The Misery of the Mini-Trumps
In his race against Marco Rubio to become the Republican nominee for one of Florida’s two seats in the Senate, the rich, brash homebuilder Carlos Beruff could not be welding himself more tightly to Donald Trump.
A recent television ad of his attacked Rubio for not being as tough as Trump. He affirmed and then one-upped Trump’s past call for a ban on Muslim immigrants, suggesting a prohibition against anyone from the Middle East except Israel.
.. The Miami New Times crowned him “the Cuban-American Donald Trump.”
.. But it turns out that Trump’s magic, if you can call it that, resists cloning.
.. But wrapping it in a package of florid bigotry, provocative propositions, crude insults and callous language doesn’t seem to have much traction beyond Trump.
.. his extreme brand of protectionism, his call to re-examine military alliances, his threat of mass deportations — shows any sign of becoming Republican dogma the way that supply-side economics did in the wake of Ronald Reagan’s evangelism for it.
.. Trump, in contrast, “spent more money on renting arenas for his speeches than he did on payroll.”
His operation, they wrote, is “more concert tour than presidential campaign.”