Trump’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Is So Presidential Your Head Will Spin

Donald J. Trump” has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today in which he whines that the Republican establishment robbed him of delegates by rigging the contest in Colorado. As Michael Warren reported the other day, Trump’s claim is the opposite of true: The establishment wanted a primary in Colorado; conservatives wanted caucuses and a convention.

But saying something untrue isn’t unusual for Trump. He does that all the time. What’s interesting about his Wall Street Journal op-ed is how unbelievably stilted the prose is. Try to imagine Donald Trump ever saying or writing this sentence:

The great irony of this campaign is that the “Washington cartel” that Mr. Cruz rails against is the very group he is relying upon in his voter-nullification scheme.

Or this sentence:

The only antidote to decades of ruinous rule by a small handful of elites is a bold infusion of popular will.

Or this paragraph:

Just as I have said that I will reform our unfair trade, immigration and economic policies that have also been rigged against Americans, so too will I work closely with the chairman of the Republican National Committee and top GOP officials to reform our election policies. Together, we will restore the faith—and the franchise—of the American people.

Candidates rely on campaign staffers all the time to write speeches and op-eds. It helps when the ghostwriters make it seem vaguely plausible that the candidate himself wrote the text.

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