Bill Kristol courting David French to run for president

NEW YORK, May 31 (UPI) -- Conservative writer and pundit Bill Kristol is attempting to recruit fellow conservative writer and decorated veteran David French to run for president as an independent against Donald Trump, Kristol said.

The editor of the Weekly Standard has made his views of Trump well known and has been searching for a conservative white knight to run as an independent against Trump.

French is a staff writer at the conservative magazine National Review, but also is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and was awarded the Bronze Star. French is a constitutional lawyer as well and author of several books and lives in Tennessee with his wife and three children.

French is said to be interested in a bid, but has not yet decided, sources told Bloomberg News, however there is said to be no running mate lined up or notable financing behind the potential campaign.

Some conservative donors have shown interest in French running, Bloomberg has reported.

French made his views of Trump known in the march issue of National Review.

"The party of Lincoln is in ruins," he wrote. "A minority of its primary voters have torched its founders' legacy by voting for a man who combines old-school Democratic ideology, a bizarre form of hyper-violent isolationism, fringe conspiracy theories and serial lies with an enthusiastic flock of online racists to create perhaps the most toxic electoral coalition since George Wallace."

The 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who like Kristol, has publicly sparred with Trump, tweeted his approval Tuesday.

"I know David French to be an honorable, intelligent and patriotic person," Romney said. "I look forward to following what he has to say."