Donald Trump frequently seems to be doing his best to tank his own campaign. His feuds with fellow Republicans and his stubborn trashing of Khizr Khan and Ghazala Khan, the father and mother of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed fighting in Iraq, have added to his awful performance at the Republican National Convention and no doubt generated at least some of his recent woes in the polls. These show a big rise for Hillary Clinton in unexpected places.
On Friday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, however, instead of doubling down on behavior that included withholding an endorsement for House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump moved to repair some of the damage that his campaign is doing to his own chances for the presidency as well as potential harm to down-ballot races—he backed Ryan in the state primary:
"In our shared mission to make America great again, I support and endorse our Speaker of the House Paul Ryan," Trump said, stressing the need for party unity as he read from a set of notes on his podium. “We need unity. We have to win this election. This is truly one of the most important elections in my lifetime."
Acknowledging the need to work with Congress to accomplish his agenda, Trump went on to endorse Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, both of whom he also had pointedly declined to endorse in recent interviews.
It’s not hard to imagine those three candidates quietly grinding their teeth over Trump’s moves. And then there’s Paul Nehlen, Ryan’s longshot primary challenger who Trump just four days ago praised for defending him. Friday night, Nehlen, who said he had been invited to attend the Green Bay rally by the Trump campaign, was ejected from it. In a statement, he said he understood Trump’s endorsement of his opponent as part of the need for party unity, and blamed his being kicked out of the rally on the Ryan campaign and the Wisconsin GOP that is...
petrified that 83 percent of the vote in the presidential primary went to the two outsider candidates. They’re petrified that the people in Wisconsin have had enough of their corruption and cronyism – of the GOP selling Wisconsin’s future across the Pacific.
What’s becoming ever more obvious as the days go by is that the GOP leadership, nationwide, is petrified that November could be a catastrophe for the Republican Party not just at the presidential level, but also in congressional and senatorial contests and other races far down the ballot if the polling trends for Trump continue.
Party leaders no doubt hope that Trump’s endorsements Friday will mark a pivot on the part of the nominee to get serious and back off from the barrage of alienating comments he has made since entering the presidential race. But for the undisciplined, shoot-from-the-lip Trump to actually make such a pivot would take a personality transplant.
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