the beginning. The Sentinel’s editorial also said, “Trump’s successful assault on truth is the great casualty of this presidency, followed closely by his war on decency.”

The Sentinel seized the moment even though we’re 17 months before the 2020 presidential election and a year before we even know for sure who he will run against.

“It wasn’t your typical rally,” said Sentinel opinions editor Mike Lafferty. “Somehow the idea emerged that maybe we could just go ahead and put down our markers as to where we’re going to head next year. We already had come to the conclusion based on the first couple of years of the administration that we weren’t going to be able to endorse him, so we thought we might as well go ahead and say that while there was some attention focused on Orlando.”

Lafferty said it’s possible the board won’t endorse anyone in 2020. In fact, the Sentinel did that in 1980 when it refused to endorse either Ronald Reagan or Jimmy Carter.

Lafferty also pointed out that this is not a Republican-Democrat thing. From 1952 to 2004, the Sentinel’s board endorsed Republicans in every election, except when it supported Lyndon Johnson in 1968. It has supported Democrats in three of the past four elections, endorsing Mitt Romney in 2012.

Lafferty also said it’s possible, although unlikely, that Trump could handle a national emergency with such grace and effectiveness that the Sentinel could walk back its non-endorsement. Lafferty also admitted that it’s not an easy decision to endorse or, in this case, not endorse a candidate.

“It just didn’t seem to make sense to put off what seemed inevitable,” Lafferty said.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, Lafferty said reader reaction to the Sentinel’s stance was running about “50-50.”