A.B. Stoddard: Donald Trump’s wild ride

The Donald’s Campaign Cyclone is the new roller coaster of summer 2015 — and though they never bought tickets, the 15 other Republican presidential contenders are strapped onto the ride with no idea how long it will last. 

As they fly around upside-down and backward, Donald Trump is on the ground like a cackling carnival worker operating the machine and topping the polls — so any whining or vomiting will just earn the unwitting candidates a longer ride.

{mosads}On Monday, Sen. Lindsey Graham called Trump a “jackass,” a mild response to his 2016 opponent’s dismissal of Graham’s close friend Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam POW, as a true war hero. The next day, at Trump’s appearance in Graham’s home state of South Carolina, the reality TV personality and business mogul described Graham as an “idiot” and “a lightweight,” and gave out his cellphone number to the audience. He said he did it “for fun,” but warned, “You have to fight back.”

Even those riding The Donald’s Campaign Cyclone who are managing to avoid a row with Trump find they become lost in the blur of centrifugal force. 

All election coverage is dominated by what he said or might say: On Tuesday, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer conducted a lengthy live phone interview with a top Trump staffer for a post-mortem on his boss’s barrage against Graham. Ohio Gov. John Kasich hoped his announcement speech — just before the Trump campaign appearance — would lead the news coverage for the rest of the day. It didn’t. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul had similar hopes of cable news replaying his mutilation of the tax code (70,000 pages subjected to flame, a wood chipper and a chain saw) but found instead the media was focused on his low-polling detractor, Graham, who was happily taking calls from the press and the public at his now-famous phone number.

Trying to stand out against Trump or even other candidates now seems fruitless. The first Republican primary debate, which Fox News Channel is hosting in Cleveland just two weeks from now, has morphed from an opportunity to a potentially damaging trap. After all, Trump attacks without provocation (just ask Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio) and then pummels anyone who talks back. The question now dominating strategy sessions designed solely around Trump’s presence there is, take the bait or take the hit?

Candidates also must look past the debate. Republican voters favor Trump, at least now, because he is “a fighter” who “tells it like it is.” That means they are supporting someone who has described himself in the past as pro-choice, donated money to likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, endorsed a public option for healthcare, insulted a POW, and who bullies, name-calls and relishes retaliation. In short, Trump is someone who is not presidential, not conservative and not viable.

Bush, the former Florida governor who is the current GOP front-runner behind Trump in the polls, must realize that while conservatives indeed beat up on his father and brother when they served as president, this is no longer even their Republican Party. Indeed, it is more divided than the GOP that reluctantly nominated Mitt Romney in 2012 only after putting him through the wood chipper. 

And to compare Trump to Herman Cain or former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) in their failed bids for the White House is to ignore that Trump can and might run as a third-party candidate, which he has admitted would help elect Clinton. He says he doesn’t plan to, but if Bush and Clinton face each other in the general election, what does Trump have to lose by providing another option to those millions of Americans frustrated by political dynasties? After all, it’s hard to imagine Trump endorsing any of the GOP candidates who can get nominated. 

It’s going to be a long ride, and only Trump can press the stop button. 

Stoddard is an associate editor of The Hill.