Just when you thought Donald Trump had finished digging himself a hole with his attacks on the judge in the Trump University case, he decided that the national conversation about race he incited last week should sink a bit lower. Virtually all leading Republicans — both those, like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who have been enthusiastic about Trump and those, like current House Speaker Paul Ryan who are nonplussed about his primary victories — have criticized the blatantly racist criticisms of Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Meanwhile, many of his apologists in the press, like Fox News’ Eric Bolling, have urged Trump to move on from a controversy that does him no good and only distracts the public from Hillary Clinton’s troubles. Some in the Trump campaign apparently agreed with this view.
According to Bloomberg, a Trump staffer tasked with sending talking points to surrogates distributed a memo to them urging supporters to stop talking about the Trump University case. But later on Monday during a conference call with some of his most prominent backers, who speak on his behalf in the media, Trump sang a different tune. Rather than back away from a topic that got him off message and provided ammunition for his opponents, the presumptive Republican nominee demanded that all his supporters go even harder at Judge Curiel and widen the battle to an all-out war on the media. In doing so, Trump isn’t merely miring himself in a no-win diversion from issues that hurt Hillary Clinton; he is reminding Republicans of the pact with the devil that they have signed by allowing him to become their nominee.
Bloomberg goes on to note that Trump railed at the staffer who sent the memo, calling her “not so smart” and saying that it should be “thrown the hell out.” Rather than pivoting to attacks on Hillary Clinton such as the conflicts of interest revolving around her family foundation or the email scandal or even the faltering U.S. economy, Trump wants surrogates to keep talking about Judge Curiel while also saying that the journalists who ask about the issue are the racists, not him.
On its face, this seems irrational. Why would Trump continue fighting a battle that he clearly isn’t winning? Only his most rabid partisans are willing to defend comments that branded Curiel as unable to decide the case fairly solely on account of his Mexican heritage. Such an argument seems, as CNN’s Jake Tapper noted on Friday, “the definition of racism.” Expanding the category of Americans who shouldn’t be allowed to decide cases involving Trump to Muslims over the weekend only made things worse with those Republicans who had recently endorsed him. Spending more time on this is an unforced error that simply plays right into the stereotypes about Republicans that liberals promote. It also means the media are spending less time talking about Clinton’s problems at a moment in the campaign when that narrative about her weakness seemed to be taking hold.
But as misguided as this decision seems to be, it is rooted in Trump’s recent experience. He won the Republican nomination by being Donald Trump, not a reasonable or stable politician that avoided saying outrageous things. More to the point, he knows nothing rallies the GOP base like an attack on the media since they’ve been longing for a leader who will eviscerate the liberal press by fair means or foul. Trump not only doesn’t want to act presidential, he thinks it would be a mistake since acting like Trump is what got him this far.
Yet what he seems not to understand that a one-man campaign that centers on Trump’s personal obsessions is not an effective way to run for president. Rather than winning the news cycle as he has habitually done when insulting or smearing Republican rivals during the primaries, he’s been losing ground and handing a stick to Clinton and other Democrats with which they can beat him while making her problems seem less pressing. Trump gained ground when his insults focused attention on issues that worked for him like immigration or by calling attention to negative perceptions of foes. But this is all about him, and the picture he is painting isn’t very appealing even to those who are predisposed to vote for him as the lesser of two evils when compared to Clinton.
But the problem here goes deeper than the question of a campaign that is clearly in chaos and seems ill-prepared to contest a general election against the sophisticated data and attack machine Democrats have assembled.
Republicans and Trump apologists were calling in vain for the candidate to move on from this mess because they know it’s an issue that hurts him and helps Clinton. But they are making a mistake if they just put this down to bad judgment or a lack of message control on the part of the Trump campaign. The reason this hurts Trump is because this kind of fundamentally prejudiced talk about a sitting federal judge against whom the Trump legal team has not produced a scintilla of evidence of bad conduct or bias (i.e. things that would provide a basis for a request to change the judge in the case which has never been made) is not separate from Trump’s stands on the issues.
Republicans don’t want to spend the next five months answering questions about whether they are okay with their presidential candidate making openly racist appeals. But that’s what is going to happen if Trump and his chosen surrogates keep talking about this case. Trump has prospered by being in control of news cycles. His message, however offensive it might have been, almost always served his cause. But what he’s doing here is to, in social media terms, troll himself; allowing his opponents to bait him as well as controlling the narrative just at the point when it seemed as if he was about to take advantage of Clinton’s problems.
Since Trump started this and won’t back away it also isn’t likely that they’ll be able to convince most Americans that the discussion provides evidence of liberal media bias. But it does allow liberals and Democrats to assert that Trump’s stands on immigration and trade are an expression of racial bias, not protecting the middle and working classes. Trump may see this controversy as just another instance in which he attacks someone who has criticized or thwarted him in some way and that he’ll get away with it as he’s done in every previous instance. But by linking a scandal about his questionable business practices with comments that are irrefutable evidence of prejudice, he is redefining himself in a way that undercuts his pose as the champion of the little guy. Instead of showing us how he can say what he likes and get away with it to the delight of his followers, Trump’s decision to troll himself on the judge discredits his candidacy, his issues, and his party.
Moreover, if his surrogates follow his orders and keep lobbing patently unfair and misleading attacks on the judge — as his internet brigades have already begun doing — that will just make things worse for Republicans who ought to be talking about Clinton and the economy but will instead wind up answering for Trump’s foolish smears.
Seen in that light, the report on the Trump conference call isn’t just another inside baseball story about politics but a signal that his campaign is out of control and incapable of righting its ship. Having hitched their wagon to his star, Republicans found out today that they are not just stuck with an unpalatable candidate but with a liberal talking point that could sink their Congressional majorities as well as their hopes for taking back the White House.
