Watch Trump's new press secretary thrash him on Fox and CNN in 2015


President Trump appointed Kayleigh McEnany to be his fourth press secretary last month. McEnany, previously Trump's campaign spokeswoman and before that a conservative cable news regular, was not always on Team Trump, as CNN discovered when digging through the cable news vaults for a highlight reel broadcast Thursday.
Trump "doesn't deserve" to be near the top of the GOP polls, McEnany told Fox Business in the summer of 2015. "Look, the GOP doesn't need to be turning away voters and isolating them, we need to be bringing them into the tent. Donald Trump is the last person who's going to do that." Trump's comments about Mexicans were "very inartful and very inappropriate," she told CNN. "I think the mainstream Republican does not want to send the illegal immigrant back to Mexico. ... That's not the American way, we're not going to ship people across the border. There has to be some path to citizenship." She even suggested Trump's comment was "racist."
McEnany certainly isn't the first Trump skeptic who has since publicly changed their mind — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), recent White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), for example, made scathing comments about Trump's unfitness for office during the 2016 campaign. But it is interesting to remember how far the Republican Party has shifted over the past four years.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
By October 2015, McEnany had changed her tone and said calling Trump a sexist and a racist was helping him among people sick of political correctness. But her problem was never that he was too conservative, the clips suggest. "Hey, I don't want to claim this guy," she laughed on CNN in June 2015. "Donald Trump, if we're going to be honest, is a progressive. ... This is not a true Republican candidate, and the fact that he's being portrayed as such in media is troublesome and not accurate."
At least McEnany is consistent about blaming the media.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
WHCA rejects White House press seating grab
Speed Read The White House Correspondents' Association objected to the Trump administration's bid to control where journalists sit during press briefings
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump sends more migrants to El Salvador jail
Speed Read Another 17 Venezuelan alleged gang members have been deported to a notorious prison
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump 'not joking' about unconstitutional 3rd term
Speed Read The president seems to be serious about seeking a third term in 2028
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The JFK files: the truth at last?
In The Spotlight More than 64,000 previously classified documents relating the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released by the Trump administration
By The Week Staff Published
-
Supreme Court upholds 'ghost gun' restrictions
Speed Read Ghost guns can be regulated like other firearms
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump sets 25% tariffs on auto imports
Speed Read The White House says the move will increase domestic manufacturing. But the steep import taxes could also harm the US auto industry.
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump allies urge White House to admit chat blunder
Speed Read Even pro-Trump figures are criticizing The White House's handling of the Signal scandal
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Waltz takes blame for texts amid calls for Hegseth ouster
Speed Read Democrats are calling for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Michael Waltz to step down
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published