Trump terrifies Republican field

CLEVELAND — They are afraid of him; they are really afraid of him. The other Republican candidates for president are afraid of Donald Trump.

The smart ones are, anyway.


Donald Trump didn’t just steal much of the show at a Republican debate Thursday night, he didn’t just command the stage whenever he chose to — he is an experienced TV performer, after all — but he showed his contempt for the very debate that he was taking part in.

And the audience ate it up.

Time and again, Trump said outrageous and sometimes repellent things and didn’t just get away with it, but often turned boos into cheers.

One of the Fox News moderators, Megyn Kelly, said to him: “You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.”

“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” Trump retorted.

There was an explosion. But it was an explosion of laughter.

Trump went on: “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I’ve been challenged by so many people and I don’t really have time for total political correctness, and to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either. This country is in big trouble. We lose to China, we lose to Mexico, we lose to everybody.”

And if Megyn Kelly didn’t like that answer?

“Honestly, Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry,” Trump said in a tone that indicated he was not the least bit sorry. “I’ve been very nice to you, although I probably could maybe not be based on the way you’ve been to me.”

And if the press was going to tear him apart for his comments?

Who cares? Not Trump.

“Reporters,” Trump said, pronouncing the word the same way some people would say “cockroaches.” “They’re a very dishonest lot, generally speaking, in the world of politics.”

But when another Fox moderator, Chris Wallace, tried to call Trump to task for calling some Mexicans who cross the border illegally “rapists” and drug dealers, Trump airily dismissed him.

“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even be talking about illegal immigration, Chris,” Trump said. “Our leaders are stupid, our politicians are stupid, and the Mexican government is much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning, and they send the bad ones over because they don’t want to pay for them.

“Why should they when the stupid leaders of the United States will do it for them? And that’s what’s happening whether you like it or not,” Trump said.

So now was the time for the other candidates to jump on Trump, right? Nope.

Wallace called on Ohio Gov. John Kasich. And Wallace got a shock.

“Donald Trump is hitting a nerve in this country,” Kasich said. “People are frustrated, fed up. People who want to just tune [Trump] out are making a mistake.”

“Gov. Rubio,” Wallace said to Marco Rubio, “let’s see if I can do better with you.”

But Rubio wouldn’t go along with Wallace’s attempt to start a Republican brawl, either.

“People are frustrated,” Rubio said. “We are the most generous country in the world when it comes to immigration. And people feel they are being taken advantage of.”

Scott Walker?

“I believe we need to secure the border,” Walker said.

And you could just see it. These guys could all read polls. And the polls are telling them that Trump had a commanding lead for a reason: People are buying what he is selling.

And one thing he is selling is that he is unafraid to do what politicians running for their party’s nomination are usually afraid of.

Fox moderator Bret Baier began the debate by asking if anyone on stage might run as an independent if he lost the nomination.

Trump’s was the lone hand that went into the air.

Baier thought Trump had misunderstood the question and tried to explain it.

“I understand,” Trump said as shock waves rippled through the room.

Was Trump really saying he might drain off enough Republican votes to assure the election of the Democratic nominee?

“I can totally make the pledge that if I win the nomination I won’t run as an independent,” Trump said as the audience laughed at his audacity.

Trump’s replies didn’t always work. Wallace came close to pinning him to the mat about the bankruptcy filings that four of his companies have gone through, which cost lenders at least a billion dollars.

“Lenders aren’t babies; these are total killers,” Trump said. “You’re living in world of make-believe, Chris.”

But Wallace also had pointed out how hundreds of people had lost jobs because of the bankruptcies and Trump had no good reply for that, except that he had done “hundreds” of deals in his life and Wallace was picking on just four.

Rand Paul did attack Trump for his past support of single-payer health insurance, but Trump dismissed him with a sharp tongue. “You’re having a hard time tonight,” Trump said.

But the candidate who really had the hard time was the man who is second in the polls, Jeb Bush.

He wasn’t terrible, but he wasn’t very good. He looked like a person who had wandered into a race he wasn’t really interested in.

Carly Fiorina, who has very little chance to be nominated, had shown more fire than Jeb in a separate debate earlier in the evening.

Jeb was supposed to be “the smart one” in his family. And maybe he is.

Maybe he has seen up close what the job does to you and he doesn’t want any part of it.

Roger Simon is POLITICO’s chief political columnist.

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