Editorial: Trump is a national embarrassment
The Founding Fathers envisioned impassioned debate during elections, but then they never met Donald Trump.
Trump dropped the irresponsibility bar even lower last week by calling Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam war hero and a prisoner of war for five-and-a-half years, a “dummy” for graduating at the bottom of his class at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Trump, who describes himself as “really smart,” wasn’t finished, saying he didn’t “like people who get captured.” Trump, meanwhile, never had to trouble himself with the danger of capture, having obtained four student deferments from 1964 to 1968.
Trump wasn’t done with the McCain incident. In a speech to evangelicals, he noted that he ate “the little cracker” and “drank the little wine” at communion, and never asked God for forgiveness. Why humble yourself before God when you deify yourself?
Trump gets attention because he has money and a mouth. He may be running to raise his visibility. Perhaps he hopes for another reality show. Maybe he is in the process of filming a reality show. Whatever his motive or state of mind, he is not a serious candidate for leader of the free world.
Trump’s crassness and racism have been on full display since he announced his candidacy, having paid cheering spectators $50 each to attend his rally. He has managed to alienate Latino voters, and offered blanket assurances that he knows how to handle China because he sells them eight-figure condos. The list goes on.
The billionaire’s fan base may be growing. There are polls that say Trump is at the front tier of the declared GOP candidates.
Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas cravenly asserts that he likes Trump, if only to pick up his supporters when Trump eventually self-immolates.
To their credit, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin have been blunt in their assessments of Trump. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has engaged with Trump as well, after the real estate mogul tweeted that Bush is soft on illegal immigration because his wife is Mexican.
Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch, no stranger to shamelessness, called out Trump, taking to Twitter during the weekend to remark: “When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?”
We wonder whether Fox News will allow him on the stage for the Aug. 6 debate. His appearance would be good for ratings, though not so good for the republic or the Republican Party.
America will survive Trump. But do we keep testing the tensile strength of our system all summer and fall at the whim of a billionaire narcissist?
For the sake of the country, Trump’s infomercial needs to give way to more serious debate.
This story was originally published July 20, 2015 at 6:27 AM with the headline "Editorial: Trump is a national embarrassment."