As a leading Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump is giving his party's establishment heartburn. Now, though, he's floating a new possibility they might not like much more:
running as an independent if he doesn't like the Republican nominee. Then again, message discipline is not exactly Trump's thing, and in the same
Washington Post interview, he said "I absolutely stay in. If for some reason I think it’s not going to happen, I’m not a masochist."
Gosh, why would this guy worry establishment Republicans? Never fear, though—Trump's confident that "When they know me, they will love me."
That's how much Trump fails to understand the Republican establishment. He doesn't get that he makes them nervous because he's giving voice to Republican policies just a little too honestly. When Trump's take on immigration is that immigrants are rapists, it's like when a Todd Akin or Richard Mourdock explains his opposition to abortion in cases of rape by talking about "legitimate rape" or "something God intended"—they're supporting an official part of the Republican platform, but they're doing it in a way that makes voters realize just how bad that platform is. This is nerve-racking for Republican leaders:
One GOP state party chairman, speaking on the condition of anonymity so he could be frank, said of Trump: “He’s already done some damage, and it could be substantial going forward. He could be one of the reasons we lose. It’s that serious. There’s nothing we can do about it, and that’s what’s so scary.”
Again, though, if Republicans lose because of Trump, it's only because there's so much less daylight between him and the rest of the party than its leaders want us to believe.