How about this as a narrative for getting Donald Trump out of the Republican presidential race? Trump as a Democratic mole? That could be an interpretation of the report that the iconoclastic mogul had a phone call with Bill Clinton just before entering the race. According to four Trump aides and one Clinton aides, Bill “encouraged Trump’s efforts to play a larger role in the Republican Party and offered his own views of the political landscape.” But you don’t need to be a conspiracy theorist to recognize that this is vintage Bill Clinton, pulling strings to wreak havoc in the Republican party.
Though Carly Fiorina alluded to this incident in the debate, Trump may yet prove his own undoing. His vile putdown of moderator Megyn Kelly–a Fox News star beloved by conservatives–for asking him tough questions led to his being disinvited from a big gathering of conservative grass-roots activists.
His threat during the debate to run as a third party candidate also hasn’t played well among Republicans. So what do you think? Is Trump’s candidacy going to crumble? Then again, when he insulted John McCain’s war hero status, people thought he was finished then, but his popularity only soared. Is it different now? (See this poll.)
From GOP leaders say erratic attacks hurt Trump, but he vows to fight and win – The Washington Post:
Republican leaders who have watched Donald Trump’s summer surge with alarm now believe that his presidential candidacy has been contained and may begin to collapse because of his repeated attacks on a Fox News Channel star and his refusal to pledge his loyalty to the eventual GOP nominee.
Fearful that the billionaire’s inflammatory rhetoric has inflicted serious damage to the GOP brand, party leaders hope to pivot away from the Trump sideshow and toward a more serious discussion among a deep field of governors, senators and other candidates.
They acknowledge that Trump’s unique megaphone and the passion of his supporters make any calculation about his candidacy risky. After all, he has been presumed dead before: Three weeks ago, he prompted establishment outrage by belittling the Vietnam war service of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), only to prove, by climbing higher in the polls, that the laws of political gravity did not apply to him.
Still, Trump’s erratic performance during and after the first Republican presidential debate last week sparked a backlash throughout the party Saturday and a reassessment of his front-running bid. The final straw for many was Trump’s comment on CNN late Friday that Fox moderator Megyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
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