It speaks well of Republicans that most of them have no use for Donald Trump. The real-estate mogul and reality-TV personality proclaimed himself a presidential candidate on Tuesday with a bizarre and rambling announcementin the lobby of the Trump Tower in Manhattan that drove the needle on the crazy-meter way into the red zone. I used to think that Trump was about as plausible a GOP candidate as Rufus T. Firefly. I realize now that I owe Firefly an apology.
Heading into last weeks event Trump had already established himself as the GOPs most unpopular candidate the first candidate in modern presidential primary history as political analyst Harry Enten remarked to begin a White House run with a majority of his own party against him. Averaging together the three most recent national polls Enten calculates that a staggering 57 percent of Republicans have an unfavorable view of Trump. In a Fox News survey this month 59 percent of likely Republican voters said Trump was a candidate they would never vote for.
Who can blame them? Virtually nothing Trump says is worth hearing. The opinions he expresses on public issues are the byproduct of his egotistical self-promotion the clownish rantings of a publicity-seeker not the governing philosophy of a potential commander-in-chief. Trump isnt a legitimate candidate he is to borrow George Wills phrase a bloviating ignoramus. Granted he has a knack for making money and drawing attention. So does Kim Kardashian. Voters arent going to elect her president either.
News organizations are under no obligation to provide a platform to every narcissistic buffoon who declares himself a candidate for the White House. Its probably futile to expect the networks hosting the Republican primary debates to exclude a ratings magnet like Trump but they should. His presence on the stage will be degrading to everyone in the room. Even if the other contenders run rings around Trump on substance his insults and idiocies will stain them all by association.
Do the GOPs serious candidates really want to share the spotlight with a loudmouth who spent much of the last presidential election cycle trafficking in birther theories? Trump repeatedly questioned whether Barack Obama was born in the United States and offered to pay $5 million if the president would disclose his college-application records. When Obamas birth certificate from Hawaii was released not only did Trump betray no twinge of self-reproach he sang his own praises even more loudly.
A lot of people love me for it he crowed to reporters last year. I got him to produce his so-called birth certificate or whatever it was.
Trump isnt just a conspiracy-mongering blowhard. He is also a crude nativist.
The US has become a dumping ground for everybody elses problems he said on Tuesday. When Mexico sends its people theyre ... sending people that have lots of problems.... Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And Trumps proposed solution to this invasion of drug-addled Mexican rapists? I would build a great wall and nobody builds walls better than me he spouted. Ill build them very inexpensively. I will build a great great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.
There may be an audience for that sort of incoherent demagoguery in the more fetid xenophobic fever-swamps. But there is none whatsoever among Republicans seeking to enlarge their party with an Reaganesque message of optimism freedom and growth.
Indeed Trump is so far from being a mainstream Reagan-style conservative that the real question is why he is bringing his circus to the GOP tent in the first place.
He has touted a single-payer health care system on the Canadian model. He has advocated a wealth tax on individuals and trusts with a net worth of at least $10 million. He hascalled for a 25 percent tariff on all Chinese exports. He has praised the Supreme Courts notorious Kelo decision which upheld the power of the state to condemn private homes through eminent domain so it can turn the land over to influential developers like Trump.
With such a government-enlarging tax-raising trade-restricting outlook one might have expected Trump to be more comfortable as a champion of the Democratic Party. Sure enough he has been a major backer of Democratic candidates pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into Democratic campaigns over the years. In the 2006 election cycle for example Trump donated heavily to Democratic committees focused on regaining control of Congress an effort that culminated with Harry Reid becoming Senate majority leader and Nancy Pelosi rising to speaker of the House.
Trump isnt a conservative he isnt a Republican and he isnt a presidential candidate. He is a political punch line looking for a joke. All things considered I prefer Rufus T. Firefly.
Jeff Jacoby is an Op-Ed writer for the Boston Globe a radio political commentator and a contributing columnist for Townhall.com.
