For months, the Trump campaign and its allies have bided their time, content to let the crowded Democratic field slug it out in an exhausting, expensive race to the left in search of the presidential nomination. It meant donors could build the election war chests and strategists could compile the opposition research they believe will keep the White House in Republican hands come November.

For now, the message is a simple one-size-fits-all approach: Whoever wins the exhausting slugfest will be so battered and encumbered by expensive, progressive policies that the candidate will make for easy prey.