That sound you hear is Republican elected officials beating a hasty retreat from their party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
Especially in Washington, Republicans are treating Donald Trump’s presidential campaign like a sinking ship and are streaming toward the lifeboats.
“I continue to be discouraged by the direction of the campaign and comments that are made,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. “In an effort to be constructive, I have offered public encouragement at important times, but I must admit that I am personally discouraged by the results.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell kicked off remarks Tuesday by saying he wouldn’t be talking about Trump or 2016 presidential politics.
The second-ranking Senate Republican, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, has said he is done talking about Trump until after the November election.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said much the same thing. “I’m just not going to comment on more of his statements. It’s going to be five months of it,” he insisted.
“What Trump does or says, every time he says something doesn’t mean I have to have an answer for it,” echoed Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
House Speaker Paul Ryan reiterated his opposition to Trump’s so-called Muslim ban.
These are not anti-Trump conservatives. They are all Republicans who have endorsed Trump for president, or at least have pledged to support the nominee.
Corker was rumored to be a vice presidential possibility.
It’s possible that dissension from Trump’s lukewarm endorsers will do more to prevent the party from coalescing around the businessman ahead of the Republican National Convention this summer than anything #NeverTrump has done.
Rumblings about some kind of coup at that convention have revived, although the necessary rules changes to deny the man with more than 1,500 delegates would be hard to pass.
But as Trump faces heightened media scrutiny and steadily escalating Democratic attacks, including a Hillary Clinton ad blitz in key battleground states his campaign currently lacks the ability to counter, he is increasingly alone. And he knows it.
“You know the Republicans — honestly folks, our leaders, our leaders have to get tougher,” Trump complained Wednesday. “This is too tough to do it alone, but you know I think I am going to be forced to. I think I’m going to be forced to.”
Trump cannot count on Republican leaders to defend him during controversies or amplify his criticisms of the Democrats the way Clinton can count on her party. He cannot rely on the conservative media, which is often as critical of him as the liberal media. Commentators across the political spectrum are rooting for him to lose badly.
Republican leaders do not trust his political judgment. Many do not behave as if they are invested in his victory, although if he is beaten in a landslide it will jeopardize many GOP candidates running in down-ballot races.
You could see Republicans reluctantly concluding that the man who beat them in the primaries without their input and often over their opposition might have some political skills. Even if they don’t initially like his comments following the Orlando shooting, for example, they might hang back and see what the polls say the public thinks.
Or they could easily adopt a modified version of Trump’s talking points. They may not want to go as far as Trump on Muslim immigration or say that the Iraq war destabilized the Middle East. But lots of regular Republicans could get behind tougher screening of visa applicants from Muslim countries or the demand that the Democrats identity “radical Islam” as the source of anti-American terror.
The fact that so few GOP pols outside the Republican National Committee actually do any of these things, often preferring instead to pile on Trump with the Democrats, shows that their confidence in him is shot.
They hoped he would have a second act after winning the primaries. They are dismayed by the growing body of evidence that he does not and doubt what worked for him in the primaries can succeed with the more diverse electorate he’ll face in the general.
Trump’s comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage and subsequent collapse in the polls after finally pulling even with Clinton, combined with their own aversion to risk, has Republicans thinking about abandoning their likely presidential nominee to save themselves.
This in turn makes Trump even less likely to take outside advice from outside Republican political professionals. He knows they are not loyal to him and he has already defeated them in the primaries.
“Just please be quiet,” Trump said of the Republican leadership. “Don’t talk. Please be quiet.”
If Trump once again closes the gap with Clinton and shows that he can be competitive in the fall, many Republicans will come around. The truth is, few of them appearing on the ballot this November will be able to run far enough ahead of him to survive electoral disaster. Their success or failure is his.
Marco Rubio was knocked out of the presidential race when Trump beat him in his home state primary. Will his whole political career be over if he reenters the Senate race and then loses because Clinton beats Trump by 10 points in Florida?
To reunify the party, the man who claims he can make America win again must prove that his campaign can win again. And he’ll have to do it all by himself.
