Lakhota
Diamond Member
Republican leaders who have watched Donald Trump’s summer surge with alarm now believe that his presidential candidacy has been contained and may begin to collapse because of his repeated attacks on a Fox News Channel star and his refusal to pledge his loyalty to the eventual GOP nominee.
Fearful that the billionaire’s inflammatory rhetoric has inflicted serious damage to the GOP brand, party leaders hope to pivot away from the Trump sideshow and toward a more serious discussion among a deep field of governors, senators and other candidates.
They acknowledge that Trump’s unique megaphone and the passion of his supporters make any calculation about his candidacy risky. After all, he has been presumed dead before: Three weeks ago, he prompted establishment outrage by belittling the Vietnam war service of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), only to prove, by climbing higher in the polls, that the laws of political gravity did not apply to him.
Still, Trump’s erratic performance during and after the first Republican presidential debate last week sparked a backlash throughout the party Saturday and a reassessment of his front-running bid. The final straw for many was Trump’s comment on CNN late Friday that Fox moderator Megyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
Katie Packer Gage, a strategist who advises Republican candidates on appealing to female voters, said that Trump poses dangers to the party at large. “People see this as a blustery, bullying circus act,” she said. “The longer it goes on, the more it becomes part of the GOP narrative.”
Strategists predicted that Trump’s raising of his hand in the opening minutes of Thursday’s debate to rule out an independent candidacy should he fail to be the GOP nominee could limit his ability to expand beyond his base of angry, anti-establishment voters. An adviser to a rival campaign described Trump’s move as “the hand of heresy.”
“If you start to see erosion of Trump’s numbers, it could become a tailspin quickly, and it could be hard to pull the plane out of the dive,” said Phil Musser, a GOP consultant and chairman of IMGE, a digital media agency. “There would be a major pile-on and likely a spectacular crash.”
More: GOP leaders say erratic attacks hurt Trump, but he vows to fight and win - The Washington Post
Like many others, I am enjoying the Trump circus and his appeal to the angry anti-establishment types - but I fully expect that he will crash and burn in the near future. Trump will not be living in the White House. Surely he must know that.
Fearful that the billionaire’s inflammatory rhetoric has inflicted serious damage to the GOP brand, party leaders hope to pivot away from the Trump sideshow and toward a more serious discussion among a deep field of governors, senators and other candidates.
They acknowledge that Trump’s unique megaphone and the passion of his supporters make any calculation about his candidacy risky. After all, he has been presumed dead before: Three weeks ago, he prompted establishment outrage by belittling the Vietnam war service of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), only to prove, by climbing higher in the polls, that the laws of political gravity did not apply to him.
Still, Trump’s erratic performance during and after the first Republican presidential debate last week sparked a backlash throughout the party Saturday and a reassessment of his front-running bid. The final straw for many was Trump’s comment on CNN late Friday that Fox moderator Megyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
Katie Packer Gage, a strategist who advises Republican candidates on appealing to female voters, said that Trump poses dangers to the party at large. “People see this as a blustery, bullying circus act,” she said. “The longer it goes on, the more it becomes part of the GOP narrative.”
Strategists predicted that Trump’s raising of his hand in the opening minutes of Thursday’s debate to rule out an independent candidacy should he fail to be the GOP nominee could limit his ability to expand beyond his base of angry, anti-establishment voters. An adviser to a rival campaign described Trump’s move as “the hand of heresy.”
“If you start to see erosion of Trump’s numbers, it could become a tailspin quickly, and it could be hard to pull the plane out of the dive,” said Phil Musser, a GOP consultant and chairman of IMGE, a digital media agency. “There would be a major pile-on and likely a spectacular crash.”
More: GOP leaders say erratic attacks hurt Trump, but he vows to fight and win - The Washington Post
Like many others, I am enjoying the Trump circus and his appeal to the angry anti-establishment types - but I fully expect that he will crash and burn in the near future. Trump will not be living in the White House. Surely he must know that.
