If There Was No Donald Trump …

Golf - Ricoh Women's British Open - Day Three - Trump Turnberry Resort. Donald Trump takes to the Golf course during day three of the Ricoh Women's British Open at the Trump Turnberry Resort, South Ayrshire. Picture ... Golf - Ricoh Women's British Open - Day Three - Trump Turnberry Resort. Donald Trump takes to the Golf course during day three of the Ricoh Women's British Open at the Trump Turnberry Resort, South Ayrshire. Picture date: Saturday August 1, 2015. See PA story GOLF Women. Photo credit should read: Craig Watson/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: Editorial use only. No commercial use. No false commercial association. No video emulation. No manipulation of images. URN:23706234 MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

If there was no Donald Trump, Democrats would desperately need to find a way to create him. Maybe they wouldn’t need to. Maybe Mike Huckabee or someone else would be picking up the Crazy slack. But it’s difficult to see how anyone could be managing it in quite the way Donald Trump is or with quite as much collateral damage. Tonight the candidates – or rather the top 10 out of the dozens who are running – will meet in Cleveland. And the debate will be dominated by a preening billionaire buffoon who has spent recent weeks marching around the country spouting off borderline racist comments, attacking the very real foibles and weaknesses of opposing candidates, calling on Congress to shut down the government over women’s health funding and so much more. Will he do well in a debate? Of course, he will! He’s a master of media and television.

Since their post-2012 autopsy and the various and seemingly endless self-examinations which have followed it, Republicans have been trying to get the crazy uncle of the GOP base back into the collective attic of national politics. In 2014, largely but not entirely because of the dynamics of a midterm election, the party was able to submerge almost all of this. Particularly, they were able to weed out problem candidates early. A lot of that was due to the dynamics of a midterm election. It would not be replicable in a general election. But it didn’t have to be quite like this. Whoever he is in real life, Trump is embodying everything about the GOP that it tries to keep under wraps to get officeholders elected: bombastic, hateful, denigrating and aggressive.

What really sets it apart is that Trump simply does it better than any native Republican, any of the folks who actually emerged from the authentic GOP subculture. Yes, there is a method to Trump’s nonsense. There always has been. It is no accident that he has remained a huge celebrity figure for decades based on almost nothing. He knows how to get attention and hold it. He may be a moronic buffoon but he ain’t stupid.

We’re working on a piece right now about who exactly is working for Trump on his campaign. But if you look at this from a campaign operative’s perspective, what’s amazing is that Trump really has not had to tap any of his wealth so far. He’s doing almost all of this on what they call ‘earned’ media. He’s just out there getting attention, getting base Republicans excited, making his opponents look weak and silly and generally leaving everyone else mesmerized and aghast.

I don’t know if Bill Clinton had anything to do with it. I suspect not. But for whatever reason it’s happening, he’s a turbocharged bullet train of Crazy, aggression and bombast and he will dominate tonight’s debate, even if he does terribly. Because for the moment everything is revolving around him.

Latest Editors' Blog
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: