Trump’s dressing down
Mitt Romney said what needed saying, and other Republican leaders starting with House Speaker Paul Ryan should do the same. Romney’s meticulous dressing down of Donald Trump on Thursday in a speech at the University of Utah may not matter and may even help Trump, who won seven states on Super Tuesday and is leading by large margins in others.
But Trump’s odious bullying and juvenile misunderstanding of the problems facing the country had to be confronted by senior leadership in the Republican Party. Trump is unfit to be anything other than what he is — a boastful reality television star — and it’s time for GOP leaders to say so forcefully.
Romney, a modest and dignified man with a long record of public service, is such a contrast to the braggart who would be president. Romney called out Trump as “a phony, a fraud” who is “playing the members of the American public for suckers.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he shared Romney’s dismay over Trump’s rise. Earlier in the campaign, Trump demeaned McCain’s service during the Vietnam War when the young Navy pilot held out for years in the “Hanoi Hilton” after enduring torture by his captors that left him permanently disabled. McCain warned voters Thursday about Trump’s “uninformed and indeed dangerous statements on national security issues.”
It was an extraordinary thing: The last two Republican nominees openly denouncing the candidate their own party is on the verge of choosing.
And it was, at the same time, courageous. Quite the opposite of the opportunist thrill-seeker Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, who endorsed Trump last week and then stood awkwardly at his side on election night.
Romney methodically disassembled Trump’s arguments.
Trump claims to be a great businessman. Not true. He inherited his business, Romney noted, and many of his ventures have failed. “A business genius he is not.”
Trump claims to have bold ideas. No. He has shallow, poorly conceived ideas, such as proposing a 35% tariff on imports that would touch off a trade war and harm average Americans and a tax plan that would dramatically boost deficit spending.
Trump claims to be a uniter. No. Trump’s candidacy is based on dividing Americans one from another.
“He creates scapegoats of Muslims and Mexican immigrants. He calls for the use of torture. He calls for killing the innocent children and family members of terrorists,” Romney said. “He cheers assaults on protesters. He applauds the prospect of twisting the Constitution to limit First Amendment freedom of the press. This is the very brand of anger that has led other nations into the abyss.”
Is Romney the best messenger the Republicans have? No. Romney lost a winnable race to President Barack Obama in 2012, with Ryan on the ticket. That makes him a “loser” to the Trump faithful. Romney embodies the “establishment” that Trump is running against and Trump’s supporters disdain, which is why Romney’s remarks may only harden Trump’s support. And there’s little doubt that conservatives such as Romney see Trump as a moderate — maybe even a closet liberal — and don’t believe he can win a general election. There is more than a little self-service here, whether Romney still harbors visions of a brokered convention turning to him or not.
Further, Romney should have acknowledged that he sought and received Trump’s endorsement during the 2012 campaign. Trump did a fundraiser for Romney and made calls for him. Romney said later that if he had known how Trump would run his own campaign he never would have accepted the help. At the time, he wanted to keep Trump on the GOP team.
After Romney’s remarks, Trump claimed he had taken steps to prevent Romney from running this year because he “was a choke artist. . . . He doesn’t have what it takes to be president, I can tell you.”
Romney, in fact, has something that Donald Trump will never have. It’s called character. And I wish other top Republicans would demonstrate that they have it, too.