GOP, you've been Trumped!
Real-estate developer and showman Donald Trump is wreaking havoc in the GOP race for president, and also has risen to first place in several respected national polls.
Some noteworthy things happened Tuesday in the Republican race for president. Ohio Gov. John Kasich launched his campaign. Jeb Bush unveiled a plan to limit the power of lobbyists. Rand Paul chewed up a copy of the U.S. tax code with a chainsaw.
But if a tree falls in the forest…well, you know the rest of that formulation. All three candidates were Trump'd, as was pretty much everything else political. (credit to Politico for the fun usage of the orange-haired agitator's name.)
Donald Trump, the reality TV star and real-estate developer, dominated the Internet and the cable channels when he took his feud with fellow candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.,S.C.) to the next level. Graham had said Trump ought to "stop acting like a jackass." Then Trump berated the senator at a campaign stop in his own state, disclosed Graham's cell phone number, and urged his audience to call it.
Trump'd.
Oh, and Trump has grabbed the lead in the Republican race for the 2016 nomination, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News national poll.
Trump was the choice of 24 percent of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, the best showing of any GOP candidate so far this year in the news organizations' polling.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who announced his candidacy a week ago, lands in second place, at 13 percent, followed by former Florida governor Jeb Bush, at 12 percent, the poll finds.
The next seven, ranging in support from 8 percent to 3 percent: former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), former Texas governor Rick Perry and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
The number 10 is significant because the networks airing the first two debates in the Republican race have decided to limit participation to candidates who place in the top 10 in an average of nationwide polls. Sixteen candidates have announced they are seeking the party's nomination.
Trump is all but certain to crash the first debate Aug. 6 in Cleveland.
Six Republican hopefuls are bunched at the bottom of the Washington Post-ABC poll, their support ranging from 2 percent to less than 1 percent: Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who announced Tuesday; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal; former New York governor George Pataki; former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania; businesswoman Carly Fiorina; and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
The political world is trying to figure out what the ascension of Trump means, and the developing consensus is that he is, in a way, the id for many conservative Republicans on the ticked-off end of the spectrum. Few, probably even the man himself, expect Trump to emerge with the nomination. He's likely to flame out. But Trump seems to speak to a certain voter who is angry that the government can't control illegal immigration, chafes under political correctness and is completely fed up with the self-same political class that is scratching its collective head about Trump.
Clearly, the man does not hold back. He does not care whom he offends. And that appeals to a lot of folks. To some analysts, Trump is analogous to George C. Wallace in 1968 and '72, or Ross Perot, who ran independent campaigns in 1992 and 1996 and received 20 percent of the popular vote. Where will that "Trump" bloc of voters wind up going?
As Iowa State University political scientist Steffen Schmidt explained it this week in an op-ed: "Trump is clearly an 'anti-candidate' in so many ways. He is abrasive, violates all the political consultant rules…Why then is there so much and rising support for Trump?
The reason may be that so many Americans are angry with politicians and Trump is not one."