He hasn’t won the nomination yet or the election yet, but in one sense billionaire Donald Trump has already won.
We’re now seeing key members of the party hold their noses and accept the emerging reality, even as the “Never Trump” movement staggers on, clearly doomed to surrender or to fizzle out.
Meanwhile, Trump’s camp is living up to conservative fears by putting out the message that, hey, our guy has been saying what he has been saying in the primaries as performance art but he gets it — he’ll move to center. And the GOP’s chairman is now in effect telling the “Never Trump” movement that it better realize it has a short shelf life since the goal for the party will be unity — and winning.
So much for Trump representing in his rhetoric polarizing positions that could doom the party, make Abraham Lincoln turnover in his grave, or have taken positions that Republicans of principle could in no, way, shape or form endorse, enable or embrace. What matters is attaining power. I’ve long predicted that in the end powerful talk show hosts, ideological cable hosts and most GOPers would say the Democrats present a danger to the country and unify behind Trump. And I’ve long contended Trump could win the White House and confound the pundits as he has all along.
But the word is out now that he intends to move to the center and change his tone:
Trump’s chief strategist Paul Manafort told members of the Republican National Committee in a closed-door briefing here Thursday afternoon that his candidate has been playing a “part” on the campaign trail, but is starting to pivot toward presenting a more businesslike and presidential “persona.”
“He gets it,” Manafort told RNC members. “The part that he’s been playing is now evolving into the part that you’ve been expecting. The negatives will come down, the image is going to change, but ‘Crooked Hillary’ is still going to be ‘Crooked Hillary.’”
The RNC members laughed at Manafort’s use of Trump’s derogatory nickname for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. “She is going to hate him,” Manafort said. “And he enjoys digging it in that way.”
Kindly note that. It is a further degradation of our politics and the Republican Party now fully embracing the use of just good, old fashioned name calling. It’ll rally the base but is likely to turn off some other voters. But, then, the Republican Party in recent years has been the part of the base, by the base and for the base. Truly — in several senses of the word — a base party.
Manafort argued that Clinton’s negative favorability ratings are caused by “character” issues, whereas Trump’s are fueled by “personality” concerns.
“Fixing personality negatives is a lot easier than fixing character negatives,” Manafort said. “You can’t change somebody’s character, but you can change the way a person presents himself.”
True.
Perhaps voters are now so attention deficit that many will forget Trump wanting to deport all illegal immigrants and their families and ban Muslims from entering into the United States. Or his debate performance where he bragged about what was between his legs. And perhaps conservatives are willing to overlook him straying from positions that would have doomed most any other candidate. But the press has been complicit in bolstering the Trump candidacy and it’s unlikely he’ll get a decrease in air time if he becomes the nominee. Trump could continue to pay the broadcast media — now so clearly viewed by the big companies as cash cows which means getting ratings, versus as stewardships as they were perceived in the 1950s and early 1960s — like a violin, getting as much free time as he wants.
And the GOP? The party’s top official has made it clear it’s time to think about circling the wagons:
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus on Friday called for Republicans to unite ahead of the presidential election, striking back against the Never Trump movement.
“It is essential to victory in November that we all support our candidate,” Priebus said at the RNC’s spring meeting in Hollywood, Fla.
“This goes for everyone, whether you’re a county party chairman, an RNC member, or a presidential candidate. Politics is a team sport, and we can’t win unless we rally around whoever becomes our nominee,” he added, drawing applause from the audience.
“They’re trying out for our team. No one is forcing them to wear our jersey. We expect our candidates to support our party and our eventual nominee.”
The comments seemed pointed at the growing movement of conservatives who insist they won’t back Donald Trump if he’s the GOP nominee.
Priebus also promised that the nominating process at July’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland would be “fair, democratic and transparent,” and that the GOP would not give the nomination to anyone who does not secure a majority of delegates.
But some conservatives vow a)they won’t go quietly b)they may not go on the bandwagon at all and c)they won’t forget what Trump has said during the primaries. Red State’s Leon Wolf:
Look, this will definitely not hurt Trump with his supporters, who have long ago proved that they don’t care about being lied to by Donald Trump (assuming they believe that Trump is even capable of lying). But it is definitely a case of “too little, too late.”
Trump seems to not understand that neither the Internet nor the Hillary Clinton campaign ever forgets. All the ridiculous things he’s said, tweeted, and done are a matter of public record and will provide endless fodder for attack ads. And I do mean endless – if Hillary Clinton had to run against Donald Trump for another four solid years, she could cut a new attack ad using Trump’s own words every week, just based on the material he has already provided.
Moreover, nothing Trump has done or said shows any indication that he is actually capable of changing. He’s said a billion times on the campaign trail already words to the effect of “I can be Presidential, believe me.” Well, Donald, we don’t believe you. Because we’ve never seen it happen at all. How about instead of saying you can be Presidential, you could actually be Presidential?
But even if Trump were capable of flipping that switch, which he is not, the anti-Trump forces are not like the pro-Trump forces: we have memories. We remember the things Trump has said and done. And to the extent that he says things that directly contradict what he was saying two months ago, or last week, or yesterday, we actually view that as further evidence that he is untrustworthy and would say anything to get elected.
Trump can come to us and say he’s been lying to his supporters all along, but it won’t really change the fact that we’ve seen that the man is completely unfit for the Presidency. The Donald Trump of the last nine months is who Donald Trump really is. And he’s a man who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the White House.
On that point, Democrats and a portion of the Republican party seem to agree.
Perhaps this should be Mr. Trump’s new theme song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltWUi–zGrM
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.