New York Post to Donald Trump: Stop the Insanity

The favourite newspaper of President Donald Trump has turned against him.

In an editorial that enjoyed the front-page, giant-font treatment on Monday, the New York Post told Trump that he wants to give up his baseless battle to reverse the outcome of the presidential election.

"Mr. President ... STOP THE INSANITY," read the front page of the tabloid, famous for outlandish headlines. "You lost the election -- here's how to save your legacy."

If that wasn't clear enough, the top of the editorial got right to the point:

"Mr. President, it's time to end this dark charade," the Post's editorial board wrote. "You're cheering for an undemocratic coup."

The editorial from the Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWS), is not the first time a Murdoch-owned news outlet has distanced itself from Trump and his refusal to concede the election. On November 6, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal encouraged Trump to concede once he was declared the loser (most other media organizations called the election the next day, and the electoral college voted for President-elect Joe Biden on December 14). The Journal argued Trump's legacy would be greatly diminished if his final act were "a bitter refusal to accept a legitimate defeat."

Given its prime-time hosts' defense of Trump's unwillingness to concede, Fox News, operated by Murdoch's Fox Corp., has accepted that Biden is the president-elect.

And in the Post itself, Col Allan, the top Murdoch lieutenant, announced that he will resign from the paper in 2021. In moving the Post in a pro-Trump direction, Allan was instrumental. For starters, CNN claimed last summer that Allan ordered the removal of a story about a Trump sexual harassment claim.

But the new editorial was notable for its sharp-worded dismissal of Trump's misinformation campaign about the election result and multi-pronged, flailing effort to remain in power.

The Post criticized Trump for undermining the election results long after his legal team found nothing to substantiate widespread election fraud that would have tipped the scales in Biden's favor. The newspaper called Trump election lawyer Sidney Powell "crazy," and it also said pardoned former Trump NSA director Michael Flynn was treasonous for his suggestion that Trump impose martial law.

"We understand, Mr. President, that you're angry that you lost. But to continue down this road is ruinous. We offer this as a newspaper that endorsed you, that supported you: If you want to cement your influence, even set the stage for a future return, you must channel your fury into something more productive."

The editorial demanded that Trump used his remaining days in office to campaign to secure all Senate run-off elections in Georgia for Republicans, lest Democrats take control of the legislature's two houses. The Post observed that a Democratic Senate could endanger the legacy of the President, in addition to keeping Democrats from enacting laws and regulations that Republicans detest. Republicans, the Post claimed, will be licking their wounds and less likely to listen to Trump.

"Democrats will try to write you off as a one-term aberration and, frankly, you're helping them do it," the editorial board wrote. "The King Lear of Mar-a-Lago, ranting about the corruption of the world."

The Post echoed concerns held by Democrats and Republicans alike that a lame-duck President Trump, unbound to any consequence and unswayed by shame, poses a danger to the future of the United States. The editorial board cautioned Trump against that approach, noting he still has something to fight for: how Americans remember him.

"If you insist on spending your final days in office threatening to burn it all down, that will be how you are remembered. Not as a revolutionary, but as the anarchist holding the match."