While many Republican operatives and conservative commentators think Donald Trump’s candidacy will collapse by way of his own mouth, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer said that’s not going to happen.
In a new op-ed published Thursday night, Krauthammer said the GOP White House hopeful is a master at turning his supposedly campaign-ending comments into a weapon.
“Are you waiting for him to bring himself down? He won’t,” wrote Krauthammer. He referred to Trump as the “clear front-runner” in the race. “He’s impervious to the gaffe. In fact, he has a genius for turning a gaffe into a talking point, indeed, a rallying cry,” he wrote.
Trump has had several moments since launching his campaign in June that were dubbed catastrophic to his candidacy by many political observers. Instead, Trump’s numbers in national and some state polls only climbed, at times putting him in double-digit leads against his competitors.
In his campaign announcement speech, Trump said many illegal immigrants crossing the U.S. southern border are “rapists” and criminals. Weeks later, he questioned the status of Vietnam veteran Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as a “war hero.” Then he attacked popular Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly for her aggressive line of questioning during last week’s Republican presidential debate, saying that she had “blood coming out of her nose” and “wherever.”
All the while, Trump has maintained his national lead.
“Nonetheless, [Trump’s] core support, somewhere around 20 percent (plus or minus a couple), remains as solid as that once commanded by Ron Paul and Ross Perot,” wrote Krauthammer, predicting that Trump will remain in the race at least until several of the other GOP candidates have dropped out of the race.
Krauthammer did find one weakness for Trump, however. He wrote that Trump’s support has likely plateaued and that he has no chance of actually winning his party’s nomination.
“Solid constituency, fixed ceiling,” he wrote. “Chances of winning his party’s nomination? About the same as Sanders winning his.”
