We knew this would happen all along. Specifically, Rich Lowry knew. When we published our “Against Trump” issue back in January, Rich confidently predicted that Donald Trump couldn’t be trusted even on immigration — his signature issue. “I don’t even believe . . . I think even on immigration, he is really conning people. This is someone who three or four short years ago was criticizing nice, pleasant, polite Mitt Romney for being too harsh on immigration. It wouldn’t surprise me if one day — if Donald Trump, if he gets the nomination — wakes up the next day and says ‘You know what, deporting people? The best people in the country have told me it’s not possible — forget it.’” The comments come around the five-minute mark:
Get Ready for the ‘Real’ Donald Trump
All year, Trump has spoken to virtually all-white audiences, but now we are told that will change. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Trump would actually set foot in “churches, charter schools and small businesses in black and Latino communities.”
.. And, according to Carson, Trump is now getting ready for his big adventure — “prepping the ground” for talking to minorities by talking to white people about minorities.
.. That’s his deep-felt feeling? African-Americans have it so bad that they might as well vote for Trump, even if they think he’s a racist?
.. after a record of “insulting and ignoring our community,” Trump has decided to “finally reach out.”
.. “he is not talking to us, he is talking at us.”
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.”
Donald Trump’s Description of Black America Is Offending Those Living in It
Dogged by suggestions that he is running a racist campaign, Mr. Trump has been speaking about and expressing concern for black voters more in the past week than at any other point in his presidential run.
But he has been doing so in front of nearly all-white audiences.
.. some African-Americans who have been listening say the picture Mr. Trump has been painting of black America — a nightmare of poverty, death and danger, brought about by failed Democratic policies and leadership — is unrecognizable.
.. “You could go to war zones in countries that we’re fighting, and it’s safer than living in some of our inner cities,” Mr. Trump said in Akron.
.. His sales pitch can also sound bluntly dismissive.
“What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump?” he asked a crowd in Virginia on Saturday. “You’re living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed — what the hell do you have to lose?”
.. His credibility problems with blacks stem in part from his role in leading the so-called birther movement that questioned President Obama’s birthplace, an attempt to delegitimize Mr. Obama’s presidency that offended great numbers of African-Americans.
.. Mr. Morial, of the Urban League, noted that the group had invited Mr. Trump to attend briefings on its policy concerns, but that he had declined.