Political commentators have been sure for months that Donald Trump would fade, and Trump on Tuesday was enjoying just how wrong they’ve been so far.
“Well, they don’t know me,” he said on CNN. “They don’t know where I come from. They don’t understand about winning.”
A CNN national poll released this week showed Trump continuing to lead the GOP field with 27 percent among Republican voters. Ben Carson was in second with 22 percent and Jeb Bush was in a distant third with 8 percent.
Some commentators and news outlets wrote Trump off when he announced his campaign, including the left-leaning Huffington Post, which, despite widespread criticism, has relegated Trump coverage to the site’s entertainment section instead of its politics section.
Others have come around to the possibility that Trump could actually be a lasting presence through the race.
“Mr. Trump can stand where the people stand on such issues as immigration because the donor class doesn’t have hooks in him,” conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan said of Trump in August. “I remember when donors just wanted dinner, or an ambassadorship. Now they want policy. Someone, not just Mr. Trump, should bop them hard.”
Prior to that, Noonan responded to Trumps initial popularity in July by writing that he had “a low ceiling and short staying power.”
