On Friday, July 17, 2015, Donald Trump called me at the offices of THE WEEKLY STANDARD. He wanted to tell me that even though I’d been critical of him, and indeed though I had said I couldn’t imagine supporting him for president, he thought I’d been fairer and more open-minded about him than some other critics. He even said that he expected he’d bring me around to his candidacy. We had a cordial if insubstantial five-minute conversation, which ended with him saying he had to go because his plane was taking off for Iowa.

The next day in Iowa, Trump engaged in a colloquy with pollster Frank Luntz. In the course of this, Trump said of John McCain, “He is not a war hero.” Luntz interjected, “He is a war hero.” Trump persisted: “He is a war hero because he was captured.” And he continued, “I like people that weren’t captured, okay? I hate to tell you.”