It all started, as most things do where Trump is concerned, with an unhinged twitter rant Saturday morning. In it, Trump abandoned his cowardly (but politically wise) tack of saying that he believes Cruz is eligible, it’s just that the evil Democrats are likely to make trouble for Cruz over it. He flat out started calling Cruz a “Natural Born Canadian” and furthermore peddling bizarre (and nonsensical) conspiracy theories about Cruz:
Based on the fact that Ted Cruz was born in Canada and is therefore a "natural born Canadian," did he borrow unreported loans from C banks?
From there, Trump went to a rally in Myrtle Beach, SC, where he continued this line of attack and was booed by his own supporters:
Things went downhill from there as Trump made the rounds of the Sunday shows. On ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopolous, he made the bizarre claim that he’s “always known” Ted Cruz was a nasty guy, even though he’s had (by his own admission) a public “bromance” with Cruz for seven months.
Stephanopolous: On this issue of New York Values, he lumped you in yesterday with Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, Bill de Blasio and said he apologizes to the millions of New Yorkers who have been let down by liberal politicians.
Trump: Look, the truth is that he’s a nasty guy, he was so nice to me, I mean, I knew it, I was watching, I kept saying, “Come on, Ted, Let’s go, Ted,” but he’s a nasty guy, nobody likes him, nobody in Congress likes him, nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him, a very, um, he’s got an edge that’s not good, you can’t make deals with people like that. And it’s not a good thing, it’s not a good thing for the country. Very nasty guy.
This particular rant was especially bizarre for two reasons. First, it was a transparent example of the “Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia” historical revisionism favored by totalitarians. Second, it relied for its factual support almost exclusively on the fact that “nobody in Congress likes him.” For a guy who started his campaign by running against the Republican leadership as being “very stupid,” Trump has now exposed himself as being coopted by the very establishment he once railed against.
I don't know about co-opted. Basically Trump will say anything and use anyone to make his argument and this is just on of many examples of his inconsistency.
(I have no idea what he's talking about with the Oceania Eurasia reference in this passage.)
Not for nothing, but another piece of potentially bad news for Trump this weekend is that news of a meeting between the Trump camp and the GOP donor class that Trump spent two solid months criticizing leaked to the media.
The coup de grâce, however, was Trump’s appearance with Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Nation. As my colleague streiff noted, this was the third time Trump was asked whether he has ever asked God for forgiveness, because his the previous two times he has answered this question, he gave answers that were almost too bizarre to be believed.
This time, not only did he repeat the fact that he’s never even felt it necessary to ask God for forgiveness, but he seemed to bizarrely claim that his poll numbers validate this approach:
It is a beaut:
TAPPER: Do you regret making that remark (about not asking God for forgiveness)?
TRUMP: No. I have a great relationship with God. I have a great relationship with the Evangelicals. In fact, nationwide, I’m up by a lot, I’m leading everybody. But I like to be good. I don’t like to have to ask for forgiveness. And I am good. I don’t do a lot of things that are bad. I try to do nothing that is bad. I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think. And I have…
TAPPER: Always? Or just now?
TRUMP: …a very great relationship with God and I have a very great relationship with Evangelicals. I think that’s why I’m doing so well with Iowa.
TAPPER: The life you have now, when you say you try to do good, that sounds very different from decades of tabloid, media coverage, in New York, in which some of your wilder escapades were…
TRUMP: I’m talking about over the last number of years. I’m leading a very good life. I try to lead a good life. And I have. And, frankly, the reason I’m doing so well in Iowa, and leading the polls, including the CNN poll where I’m 33 to 20 in Iowa….
He goes on to say that Trump's megalomania has become alarming. You don't say ...
Also this:
Trump: The legal scholars that say, as an example, that Cruz has a real problem with his place of birth, and there are many people that are saying that right now. And in fact, since I spoke to you the last time, he’s been sued. And I told you he would get sued.
Stephanopolous: But, you know, the person who sued him probably does not have standing [crosstalk]
Stephanopolous: You have standing, why don’t you file a suit?
Trump: That’s an interesting case… well, that sounds like a very good case. I’d do the public a big favor.
Stephanopolous: So are you going to do it?
Trump: You know, so interesting with Ted, he was so nice to me, and I kept saying, he’s not a nice guy, you know… so I said, when is it going to happen? So it happened during the debate, because he lied about the polls, in fact, I was going up [incomprehensible gibberish]… let me just say, I don’t think he’s going to do very well.
Stephanopolous: … You should put your money where your mouth is, if you really believe in this, you should file the suit.
Trump: Well, it’s a good idea, maybe I’ll talk to them about it, I’d like to talk to Ted about that, see how he’d feel about that, because you know, when I file suits, I file REAL suits.
I have thought the GOP establishment would reconcile themselves to Cruz simply because I thought, apparently erroneously, that they had not also lost their minds. They have. They apparently believe they can "control" Trump because he doesn't know what he's doing and he'll need Paul Ryan and the boys to hold his hand. Cruz, has a serious agenda and they do not like him.
“If you look at Trump’s actual policies, they’re pretty thin. There’s not a lot of meat there,” says one Republican member in Ryan’s inner circle, who requested anonymity to speak frankly about the two front-runners as leadership has carefully avoided doing all week. If Trump were to get the nomination, he would “be looking to answer the question: ‘Where’s the beef?’ And we will have that for him,” says the member.
