Ford announcing his decision to grant a pardon to Nixon. By David Hume Kennerly — Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library

The GOP’s Original Sin

How Ford’s pardon of Nixon altered the destiny of the GOP and ultimately led to Trumpism

The Republican party was founded in 1854 as a reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, fearing the law would promote the expansion of slavery to the newly incorporated territories of the Union. Fundamentally anti-slavery, the Republican party also supported the gold standard, high…