I remember it mostly like that. Rush was never “Never Trump” but was skeptical of him not seeing the motivations of the other side through an ideological prism and how “making a deal” wasn’t going to work with the other side...and Rush specifically said “Trump is *not* a conservative” for which there was a lot of evidence to suggest as such and he, like me, were very skeptical he did a genuine 180 degree turn in such a short period of time on a host of issues. Until just before running he was still in favor of amnesty, and he had blasted Romney for supposedly being too harsh on immigration and blamed that for his loss in 2012.
Rush never endorsed Rubio but went beyond saying just “nice things.” He was also very defensive of Rubio after his “robot Rubio” gaffe at the NH debate.
“I remember it mostly like that. Rush was never “Never Trump” but was skeptical of him not seeing the motivations of the other side through an ideological prism and how “making a deal” wasn’t going to work with the other side...and Rush specifically said “Trump is *not* a conservative” for which there was a lot of evidence to suggest as such and he, like me, were very skeptical he did a genuine 180 degree turn in such a short period of time on a host of issues. Until just before running he was still in favor of amnesty, and he had blasted Romney for supposedly being too harsh on immigration and blamed that for his loss in 2012.”
All true. All that existed, for 2016, was Trump’s ‘word’ that he was conservative, would appoint conservative judges (but I don’t think there is anyone now like Thomas/Scalia), and that Trump certainly played ball with the Democrats in NYC, something he said was needed, if you wanted to get building permits approved there (no doubt the case). So, saying Trump was a Reagan conservative, but without any record as such, would have been non-credible.
But one thing that Rush did fully understand in 2016 was that the election was either going to be won by Trump (after Trump locked up the nomination) or Skunk Cabbage (and that if she won, all the crap going on now would have going on 4 years ago, instead, and we’d likely have been silenced by now) - something that was, apparently, beyond the grasp of Ted Cruz and Mark Levin, and many, many, others who also ‘claimed’ to be conservatives.