How to Trip up Trump

Those of you who watched Matt Frei’s The Mad World of Donald Trump may still be reeling (available to view here). Those of you who saw Sarah Palin’s endorsement speech definitely will be…

But why can’t the other candidates lay a glove on Trump? Why can’t they expose him to his own fan base?

n1h-p7TI_400x400Jeet Heer @HeerJeet – a senior editor at the New Republic and who also writes for The New Yorker and The Paris Review has this handy 15 point advice on how to really Trip up Trump, summary: ‘go low, go hard’.

1. So, I keep expecting the GOP elite to put up a fierce resistance to Trump and it never arrives. What analytical mistake am I making?
2. One answer is “various rivals — Perry, Paul, Jeb — have tried to beat down Trump and it has always backfired.”
3. But the attacks that have been made on Trump so far have been weak tea. “He’s vulgar. Talks loud,” etc Tone not policy or person attacked
4. Compare weak-tea used against Trump with ferocious assault Romney unleashed on Gingrich in Florida in 2012.
5. Romney saturated the Florida airwaves with ads about every slimy thing Gingrich did (treatment of women) and how hated he was in party.
6. Why hasn’t that approach been tried on Trump? There’s more than enough material. 30 years worth of tabloid fodder & business dealings
7. @DouthatNYT column has good summary of really no-holds-barred attack GOP could launch on Trump if they wanted 
8. You don’t have to do much oppo research on Trump: back issues of NY Post, Daily News, Spy plus Trump’s own twitter feed.
9. Normally if you have a rival candidate who repeatedly retweets neo-Nazis, you try and make the world know this fact.
10. Normally, if you have a rival candidate who has alleged links to the mafia, you call attention to that: “Trump and the Mob”. 
11. Normally if you have a candidate who has repeatedly declared bankruptcy you can video tape & publicize workers hurt by his/her actions.
12. How difficult would it be to do “When Mitt Romney Came to Town” style ads showing Trump hurting workers? Would really effect his base. 16. You say, “I don’t know if Donald is mobbed up. Probably not. But Hillary will use these rumors & connections to destroy him.”
13. People are saying mafia attack would redouble in Trump’s favor. “He’s a tough guy, deals with gangsters.” Yes and no.
14. No doubt Trump’s fan base would love celebrating him as a goodfella & wise guy. But those aren’t voters you are aiming at.
15. You use mafia attack in same sly way Trump used Canadian birtherism against Cruz.

Comments (14)

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  1. Jim_McIntyre says:

    The Scottish equivelant of Clinton versus Trump is Blair McDougall versus David Coburn and that’s a contest where no-one wins.

  2. Jake Gittes says:

    A key to understanding Trump’s appeal is economics. Income inequality in the US has never been wider. Unemployment is much higher than official figures suggest. Wages are lower now in real terms than in 2008.

    Americans are desperate for economic security and physical security from terror. Trump poses as a business tycoon, not a mere “politician” who claims to have the capacity, record and skills to deliver economic growth to blue collar America.

    This while magically cutting the $20T deficit, cutting taxes and expanding the the military.
    Can’t see it myself but desperate people can be persuaded to do desperate things.

  3. Redgauntlet says:

    Mad, bad and dangerous…as somebody once said of our very own Lord Byron…

  4. Brian McGraw says:

    The fact that they’re going in soft on Trump reeks of him having more dirt on them. With Trump ‘what you see is what you get’ and he boasts about it, so going in hard is no news to his groupies. They’re all mad as he is.
    On the other hand, I reckon he can really damage them and they know it. They’re just hoping he gets carried away and goes too far and damages himself.

  5. Alan says:

    Several things to remember: The Republic establishment fears Cruz more than they fear Trump. Trump they thing they can bend to their will or replace later. Nevertheless the Republican establishment are attacking Trump: see this month’s National Review. Fox media and Trump are also feuding at the moment and I’m not sure the rest of the media are being soft on him. It’s just that nothing sticks because there are large numbers of voters furious with the establishments in both political parties. The amusing thing about Trump and Cruz is that they are the establishment pretending to be outsiders. Bernie on the other hand is a real outsider and also looks like he might do quite well in the initial primaries. Hillary is tone-deaf and has her snout in the financial industry trough. See here and here. And then there are the military contractors.