It speaks well of Republicans that most of them have no use for Donald Trump. The real-estate mogul and reality-TV personality proclaimed himself a presidential candidate on Tuesday with a bizarre and rambling announcementin the lobby of the Trump Tower in Manhattan that drove the needle on the crazy-meter way into the red zone. I used to think that Trump was about as plausible a GOP candidate as Rufus T. Firefly. I realize now that I owe Firefly an apology.
Heading into last weeks event Trump had already established himself as the GOPs most unpopular candidate the first candidate in modern presidential primary history as political analyst Harry Enten remarked to begin a White House run with a majority of his own party against him. Averaging together the three most recent national polls Enten calculates that a staggering 57 percent of Republicans have an unfavorable view of Trump. In a Fox News survey this month 59 percent of likely Republican voters said Trump was a candidate they would never vote for.
Who can blame them? Virtually nothing Trump says is worth hearing. The opinions he expresses on public issues are the byproduct of his egotistical self-promotion the clownish rantings of a publicity-seeker not the governing philosophy of a potential commander-in-chief. Trump isnt a legitimate candidate he is to borrow George Wills phrase a bloviating ignoramus. Granted he has a knack for making money and drawing attention. So does Kim Kardashian. Voters arent going to elect her president either.
News organizations are under no obligation to provide a platform to every narcissistic buffoon who declares himself a candidate for the White House. Its probably futile to expect the networks hosting the Republican primary debates to exclude a ratings magnet like Trump but they should. His presence on the stage will be degrading to everyone in the room. Even if the other contenders run rings around Trump on substance his insults and idiocies will stain them all by association.
Do the GOPs serious candidates really want to share the spotlight with a loudmouth who spent much of the last presidential election cycle trafficking in birther theories? Trump repeatedly questioned whether Barack Obama was born in the United States and offered to pay $5 million if the president would disclose his college-application records. When Obamas birth certificate from Hawaii was released not only did Trump betray no twinge of self-reproach he sang his own praises even more loudly.
A lot of people love me for it he crowed to reporters last year. I got him to produce his so-called birth certificate or whatever it was.
Trump isnt just a conspiracy-mongering blowhard. He is also a crude nativist.
The US has become a dumping ground for everybody elses problems he said on Tuesday. When Mexico sends its people theyre ... sending people that have lots of problems.... Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And Trumps proposed solution to this invasion of drug-addled Mexican rapists? I would build a great wall and nobody builds walls better than me he spouted. Ill build them very inexpensively. I will build a great great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.
There may be an audience for that sort of incoherent demagoguery in the more fetid xenophobic fever-swamps. But there is none whatsoever among Republicans seeking to enlarge their party with an Reaganesque message of optimism freedom and growth.
Indeed Trump is so far from being a mainstream Reagan-style conservative that the real question is why he is bringing his circus to the GOP tent in the first place.
He has touted a single-payer health care system on the Canadian model. He has advocated a wealth tax on individuals and trusts with a net worth of at least $10 million. He hascalled for a 25 percent tariff on all Chinese exports. He has praised the Supreme Courts notorious Kelo decision which upheld the power of the state to condemn private homes through eminent domain so it can turn the land over to influential developers like Trump.
With such a government-enlarging tax-raising trade-restricting outlook one might have expected Trump to be more comfortable as a champion of the Democratic Party. Sure enough he has been a major backer of Democratic candidates pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into Democratic campaigns over the years. In the 2006 election cycle for example Trump donated heavily to Democratic committees focused on regaining control of Congress an effort that culminated with Harry Reid becoming Senate majority leader and Nancy Pelosi rising to speaker of the House.
Trump isnt a conservative he isnt a Republican and he isnt a presidential candidate. He is a political punch line looking for a joke. All things considered I prefer Rufus T. Firefly.
Jeff Jacoby is an Op-Ed writer for the Boston Globe a radio political commentator and a contributing columnist for Townhall.com.
