USA TODAY International Edition
Trump towers over GOP race
Rieder: The Donald isn’t going anywhere soon,
Memo to the news media: The Donald is not going away anytime soon.
Outrageous, impolitic remarks that would doom or at least humble a more traditional candidate are not slowing down Donald Trump. If anything, they seem to be energizing the billionaire real estate mogul and television personality. Gaffes that would sink other politicians don’t seem to be damaging his somewhat stunning popularity — at least not yet.
When Trump suggested over the weekend that Vietnam era POW Sen. John McCain was not a hero — “I like people who weren’t captured” — the New
York Post responded with one of its inimitable front pages Sunday. It depicted a shipwrecked Trump next to a blaring all- caps headline, “DON VOYAGE,” and a deck saying, “Trump is toast after insult: ‘ McCain not a war hero.’ ”
Saturday, the day Trump made the McCain comment, The New
York Times posted a piece headlined, “The Trump Campaign’s Turning Point,” asserting the McCain moment “will probably mark the moment when Trump’s candidacy went from boom to bust.” In a powerful editorial, The Des
Moines Register ( like USA TODAY owned by Gannett) called the McCain remarks “disgraceful” and told Trump to get out of the race. But he declined to do so.
Trump kind of explained what he meant by the hero remark, but he never really backed off, and he certainly never issued a fullthroated apology. Undaunted, as he was by the furor over his odious remarks about Mexican immigrants, Trump was off to the races once more, giving out the cellphone number of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S. C., a Republican presidential hopeful who had had the temerity to insult Trump.
Political insiders have been blindsided by Trump’s rapid rise to a dominant position in the polls. And who can blame them? He’s an arrogant, self- aggrandizing showboat with no interest in serious policy issues. There was some surprise the anti- immigration flap didn’t cause his numbers to tank. But pretty much everyone was sure that the McCain kerfuffle meant, “Game over.”
But wait. A poll released Tues- day by the politics and policy site Morning Consult found Trump with a commanding lead, with 22% of the vote, ahead of Jeb Bush ( 15%), Scott Walker ( 12%) and a bevy of also- rans.
The polling was carried out from July 17 through July 20, which encompasses the day of the McCain comments and two days afterward. And the article included this significant passage:
“There is no evidence that Trump’s numbers have slumped after comments he made questioning Sen. John McCain’s ( RAriz.) war record. Though most of the rest of the Republican field — and even the Republican National Committee — loudly criticized Trump after he made the comments on Saturday morning at an event in Iowa, voters interviewed afterward weren’t any less likely to say they support him.”
All of which will doubtless do nothing but encourage Trump to keep doing what he’s doing, We’re two weeks away from the first GOP debate on Fox News Channel on Aug. 6, and there’s little doubt Trump will dig deeply into his formidable arsenal of preposterous to hog the headlines.
The amount of media attention devoted to Trump has been massive. For example, according to Andrew Tyndall, who monitors the network newscasts, the three networks devoted 80 minutes to the campaign from the beginning of June through July 17, Of that time, 29 minutes — 37% — focused on one Donald Trump.
And as you have no doubt noticed, there has been no shortage of Trump on cable TV, on digital news outlets, in newspapers. Like a tsunami or an earthquake, it’s hard to ignore him.
Some savants have said it is all of this media attention that has propped up The Donald’s numbers. But I think there’s something deeper at stake — after all, so much of the coverage has been quite negative. It’s more likely Trump is tapping into the rancor of voters profoundly alienated from traditional politics who love his take- no- prisoners approach.
None of which means that Trump is going to win the nomination, let alone move into the White House. Those polls also underscore Trump’s sky- high negatives, As the field winnows, it’s likely the core Trump electorate will be overwhelmed by those who say no way.
But, despite media predictions, just don’t bet on an immediate shutdown for Trumpapalooza.