Horowitz: Trump Hits Self-Destruct Button

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Rob Horowitz, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

Donald Trump’s cavalier and insulting comments about Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) military service at a Presidential Forum in Iowa this past weekend and his refusal to apologize or in any way back away from them in a startlingly bad and revealing interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz the next day, are likely to put the brakes on any continuing growth in Trump’s support.

McCain provoked Trump’s intemperate and unwise remarks, by committing the unpardonable sin of criticizing the businessman and Reality TV star. Commenting to “The New Yorker” about Trump’s recent demagogic rally in Phoenix, The Arizona Senator said, “This performance with our friend out in Phoenix is very hurtful,” Because what he did was he fired up the crazies.”

In response, as part of a long and nasty attack on McCain at the Iowa Forum, Trump said, “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

More damaging than Trump’s initial remarks was his decidedly un-presidential performance the next day on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” In a tough, but fair phone interview, crack journalist Martha Raddatz gave Donald Trump every opportunity to apologize or soften his comments; instead he compounded his problem, revealing to anyone who is not an uncritical Trump fan, how completely unsuited he is to be even within a 1,000 miles of the Oval Office..

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Raddatz asked Trump whether the tone he is setting is appropriate to the Presidency: “There seems to be a pattern, Mr. Trump. When you’re criticized or attacked, you often respond with name-calling, using terms like “dummy”, “loser”, “total losers” on Twitter and elsewhere. You even demean some people’s physical appearance. Is that something you would continue doing if you were president? Isn’t that language beneath the office of the president?”

This was an opportunity for Trump to demonstrate some thoughtfulness and concede that sometimes he goes too far. Instead, he responded by talking about how some people attack the way his hair looks—not exactly a Churchillan response. It was underwhelming and ego driven, leaving the all too accurate impression that his candidacy is all about him-and little or anything else.

Raddatz also gave him another chance to say something gracious about John McCain’s courage and the sacrifice he made as a prisoner of war whom was tortured repeatedly over 6 years. Trump missed this opportunity as well, looking particularly bad, since during the Vietnam War, as reported by “The SmokingGun “and referenced by Raddatz, Trump received 4 student deferments and one medical deferment.

This unfortunate juxtaposition evoked outrage from veterans’ organizations: “For someone who never served a day in uniform to criticize the service and sacrifice of a combat-wounded veteran is despicable,” said John W. Stroud, national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.”

The founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Paul Reikopf added, "An insult to everyone who has ever worn the uniform and to all Americans and an attack on one veteran's service is an attack on us all"

Former US Senator and current Democratic Presidential candidate, Jim Webb, a decorated Vietnam Veteran, commenting on "This Week" just after the Trump interview, put it best, “I believe if Donald Trump had taken the opportunity to serve our country, could have volunteered like a lot of people did, he would have a different feeling about these kinds of things that he's saying in his vituperative personal attacks. It's one thing to talk about issues, but when you're talking about military service you're talking about duty and honor and dignity.”

Unlike Latinos, Veterans are a core Republican constituency, making Trump’s remarks and refusal to apologize for them, far more damaging to his nomination prospects, than his racially charged and inaccurate comments about undocumented Mexican immigrants.