Despite the efforts of his advisers, Donald Trump seems intent on dragging Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s name through the mud — and the prime time news cycle. But as Republicans pile on the “Trump Train,” is the GOP secretly looking to disengage itself from this locomotive before it drives off a cliff?
Rep. Paul Ryan, who just announced that he would support Donald Trump, ripped into the candidate this morning, calling his attacks on Curiel “textbook racism.” But Rep. Ryan stopped short of rescinding his support. He told reporters, “I disavow those comments,” but he didn’t disavow the candidate, preferring to suggest that Hillary Clinton was worse.
But if he’s supporting Trump, and Trump is a “textbook” racist, then isn’t he, at least implicitly, rubber-stamping the GOP nominee’s racism? Trump and “textbook racism” are a package deal.
But if Ryan is conflicted, he’s just joining the ranks. Newt Gingrich, once widely considered to be either Donald Trump’s Vice Presidential nominee or President Trump’s emissary to the moon, has attacked Trump over his Curiel comments repeatedly, even prompting a return volley from the candidate. Marco Rubio, who is probably regretting releasing his delegates just last week, told eporters that Trump’s comments were “offensive and wrong.” Sen. Tim Scott said the rant was “racially toxic.”
But none of them have publicly rescinded their support.
Yet.
Sources close to the GOP tell Heat Street that concern has begun to swirl within the Republican Party ranks, with officials reeling from Trump’s refusal to listen to reason and campaign like an adult, especially as Trump’s top advisers struggle to reel him in. The GOP isn’t looking for a way out of the quicksand yet, but they definitely recognize that the situation is only likely to deteriorate as the Trump U trial date draws closer.
Insiders seem to fear Trump’s soapbox more than his rhetoric, though. Trump regularly uses racially tinged invective, but he’s only begun using his presidential-candidate platform as a bully pulpit. Trump whined that reporters were asking him about Trump University on Monday, but neglected to mention that he took the opportunity, in San Diego, to assail Judge Curiel for 10 minutes straight first, setting off a firestorm of interest in the Trump U case. The case is making headlines nationally because Trump is interested in talking about it or — as one commentator put it — talking to himself about it, convincing himself of the situation’s “unfairness.”
As Lindsey Graham put it, if the Republican Party were looking for an off-ramp, this would be it.
