The summer of Trump rolls into autumn. Now the GOP frontrunner, that swashbuckling renegade presidential candidate will take the stage Wednesday afternoon at a rally behind the U.S. Capitol to protest the Iran nuclear pact. Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck will be there too, but it’s Trump who people are coming to see. While other candidates like Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Chris Christie have made concerted efforts to campaign as foreign policy hawks, it’s once again Trump who has gotten the most attention for pummeling the status quo.
The cross-section of support for Trump found in most polling indicates that there are different reasons for GOP primary voters to support his candidacy. Hard-core conservatives like his tone and temperament, channeled through stunts like swooping in on the Mexican border to highlight the illegal immigration problem. Present-day Perot voters, less ideological but fed up with Washington dysfunction, are intrigued by Trump’s vow to blow the place up. In both cases, Trump’s biggest asset is his outsider status.
That’s why Trump would be smart to double down on this theme and think about teaming up with fellow GOP contender Ben Carson. A Trump-Carson ticket would be an all-in bet on the electorate’s unique desire for non-political leadership in 2016. Carson is not just the only national Republican figure who could credibly work with Trump; he’s also a good complement to him.
With a physician’s beside manner and geniality that’s long made him admired across different audiences, Carson is the good cop to Trump’s bad cop. While he’s struggled to move beyond his own biography into discussing national issues, he’s got a firm grip on second place in RealClearPolitics’ average of the national polls and is even nipping at Trump’s heels in Iowa, mostly on the strength of his outsider credentials. Carson would round out Trump’s rough edges on the campaign trail and show that there’s something more to the production than Trump’s hyperbolic personality (which he’s vowed to change if elected).
Of course, Carson needs to be assured there’s more to be had out of being Trump’s running mate than his current solo project. As part of a prepackaged presidential ticket, he’d probably get more attention than he does right now. Carson could talk about replacing Obamacare, defunding Planned Parenthood, expanding school choice, and other social issues that Trump is not cut out for. Trump has said he won’t seek contributions (though he received at least $90,000 so far, and his website has a donation button), and with $300 million in personal liquid assets he doesn’t need to in the primary. But Carson has a low-dollar donor base that could be utilized to raise money for the general election beginning now and accumulate a war chest against Hillary Clinton.
Pretty much every Republican candidate is smart enough to attack Washington. But hearing Jeb Bush do it and Donald Trump do it are two entirely different things. Some of the effectiveness with Trump is his anger – imparted with a natural politician’s gift for theater – but it’s also the strange way the New York billionaire can relate to his audience in a way Bush and company never could. Trump’s on-stage anecdote back in July about being hit up for cash and a plug on TV by Lindsey Graham (who had called him a “jackass,” prompting the Trump counterpunch that has now scared most of the other candidates from attacking him) and then preceding to give out the U.S. Senator’s cell phone number played out like a vicarious revenge scene for the voters in the room against this stereotype of an elected official.
The United States has never elected a president without experience in government or the military. Even the last two elected as first-time candidates, Dwight Eisenhower and Herbert Hoover, were ultimate insiders. But Republicans are at least open to idea, something also indicated by Carly Fiorina’s respectable standing (Trump, Carson and Fiorina’s support aggregate to a majority of respondents in polls). Trump and Carson teaming up would give various types of GOP voters – suburban moderates, evangelicals, working-class conservatives – a reason to roll the dice on this experiment. It would be a “big tent” offering for the antiestablishment. All Trump would have to do is cut the deal, something he’s staked his expertise on.
Rich Danker is a Washington-based political consultant.
