congressional Republicans divided into five loose categories about the problem that is Donald J. Trump.
.. 1. The Fast Walkers
.. 2. The Grumps
.. “I don’t know that I really have a lot to say,” adding that he had tried to advise Mr. Trump and was “discouraged by the results.”
.. 3. The McConnells
.. Mr. McConnell preemptively cuts off discussion by saying things like, “I’m not going to be commenting on the presidential candidates today.”
.. 4. The Free Speakers
.. 5. The Vaguely-Upset-But-What-Can-You-Do
.. Mr. Trump has created a feedback loop in which he says increasingly outrageous and at times incoherent things about national security, immigration and other issues and Republicans are forced to answer for it.
.. “Don’t talk. Please, be quiet,” he said. “Just be quiet, to the leaders, because they have to get tougher, they have to get sharper, they have to get smarter, and we have to have our Republicans either stick together or let me just do it by myself.”
.. His top surrogates remain Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Representative Lee Zeldin of New York, with no sign of newcomers to the list.
.. “If Donald Trump continues to conduct himself in a way that’s unbecoming of a nominee, let alone a president,” said Rory Cooper, a senior adviser to the #NeverTrump PAC, “then delegates and party leaders in Cleveland should be empowered to open the convention, just as Democrats are able to do. If there is no such mechanism, then you are essentially saying there is no unacceptable line Trump can cross.”
Would Donald Trump really drop out for $150 million?
“I bet if someone offered him $150 million to drop out, he would,” one former Trump adviser told POLITICO, unprompted, during an interview Friday.
.. One nationally known and well-connected investor told POLITICO that the idea was attractive, despite the practical hurdles. “There are any number of both Republican and Democratic donors who would” put up money, the investor wrote. “But the coordination (donor side) and ego (candidate) side seem overwhelming.” The investor suggested that donors might induce Trump to take a deal by offering to fund his reported ambitions to start his own media company.
.. It’s said, though, that everyone has their price, and Cuban thinks Trump is no exception: “5 billion, he would.”
Trump in the Dumps
And when Trump was blunt about how cheaply you could buy and sell politicians in both parties, it made this town squirm.
.. The G.O.P. would love to drop Trump now because it prefers a candidate in the party’s more subtle racist traditions.
.. The neocons calling Trump a fascist would certainly prefer a more militaristic candidate.
.. But like Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin, Trump refused to study up on policy. So he has been unable to marry his often canny political instincts with some actual knowledge.
.. He has made some fair points. A lot of our allies do take advantage of us. Our trade deals have left swaths of America devastated. And it was a positive move to propose a meeting with the N.R.A. on gun control for people on the terrorist watch list.
Trump: The need for a greater rhetorical emotional hit
But a problem arose. Once a level of outrageous rhetoric was achieved, it no longer provided the ‘hit’ that the people or the media wanted. Someone had to come along and up the ante to kick-start the next round of howling anger. You got ‘death panels’, you got ‘Obama’s a Muslim’, you got ‘Mexicans are rapists’ – it just has to keep escalating.
And Trump saw this clearly, so he came out and one-upped everybody. And now he’s on round two, and he knows instinctively he needs to one-up himself.