For Donald Trump the entrepreneur, it was a
damaging week. Two major television networks severed ties, Macy’s dropped his
clothing line and Carlos Slim, the even richer Mexican tycoon, ended a joint
venture with him. But for Donald Trump the inveterate showman and Republican
challenger for president, the week was a triumph as he climbed in the opinion
polls and dominated media coverage, despite the backlash against his decision
to condemn Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug traffickers.
“Wow, Huffington Post just stated that I am
number one in the polls of Republican candidates,” the brash billionaire
bragged as the week closed, citing the liberal media outlet that has been a
platform for many of the strongest attacks on him. “Thank you, but the work has
just begun!”
Mr. Trump was touting his first place in an
average of 105 polls. Of the 14 candidates who have declared, Trump topped the
field with 13.6 per cent support to 13.3 per cent for Jeb Bush, the former
Florida governor and son and brother of two past presidents.
The property mogul, reality television star
and beauty pageant owner with the most flamboyant comb-over in public life may
seem like a caricature and a political joke. But the Republican hierarchy is
not laughing as he rides an anti-establishment populist tide, shooting from the
hip with his overheated rhetoric.
They are concerned not because they think he
has a chance of securing the nomination but because they fear he could
influence the election by scarring the party’s reputation.
Which
Republicans are running for US president in 2016? “Donald Trump is like
watching a roadside accident,” Ari Fleischer, a former spokesman for George W
Bush, told Politico. “Everybody pulls over to see the mess. And Trump thinks
that’s entertainment. But running for president is serious. And the risk for
the party is that he tarnishes everybody.”
Mr. Fleischer was a co-author of the party’s
post-mortem into the 2012 presidential election defeat. That soul-searching
concluded that the Republicans needed to broaden their appeal to younger
voters, women and crucially the demographic of Hispanics. Mr Fleischer’s old
boss won 40 per cent of the Latino vote in 2004. Mitt Romney took just 27 per
cent eight years later. The party fears efforts to reverse that trend will be
set back by Mr. Trump’s comments, especially if his poll rating secures him a
place at the first televised debate next month.
“There’s a danger that Trump will crowd out
our message with his antics,” a senior Romney financial donor who is
considering his 2016 options said. “At first we all just thought he would crash
and burn, but now the problem is who he takes down with him.”
Mr. Trump has long reveled in controversy and
was a champion of the “birther movement” that questioned whether Barack Obama
was born in America.
But it was his comments about Mexican
immigrants when he declared his candidacy that have dominated attention.
“Mexico is sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing
those problems with them,” he said. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing
crime. They’re rapists.” And then he added as an afterthought: “And some, I assume,
are good people.”
His solution is to build a wall along the
border and make Mexico pay for it. Mr. Trump’s rivals in the race were at first
unsure how to respond. Marco Rubio, the Florida senator and son of Cuban
immigrants, finally on Thursday called the comments “not just offensive and
inaccurate, but also divisive”.
Jeb Bush, whose wife is Mexican and who
delivered his declaration speech in English and Spanish and supports creating a
path for legalizing the status of undocumented immigrants, said: “His remarks
do not represent the values of the Republican party and they do not represent
my values.”
Univision, the largest Spanish-language
network in the US, and NBC said they were dropping their broadcasts of the Miss
USA and Miss Universe pageants, which Mr Trump co-owns, while Macy’s axed his
line of suits and ties. The latest to distance itself from Mr. Trump is Nascar,
the motor racing body, which said it would no longer use one of his hotels for
its end-of-season awards. Speaking to Fox News yesterday, Mr Trump, 69, said he
was surprised by Nascar’s decision and at the strength of the backlash. “I knew
it was going to be bad because all my life I have been told: if you are
successful you don’t run for office,” he said.
“I didn’t know it was going to be this
severe.” But he defended his stance and said he had become a “whipping post”
for speaking up on immigration and crime. The lone fellow candidate to speak up
for Mr. Trump was Ted Cruz, the Texas senator whose father is Cuban, saying he
“speaks the truth”.
This is what attracts grassroots supporters
such as Ken Crow, a leader of the Tea Party in the first-voting caucus of Iowa.
He reeled off a list of reasons why he was backing Mr Trump. “Americans are
sick and tired of corrupt government and career politicians,” he said. “He will
straighten out the economy and defend our borders.
Americans want a John Wayne right now,
someone who’ll be a champion of our country.” The Trump candidacy is playing up
strains between Tea Party activists and senior party figures, with Mr.
Fleischer adding that his comments were irresponsible and “hurtful”. And John
Weaver, an adviser on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, noted: “I
remember growing up in Kermit Texas, every time the carnival came to town it
drew a big crowd. But nobody wanted the carnival barker to be mayor.”
Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/republicans/11718563/Republicans-cast-into-turmoil-as-Donald-Trump-rides-the-populist-surge.html
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Comments
Truth-Telling attracts voters. Trump will
goad the other Republican candidates into defining their positions on issues. I
think that is why he is running. He watched the mealy-mouth unfortunate
Republican campaigns of 2008 and 2012. Trump couldn’t stand to see Republicans
lose in 2016 because they mumbled politely in the general election, avoided the
real issues and hoped they would get elected.
It doesn’t work that way.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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