Donald Trump’s complaints about Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge in a fraud case against Trump University, are nothing new. He’s been saying the same sort of thing since February, when he opined that the judge had “hostility.”
But last Thursday, Trump escalated his criticism to suggest that a “Mexican” — he describes many natural-born American citizens that way — could not be fair to him and conduct himself professionally as a judge. Judge Curiel’s Mexican descent makes him hostile, Trump says, even though the judge was born in Indiana.
Asked about it the next day on CNN, Trump doubled down, saying, “He’s a Mexican … We’re building a wall between here and Mexico … I’m trying to keep business out of Mexico.”
His implication was that the judge would be biased against him because of a prejudice in favor of Mexico that would set aside Curiel’s loyalty to the nation of his birth and fealty to the laws he has sworn to uphold. When CNN’s Jake Tapper objected that the judge is American, Trump answered, “He’s of Mexican heritage,” as though that explained everything.
It’s fine to criticize a judge for his rulings. But to suggest that he cannot or would not do his job because of his ethnicity is just a racist comment. It gives powerful ammunition to those who say the Republican nominee is a racist.
Many Republicans who opposed Trump in the primaries hoped that as he pulled away from other candidates and secured the nomination, he would abandon this kind of highly questionable rhetoric and would start to behave in a more presidential manner, as he claimed he easily could. But every move prompting hope on that score has been swiftly followed by a return to square one.
A growing and uneasy sense that Trump may be incapable or unwilling to reform is part of the reason the candidate has a bad couple of weeks, and may explain why Hillary Clinton widened her lead over him from 1 point to 3 points in the past week in the Economist/YouGove poll, out Monday.
Trump is reportedly resisting calls to apologize because caving to political pressure would make him look weak. An image of strength has been critical to his success. But never admitting error is a sign of weakness, not strength. An apology would clearly be appropriate. The longer Trump seeks to justify the indefensible, the longer the whiff of racism and obduracy will cling to him and damage his electoral chances.
If Trump wants to win the presidency, he needs to learn quickly that a retraction and admission of error can make you look bigger, not smaller. He needs to learn, too, that if he behaves with more dignity rather than merely claiming the ability to do so, he will less often be put under pressure to take actions that threaten his tough-guy image.
It is often said that one should dress for the job one wants, not for the job one already has. Trump needs to dress himself in the dignity of a president if he wants voters to see him that way.
