According to Politico, Sunday’s mass shooting in Orlando was good news for Donald Trump, because terrorism is his “terrain.” Mind you, Trump drew widespread eye-rolling, condemnation, and outright mockery for his stream of offensive, narcissistic blather, from tweeting "appreciate the congrats" to suggesting President Obama is in league with the terrorists to boasting about imaginary military strategy. But no, says Politico:
Hillary Clinton’s campaign knows a national conversation about terrorism will take place on Donald Trump’s terms. [...]
It’s a dramatically different issue environment from the one that Clinton and Democrats were expecting: They were counting on a race they hoped would be a clear-cut referendum on Trump’s divisiveness, rather than one that hinges on issues like domestic terrorism.
Oh, right, no Democrat ever anticipated that terrorism might become an issue in this year’s election. And, as Gabriel Debenedetti’s article makes clear, Clinton was ready for this:
But Clinton managed to pull the conversation her way Monday in Cleveland when she kicked off her general election campaign with a more somber and contemplative speech than she had planned to give in the critical battleground state. Speaking slowly and aiming to project a collected and trust-inspiring image just hours before Trump was expected to deliver a fiery afternoon speech in New Hampshire, Clinton offered a measured but firm response.
It’s true that Republicans are experienced at whipping up fear and then running on it, and that Trump will use fear as even more of a blunt instrument than your typical Republican. But Trump can also be counted on to go too far, even for the (public) comfort of the other fear-mongers in his party—and to show time and time again that he is, as Clinton has said, temperamentally unfit to be president. The fact that Trump is obsessed with Muslim-hating doesn’t make it “his terms.” The Republican politics of fear, and the media’s cooperation in that, always meant that Clinton would have to fight to get level-headedness to trump fear.
But let’s be clear: The issues Trump owns are hatred and bigotry and fear, not security and safety.