  6. J Galt says:

    How tedious – has none of this sunk in yet? ie. if you know their name they are not important.

    Anybody of intelligence does not give a damn whether it’s Trump, Cruz, Jeb, “Socialist” Sanders or to “Trump” Trump so to speak that ABSOLUTE HORROR STORY Hillary Clinton.

    Frankly to witter on about these people is to be interested in the Monkey while ignoring the Organ Grinder!

  7. C Rober says:

    Nay need to worry about this guy , JFK style inhouse solution are already in place should the sheep vote in his favour and he starts to think he isnt a puppet.

    A billionaire eejit buying into being a president , not like it hasnt happened before.

    I suspect a wealth exit , along the lines of Russian oligarchs , after him first pissing off Mexico , then the blacks , once he starts on the the money men , either the Jews or the Bankers , then London will be all yanks instead of Russians.

    Right now all the right thinkers in the correct places are drawing up the new pearl harbour , 9/11 plan , but who will be the Enemy of Choice fro the blame , Russia , China , or another Oil nation perhaps even an old friend like Saudi thats trying to kill of shale in America.

    Only time will tell , the Money war machine in America has been too quiet under Obama.

  8. florian albert says:

    Trump is a populist. Hostility to elites is at the heart of his popularity. (I know that he is a billionaire. Politics is like that.) He will wear the opposition of the New Republic magazine as a badge of honour and will point out that the magazine is in a mess; it is a bit like our own Herald.

    The real worry is that Trump proves a vote winner with disillusioned working class Democrats, as UKIP damaged Labour in the 2015 general election.

    Martin Wolf has a good article on the failure of elites, both left and right, in the Irish Times of January 27th.

  9. Craig McKechnie says:

    Where were you a.holes when that prick was destroying a part of Scotland Cheap words like so much of BC. I wish it was different. But as a fully functioning contemporary artist I have to leave. And with me I take rather a lot more people than you think.
    Craig McKechnie. Artist. Director. DELTA Studios. The Creative Centre.

    Unlike ALL other supposed arts related ventures or centres or galleries in Scotland we have never begged money from any source. I. Now we. Believe that art in all its forms belongs to all of our peoples. We have watched for years now how all of these short term projects die quite quickly.

    Not fukkin here. We believe in the individual the family and community. In a sense we believe that a community is beautiful and that a we as a whole should as a starting point care most for our elderly and most vulnerable.
    This is what we try through art which is part of all of our primal rights.
    Right now we are disengaged.

    WORDS ARE CHEAP. important words cost nothing

    So bye. I am sure you are all nice people.
    I AM NOT
    cm

    1. Hi Craig, we’ve published countless pieces against Trump over the years. See some here: https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/tag/donald-trump/

      Not sure what you are getting at?

  10. Craig McKechnie says:

    Thanks for replying

    I am afraid that I had hoped that BC would be a voice for people People who are ignored by the so called culturaists. Bellacaledoniasts. As an artist I have to tell you it disnay fukkin work where I come from and live now. So. Thank you For fourteen years now since I left Glasgow an average attendance at a delta creative centre over two days is about 1500 peeps recorded so you cant stick bc and cs and all your collectives where your sun shines. I did have hopes

    Scotlands real future lives in a place you don’t know about.

    Craig McKechnie. Please don’t reply to this

    1. Illy says:

      Meh, BC has turned into an echochamber for RISE.

      Anything against the party line gets shot down.

      And RISE don’t have a hope in hell.

      @Craig: I’d just stop bothering reading here, I only came by looking for some comedy.

  11. Peter Clive says:

    Trump’s success is not shocking, it’s inevitable:

    http://moflomojo.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-tin-drumpf.html

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