The two leading conservative media voices sparred over Trump’s tariffs, judicial nominations, and more.
Jason Cao
Staff Writer, The Buckley Beacon
Last Friday, CNN senior political contributor Scott Jennings and National Review senior writer Noah Rothman debated the resolution, “The Trump Agenda is Conservative” at the Buckley Institute’s Fifteenth Annual Conference.
Jennings, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, argued in the affirmative. Rothman, best known as the author of Unjust: Social Justice and the Unmaking of America (2019) and The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun (2022), argued in the negative. The debate started with a 5-minute opening statement from both speakers, which was followed by a fireside conversation moderated by The Buckley Beacon’s editor-in-chief, Owen Tilman (YC ’27).
Jennings opened by contending that President Donald Trump has delivered on key conservative priorities that past presidents have neglected.
“For decades, the conservative movement made promises that it has sometimes not delivered on,” Jennings said, including “judges that were faithful to the Constitution, deregulation, a strong America, a humming economy, end[ing] endless wars, a government that puts Americans ahead of globalist theories.”
Jennings alluded to Trump’s rhetoric, adding, “for all the handwringing about his personal style, he actually did the things that we all said we wanted to do.”
Since the appointments of Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court has handed conservatives several victories, including the long-anticipated overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide.
“Barrett, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, the most consequential judicial trio in modern history. Their jurisprudence restored the Constitution to the center of American laws,” Jennings said of the three justices. “You don’t have to like his social media to acknowledge that he delivered on the most important conservative policy victory in half a century.”
Jennings then turned to Trump’s economic agenda, which includes tax cuts, deregulation, and greater tariffs. “He unleashed a roaring economy by cutting taxes, by cutting regulations, by expanding energy production, and, yes, by standing up to China. These were not moderate or centrist positions. These were unapologetically conservative positions.”
In the past months, President Trump has implemented major changes in economic policy. In July, Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which extended the tax cuts in his first term and introduced new deductions for tipped and overtime income. He has also introduced major deregulatory moves, such as rolling back regulations in finance, cryptocurrency, and the environment.
Rothman retorted Jennings by questioning Trump’s commitment to conservative principles.
“If I were to honestly answer the question, ‘Is the Trump agenda conservative?’ I would say sometimes,” Rothman said in his opening statement. “When Trump departs from conservative principles, it is not merely a tactical accommodation. They are born of the president’s genuine convictions.”
Rothman cited Trump’s willingness to intervene in the economy, and his affinity towards tariffs as a policy tool, believing these policies to be closer to the traditional policies of American progressives. In the past months, Trump has raised tariffs on many of America’s major trading partners, most notably China, Canada, Mexico, and the E.U. The administration has justified these tariffs both on national security grounds, and in order to maintain America’s industrial base.
“Trump’s approach represents a repudiation of the fundamental conservative supposition that central economic planning does not work. What we now euphemistically refer to as industrial policy is command economics with Trumpian characteristics,” Rothman said.
Rothman criticized Trump’s alleged willingness to accuse private actors for contributing to the economic problems created by the tariffs. “The president defaulted here to blaming private actors for responding to incentives created in Washington in ways that Washington did not anticipate. Call it a right-wing version of [Senator] Elizabeth Warren style greed-flation.”
During the fireside chat, the speakers further unpacked their disagreements, most notably over Trump’s deviations from traditional conservative policies. Jennings, a longtime confidante of Republican Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, argued that these changes were a tactical and necessary attempt to preserve conservatism by appealing to the Republican Party’s new working-class voter base.
“As my old boss Mitch McConnell would say, losers go home and winners make policy,” Jennings said.
Rothman argued these deviations are an unnecessary abandonment of conservative values, and that past conservative presidents like Ronald Reagan were able to manage a large coalition while staying true to conservative values. “It just seems to me like surrender, not fighting,” Rothman said of Trump’s populist appeal.
The speakers later exchanged opinions on foreign policy. Jennings focused on the conservative merits of Trump’s June attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities of Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, and how he stuck through with his decision despite pushback from isolationists in his coalition. Jennings alluded to the June bombings as part of Trump’s long-standing commitment to preventing the Iranian regime from gaining nuclear weapons.
“It would have been so easy for him to say I don’t want to upset my coalition applecart here. But he has been incredibly consistent about this matter for a long time. They [Iran] cannot possess a nuclear weapon. He acted on it at the right time,” Jennings said.
Rothman echoed Jennings’ support for Trump’s strikes, but emphasized that he should apply the same logic to other geopolitical adversaries as well. “It’s something that we have not seen applied to Europe, to Central America, to East Asia even, where we are relaxing restrictions that were otherwise put in place in China.”
Rothman later added that the rise of isolationism within the Republican Party marks a dangerous shift away from conservative foreign policy.
The Buckley conference, which drew a record number of registrants, was capstoned with a keynote address by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (YC ‘01).