A confidential memo detailing how Republicans should manage Donald Trump if he secures the party’s nomination was made public Wednesday, and the advice within it demonstrates just how influential the Manhattan billionaire has become.
Ward Baker, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, circulated the seven-page memo, titled “Observations on Donald Trump and 2016,” to senior NRSC staffers in September, months before the Washington Post first reported on it Wednesday.
According to Baker, Republican congressional candidates should essentially behave more like Trump if they wish to succeed in their own elections next November. “Trump has risen because voters see him as authentic, independent, direct, firm — and believe he can’t be bought. These are the same character traits our candidates should be advancing in 2016.”
“That’s Trump lesson #1,” Baker writes.
The remaining “lessons” vary from advising candidates to avoid “reengaging the “war on women” fight” by condemning Trump’s insults to urging them to “understand the populist points Trump makes and ride that wave.”
Baker also encourages candidates to address some of the hot-button issues popularized by Trump throughout his campaign, namely U.S.-China relations and illegal immigration.
“We may not like it, but Trump has connected with voters on issues like America’s broken borders,” Baker writes
“Hit China on its cyber war against the U.S. government … [and] on immigration, select areas where reform can be done and should be done,” he further recommends.
Candidates should borrow a page from Trump’s merciless crusade against the political elite, Baker explains.
“The Trump phenomenon exists because Washington politicians promise change, but don’t deliver. Your job is to deliver,” he writes.
Baker continues, “In the past two cycles it was easy to say, “Washington’s broken” but in 2016, you need to demonstrate that you’ll rip up the rotten roots and begin anew. To get on the reformist wave, advance clear-cut reforms that change the way Washington works.”
The memo concludes with Baker acknowledging what many Republican Party officials fear: “If the environments align properly, Trump could win.”
“We don’t have a crystal ball, but in 1940, few were predicting that an Indiana businessman with New York connections would win the Republican nomination for President of the United States,” he writes, referring to Wendell Willkie, who went toe-to-toe with former President Franklin Roosevelt nearly eight decades ago.
