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.
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.
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.
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is more
Feature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
-
Trump's drug war is now a real shooting war
Talking Points The Venezuela boat strike was 'not a mere law enforcement action'
-
Book reviews: 'Baldwin: A Love Story' and 'The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces'
Feature A loving James Baldwin biography and the drug crimes of two special ops veterans
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to Trump
Speed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raids
Speed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raid
Speed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'
Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearing
Speed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mount
Speed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers
-
Epstein accusers urge full file release, hint at own list
speed read A rally was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who are hoping to force a vote on their Epstein Files Transparency Act
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battle
Speed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants