‘Never Trumper’ Bill Kristol Shows One Of Most Embarrassing Examples Of Trump Derangement Syndrome Yet

You’d think a guy who’s wrong about everything, all the time, would occasionally, by sheer odds, get something right. 

Bill Kristol exists to disprove that notion. Kristol, a longtime GOP strategist and anti-Trump fanatic, is apparently happy to have a left-wing loon control America’s most populous city. 

Kristol revealed he’d probably vote for Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, if Kristol lived in New York. (RELATED: ‘I Say This With Regret’: Bill Kristol And James Carville Praise ‘Remarkable’ Trump Campaign)

“The idea of going back to Cuomo is just, I think, ridiculous. I think if it had been the first round, I would’ve voted for someone else and maybe wouldn’t have even ranked Mamdani and would’ve had other people who were more centrist, liberal types,” Kristol said during an October interview with The Forum,

“And I also just think, practically speaking, New York is a huge city. He’s not going to destroy it, I don’t think. He’s gonna set up five silly government-run grocery stores, I guess. I don’t think he even will do that … And so they’ll be fine. So there’ll be some grocery store somewhere and it won’t be as good as the privately run ones, and it will go out of business in three years and it’ll be a little bit of a waste of taxpayer money, you know? Or it’ll be harmless, you know?”

We’re just going to waste your money a little bit. What’s all the fuss? 

Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), may not be able to accomplish his most ambitious plans. Namely, all those freebies Mamdani promises on his campaign website: “Fast, fare free buses,” “No cost childcare,” “mak[ing] it faster, easier, and cheaper to start and run a business.” 

Mamdani is more likely to accomplish those plans which involve taking free stuff away. For instance, scrapping New York City’s gifted and talented program for kindergarten students, as Mamdani’s campaign pledged in a statement to The New York Times. Harrison Bergeron, anyone? (RELATED: Socialist NYC Mayoral Candidate’s Agenda Starts With Your Kids)

In the same interview with The Forum, Kristol praised the Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate, Abigail Spanberger, calling her “really excellent.” Kristol told his X followers today he was “proud to vote for [Spanberger.]”

“But I’m old-fashioned enough to encourage everyone to vote, whomever you support.”

Well, sure. Who cares who you vote for? Who cares if that candidate refuses to disavow a guy that casually fantasizes about a Republican woman cradling her dying child in her arms? Just so long as you vote. 

Ladies and gentlemen, “principled conservatism” has reached its final form pic.twitter.com/PcZThuI0lX

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 30, 2025

Kristol appears to pride himself on being a principled conservative, which as far as I can tell, translates to “eternal and enthusiastic loser.” 

Kristol’s X profile is awash with criticism of President Donald Trump for, among others things, insufficiently catering to the whims of “trans people.” 

This is about as reasonable as lambasting a politician for denying the assertions made by a schizophrenic: “Trump refuses to celebrate the lived experience of a guy who thinks his skin is crawling with government-implanted bugs! What a jerk!”

Further investigation into Kristol’s X account reveals an obsession with a four-line passage from book six of Virgil’s Aeneid, which Kristol has referenced no less than 11 times. It’s a good passage. The Aeneid is full of good passages. I’m beginning to suspect Kristol may not remember any of the other ones. 

1. A thread on what Congress should do now.

“The gates of hell are open night and day;
Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:
But to return, and view the cheerful skies,
In this the task and mighty labor lies.”
— Virgil, Aeneid, Book 6 (trans. Dryden)

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) September 22, 2019

Kristol is the same man who urged U.S. action in Iraq, arguing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Februrary 2002: “American and alliance forces will be welcomed in Baghdad as liberators … The political, strategic and moral rewards would also be even greater.” 

Kristol defended his hawkish position in an 2015 op-ed for USA Today, reading, “We were right to invade Iraq in 2003 to remove Saddam Hussein … Even with the absence of caches of weapons of mass destruction, and the mistakes we made in failing to send enough troops at first and to provide security from the beginning for the Iraqi people, we were right to persevere through several difficult years.” 

Kristol is now editor-at-large of The Bulwark, often billed as a center-right publication. Those center-right takes include:

• Referring to the Department of Labor’s advertisements featuring white men “uncomfortably reminiscent” of Third Reich propaganda posters.
• Calling for readers to “stand with [t]rans Americans” against “Trump’s acts of humiliation and dehumanization.”
• Handwringing over Trump’s federal takeover of the nation’s crime-ridden capital. 

Kristol himself wrote an ode to the enfeebled participants of the “No Kings” protests, which begins, “You might think that I’m too old and too experienced—dare one say, too jaundiced—to have been moved by the ‘No Kings’ protests … But moved I was.”

Old, jaundiced, and bowled over by a convention of cargo cultists aping the protests of the 1960s?

No, Bill. You sound like you fit right in. 

Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatSandovalDC