Democrats smiling at Trump's toxic talk

For Democrats, Donald Trump amounts to a kind of divine intervention.

With the Republican Party on an urgent mission to woo Latino voters, one of its leading presidential candidates has been enmeshed for two weeks in a nasty feud over his inflammatory comments about Mexican immigrants.

"They're bringing drugs," Trump said in his campaign announcement speech. "They're bringing crime. They're rapists."

The comments - and many more since - have prompted an uproar among Latino groups and a series of nasty breakups between Trump and various corporate partners. His outlandish rhetoric and skill at occupying the national spotlight are also proving to be dangerously toxic for the GOP brand, which remains in the rehabilitation stage after losing the 2012 presidential race.

Univision said it would not air his Miss Universe and Miss USA beauty pageants; Trump sued the Spanish-language television network for $500 million. NBCUniversal severed all ties to him this week, including his Apprentice reality series; he called the network "so weak and so foolish."

And on Wednesday, the Macy's department store chain dumped him, saying it would no longer sell his menswear line. Trump said the retail chain had "totally caved."

Despite - or perhaps because of - such antics, the flashy real estate mogul with a big bank account and an even bigger ego has rocketed into second place in recent national polls and in the early nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Democrats, meanwhile, are eager to make Trump the face of the Republican Party, which is momentarily leaderless with a disparate presidential field and no clear front-runner.

"I am a person of faith - and the Donald's entry into this race can only be attributed to the fact that the good Lord is a Democrat with a sense of humor," exulted Paul Begala, Democratic strategist and adviser to Priorities USA Action, a super PAC boosting Clinton's candidacy.

In Iowa, the New York developer is tied for second place behind Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker with 10 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday. In New Hampshire, a CNN-WMUR poll last week had Trump in second place behind former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush with 11 percent.

He also comes in second behind Bush in a new national CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday.

Trump, who claims to be worth $9 billion, has staked out populist-sounding ground in the campaign so far, railing against the impact of illegal immigrants, particularly from Mexico, on the U.S. economy and vowing to "build a great wall on our southern border" to keep them out. That message, along with promises to restrict Chinese imports and other protectionist measures, could resonate particularly well with some white, blue-collar male voters, angry over the slow economic recovery and suspicious of elite opinion in Washington.

Trump also has stood by his remarks tying immigrants to crime.

"I like Mexico. I love the Mexican people. I do business with the Mexican people, but you have people coming through the border that are from all over. And they're bad. They're really bad," Trump said last weekend on CNN's State of the Union. "You have people coming in, and I'm not just saying Mexicans, I'm talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists, and they're coming into this country."

Leading the Democratic charge to tie the GOP to Trump is Clinton, who has been invoking Trump's comments about Mexicans. Notably, she does not mention Trump by name - perhaps hoping to associate his views with the other 15 declared or likely GOP candidates.

"Recently a Republican candidate for president described immigrants as drug dealers, rapists and criminals," Clinton told a raucous rally in northern Virginia last week. "Maybe he's never met them. Maybe he's never stopped to ask the millions of people who love this country, work hard and want nothing more than a chance to build a better life for themselves and their children what their lives are like."