Any Republican who seriously believed Donald Trump was still trying to win the White House is now wondering what in god's name he was thinking when he took the stage in Phoenix to deliver a chilling anti-immigrant rant that effectively wrote off any wavering parts of the electorate. McKay Coppins writes:
David Kochel, an Iowa-based Republican operative and former campaign strategist for Jeb Bush, interpreted Trump’s immigration speech as a “decision to play directly to [his] already secured base.”
“It has to be their calculation that they can drive up turnout in white working-class areas of battleground states to dizzying heights,” Kochel said. “Otherwise this move makes no sense 69 days from the election.” In any case, he added, “The ‘softening’ of Trump’s immigration policy died tragically on Wednesday night in Phoenix.”
The notion that strategy had really anything at all to do with that speech is really far too generous. Trump, a flaming narcissist who's been a little down in the mouth over his flailing campaign, just couldn't stand to get in front of a crowd full of hungry nativists and not give them the goods. They’re his bread and butter. It's not strategy, it's the insatiable ego of an insecure man child.
Meanwhile, Greg Mueller, a Trump supporter, cheered the speech as “one of the best days of [Trump’s] campaign.”
We can agree there—it's the day Trump drove the final nail into the coffin of his candidacy.
Let's pitch in $3 to both ensure Hillary’s victory and her progressive mandate.