MSNBC host and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough said Donald Trump, in his current form, is set to lose his campaign for the White House and take down the GOP with him.
Referring to Trump’s 1987 Art of the Deal book, wherein Trump says his business style is to “play it loose,” Scarborough wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Monday night that this is an approach that is likely to fail when it comes to politics.
“If that devil-take-care strategy is carried into the general election against [likely Democratic nominee] Hillary Clinton, maybe Trump will once again prove the world wrong,” wrote Scarborough. “But it is far more likely that simply showing up and seeing what develops next will lose him the White House and destroy the Republican Party in the process.”
Trump seemed to run his campaign throughout the GOP primary almost entirely off the cuff, which worked to his advantage but has also left many voters and leaders within the party feeling dejected.
Most recently, Trump responded to mild criticism from House Speaker Paul Ryan by leaving open the possibility that he would replace him as the chair of the GOP convention in July.
“Playing it loose can pay dividends,” Scarborough wrote. “But it can also be a stupid strategy to adopt — like when you have designs on being the leader of the free world.”
