With Donald Trump still leading the Republican field for president, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, once a skeptic of his candidacy, now thinks it’s possible he could go on to win the nomination after the GOP establishment puts up a fight.
“If Mr. Trump does well in the early contests — if he retains his lead and it starts to look like he can really win the nomination — then at some point it will come down, sharply, to him versus the party establishment,” Noonan wrote in her latest column. “And that establishment, such as it is, will presumably try to kill him.”
Trump is currently leading in both national and early primary state-level polls, and a poll released earlier this week showed him also leading in states crucial to winning the general election: Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Attacks from Trump’s Republican rivals have either had no effect or inspired a counterattack from the billionaire businessman that incidentally sent their poll numbers plummeting, although his numbers have softened somewhat with the rise of Carly Fiorina.
“What will it be to have a party establishment try to kill the guy who’s No. 1 in that party’s polls?” Noonan wrote. “Maybe they think they’ll have golden oppo, but opposition research doesn’t really work on Mr. Trump, mostly because no one has illusions of probity about him. His supporters don’t think he’s a sweet, sinless businessman. They love it that he’s not.”
