GOP TRUMP-BASHERS IN 'FULL FREAK-OUT MODE'
'A significant number think he could win the White House'
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WASHINGTON – Donald Trump may be the candidate much of the Republican establishment loves to hate, but it now appears they've lost battle to derail the front-runner.
In fact, the establishment campaigns are now in "full freak-out mode," according to one of the mainstream media's most well-known political observers.
"[W]e’ve reached a turning point with Trump, the major establishment campaigns of both parties now think Trump could win Iowa, and most of them think he could win the nomination, and a significant number think he could win the White House," wrote former MSNBC and Time Magazine political analyst Mark Halperin, currently Bloomberg Politics managing editor.
Those insights appear to eclipse those of political analyst George Will, who also appeared to be in "full freak-out mode," when he said on "Fox News Sunday": "[P]eople have to say, 'Do we really want to give nuclear weapons to Donald Trump?' At which point, I think, things change."
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Political commentator George Will
Will does not have the best track record for determining who conservatives will support. He opposed Ronald Reagan in the GOP primaries in both 1976 and 1980, preferring the establishment favorites.
The analyst also chalked up support for Trump to mere anger.
As WND reported, Will drew parallels between Trump and the 1960s-era therapy fad of primary scream therapy, in which participants would yell as loud as they could to make themselves feel better.
He also called Trump, "[A] one-trick pony [who says,] 'I'm rich, everybody who disagrees with me is stupid, and all our problems are simple. Put me in power.'"
On Wednesday, Will wrote in the Washington Post that Trump was an "incorrigibly vulgar" candidate with "innumerable delusions."
Will isn't the only Republican publicly going after Trump.
Top GOP media consultant Rick Wilson called Trump backers "low-information supporters" on CNN Friday.
He also said:
- "This is a guy who is increasingly leading a fraction of the conservative base into a very dangerous cul-de-sac."
- "He is promising things that he can never deliver."
- "And it is time for Jeb Bush and other folks to start posting up and really comparing and contrasting Donald Trump’s rhetoric with reality."
- "[M]ost of the things that come out of Donald Trump’s mouth have almost no relationship to the truth under any circumstances. He just makes it up."
- Trump's talk of taking Iraq’s oil sounded like a "drunk dad at the local corner bar talking smack."
- “He’s a guy who constantly punches down at people, and he’s a very thin-skinned, delicate little princess when it comes to anyone saying something bad about him. This is a guy who loses his mind every time.”
- And, Monday on CNN, Wilson made Will's jabs appear tame in comparison, calling Trump “a giant, epic, douche canoe.”
The seething vitriol for Trump also comes from the very top of the Republican food chain.
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Republican campaign strategist Karl Rove
GOP establishment guru Karl Rove called Trump "a complete idiot" in June.
Rupert Murdoch, who, as the head of News Corp., controls the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and Fox News, tweeted in July: “When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?”
As WND reported, Rush Limbaugh said the intense attack on Trump during the first presidential candidate debate, hosted by Murdoch's Fox News Channel, was ordered by GOP bigwigs.
On Aug. 8, Limbaugh began by telling listeners how, on the day of that debate, he had learned “that big-time Republican donors had ordered to take out Donald Trump in the debate last night.”
“We all made a mistake,” he explained. “We assumed that the orders went out to the candidates. But the candidates did not make one move toward taking Donald Trump out. The broadcast network did; the candidates didn’t.”
Rush said it was clear that Fox News had it out for Trump when his colleagues refused to pile on, even when given multiple opportunities to bash the front-runner.
“Not one of the remaining nine candidates joined Megyn Kelly in taking the shot at Trump. Not one. Yet we have been told that there were orders from Republican donors to take Trump out.”
And on Monday's show, Limbaugh diagnosed why Trump has been both so resilient to criticism from elites and so popular with the public.
"With every insult that comes his way, with every bit of criticism, he doubles down and fires right back at the critics. This is, in one small part, exactly what Republican voters have been seeking, wanting to see. They've been thirsting for it. They don't understand why... When one party is trying to fundamentally transform this country and make it into something it is not founded to be, why is there no opposition to it?
"Both parties, conservative-liberal, Republican-Democrat, I don't think they have the slightest idea what the vast majority of people in this country think about immigration and what's happening to the country, and they don't want any part of it. And of course the establishment is seen as wanting to ramrod their view of immigration down everybody's throat. Trump's the only guy standing up against it, and every Republican that has been elected since 2010 has been elected in part to stop it.
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump
"Anybody that does that is gonna be rewarded in this particular climate. They're not gonna ask, 'Is the guy a conservative?' or whatever. They're not gonna ask that. They'll deal with that later. This is not a purity beauty pageant. Besides, what good has rock-ribbed conservatism done? I mean, the inside-the-Beltway intellectual conservatives are off having dinner with Obama and talking about the crease in his slacks and talking about how smart he is. What the hell good is conservatism, if that's what it means?"
As Limbaugh suggested, Trump seems to have struck the right chord with voters, and all of the GOP establishment tactics and rants against him may prove to be in vain.
The latest CNN poll shows Trump is just widening his lead in Iowa, the first battleground state for the GOP nomination.
Trump is leading the field with 22 percent. He is followed by another non-politician, Ben Carson, at 14 percent. And former front-runner Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin has slipped to third, at just 9 percent, after enjoying a 17 percent tally as recently as May.
It's not just a numbers game, according to Halperin.
The seasoned political observer told MSNBC on Monday that he has seen a sea change in GOP politics.
"Trump may not end up as the nominee, but right now, he’s changed the race, not just leading in the Fox poll, but coming to the fair. I’ve been to the fair with Barack Obama at his peak, Sarah Palin at her peak, with other candidates, George Bush.
"The reception Trump got here was not just about celebrity. I walked with him for 45 minutes after the helicopter ride, he came to the fair, and people were yelling things to him with passion. 'Save us,' 'You’re the only one who can stop Hillary,' 'Thank you for making America great again.'
"The other campaigns — the other leading Republican campaigns, monitored Trump’s behavior here. And that was part, along with the Fox poll, and along with the developments of the last couple of weeks, of them saying, as you just quoted, they now believe Trump can win Iowa."
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