Trump picked up an endorsement from The Boston Herald, while The N.H. Union Leader broke tradition for Biden

President Donald Trump picked up an editorial board endorsement from The Boston Herald Tuesday — and is apparently very appreciative of the support.

“Thank you to the Boston Herald,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “A great honor!”

Thank you to the Boston Herald. A great honor! https://t.co/Wlzcgc9eDo

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2020

The Herald‘s position largely points to the faults the board sees in Trump’s Democratic challenger and former Vice President Joe Biden’s platform, which it quipped is “a risky love letter to social justice warriors and those who believe capitalism is the root of all evil.”

The newspaper takes aim at Biden’s proposal to increase taxes on the wealthy, as well bumping up the corporate tax rate, and his plans to boost spending for certain initiatives.

“Biden has big plans for spending, some $5.4 trillion for universal pre-K, free community college, clean energy and other programs,” the endorsement reads. “The wealthy will foot the bill, thanks to eliminating the Republican tax cuts and making the rich ‘pay their fair share.'”

The Herald also decried Biden for hashing out a “Progressive Unity Platform” with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in July and incorporating policy ideas from the party’s further-left members into his proposals.

“All this, of course, ignores the fact that pre-COVID-19, Donald Trump’s economy was going gangbusters,” the editorial board wrote. “Last year, the jobless rate dropped to 3.5 percent, its lowest reading in 50 years. The jobless rate for Hispanics hit a record low of 3.9 percent in September 2019, while African Americans maintained their lowest rate ever, 5.5 percent, according to CNBC.”

As for specifics in Trump’s platform, the Herald pointed to the president’s stances “against defunding police, for holding China accountable for COVID-19 negligence and putting America first on trade, defense, the courts and, again, the economy.” The endorsement also notes, however, that “Trump hasn’t done himself any favors with his incessant Tweets, revolving door cabinet and mixed messaging on the coronavirus.”

Still, the backing of the right-leaning tabloid comes as the president is behind his challenger by a large margin for the number of advocates he has on the nation’s opinion pages, The Hill reports.

The political news website found that at least 119 daily and weekly newspaper editorial boards have formally backed Biden, including some traditionally conservative outlets that broke their own precedent in supporting a Democrat for the nation’s highest elected office. Those include The New Hampshire Union Leader, which had not backed a Democrat in over a century. (While it did not support Trump in 2016 either, the publication stood behind Libertarian Gary Johnson for president.)

“There is no love lost between this newspaper and President Donald J. Trump,” the newspaper wrote in its endorsement, published Sunday. “The Union Leader was very quickly dismissed by then-candidate Trump after we failed to bestow on him our endorsement in the Republican primary four years ago.

“We were hopeful with Trump’s win that he might change, that the weight and responsibility of the Oval Office might mold a more respectful and presidential man,” the editorial continues. “We have watched with the rest of the world as the mantle of the presidency has done very little to change Trump while the country and world have changed significantly.

“President Trump is not always 100 percent wrong, but he is 100 percent wrong for America.”

Major sticking points in the case against Trump for the Union Leader include how the national debt has expanded by nearly $7 trillion under Trump’s watch and the president’s tendency to be “a consummate linguistic takedown artist, ripping apart all comers to the delight of his fanbase but at the expense of the nation.”

But, the newspaper’s endorsement of Biden comes with a large asterisk. The editorial board highlighted it has “significant” policy disagreements with Biden, and encouraged voters to split the ballot among parties for other races by “electing a healthy dose of GOP senators and representatives.”

“The best governance often comes through compromise,” the editorial reads. “The civility of the Biden administration will help foster such compromise, but a blue wave would be nearly as disastrous for this country as four more years of Trump.”

As for other notable endorsements, Trump received support from The New York Post Monday and The Boston Globe recently backed Biden.

According to the Hill, in 2016, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, like Biden, also carried the support of the majority of publications that endorsed a candidate.