Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:03 pm
Trump’s refusal of Republican pleas for him to stop making racist statements has resulted in top Republicans already running away from their own presidential nominee.
NBC News reported:
The absence of a response to the Trump U story left the candidate to fill the vacuum with a torrent of demagoguery against the federal judge overseeing the case, Gonzalo Curiel, who Trump said was biased by his “Mexican heritage†despite his Indiana birthplace.
Trump’s comments against the judge horrified many supporters, but the real estate mogul rebuffed efforts by campaign staff, donors, and party officials to back off the incendiary claim this weekend, per sources, telling them he was unwilling to look like he had caved to pressure.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
“These are things that will defeat [us],†a second source within the campaign lamented.
The Curiel story made Trump’s already difficult task of lining up surrogates even harder, as supporters like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell distanced themselves from Trump’s remarks over the weekend.
All of the weaknesses of the Trump operation that Republicans were warned about are coming back to crush their party. Donald Trump has no real presidential campaign operation. Trump has a barebones staff that spends more time fighting with each other than pressing the campaign’s message. The Trump campaign is a cult of personality centered around a candidate who is more concerned with how he looks in the media than actually doing the nuts and bolts work required to win an election.
Donald Trump doesn’t have any surrogates in the media speaking for him because elected Republicans are too busy running away from him. A perfect example of this was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell bending over backward to distance himself from the Republican nominee when asked about Trump’s racist rant against Judge Curiel.
The fact that Trump was able to win the Republican nomination with a non-existent campaign operation speaks volumes about the weakness of the Republican Party. Republicans now find themselves in a situation where an organization that has lost 4 of the last six presidential elections and 5 of the last six presidential popular votes is being counted on to carry Trump’s campaign.
Trump conned Republicans into handing him their presidential nomination, and now the burden of carrying his deeply flawed campaign is crushing their party.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
