KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL wrote in the WSJ:
The Donald’s rivals have given him a pass on his greatest vulnerabilities.
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There’s an old saying that “to catch a fish, you need to think like a fish.” And there’s a modern translation of that for today’s GOP: To beat a Donald, you need to think like a Trump voter.
We don’t know if Mr. Trump is unstoppable, because nobody has actually gone after him. To the extent his Republican rivals have nipped at his heels, they’ve done it in obvious, conventional ways. They’ve argued he’s not a real conservative. They’ve pointed to his lack of policies. They’ve worried about his temperament and electability. Those arguments probably do resonate with the 50% or 60% of the primary electorate who—obviously and conventionally—care about principles, and winning.
Donald and Melania Trump in Palm Beach, Fla., Feb. 28, 2015. PHOTO: CAPEHART/GETTY IMAGES
But those arguments don’t speak to Trump supporters. The Nevada entrance polls show the billionaire won voters who are angry with the federal government, who want an “outsider” in the office and who want “change.” They don’t care about policies. They want someone to “stick it to the man.”
And therein lies Mr. Trump’s vulnerability. Because, you see, Donald Trump is the man. An outsider to the elite society that Washington inhabits? An avenging angel of a faltering working class? Laugh. Out. Loud. This is the man who was born to a silver spoon, who self-selected a life strictly in the company of the rich and powerful, and who built a fortune by using his connections and sticking it to the little guy.
Of all the Republicans on the stage, he is the only insider. Ted Cruz is not to be seen regularly in the company of hotel and casino magnates, movie producers, celebrity athletes and others with privileged access to Washington brokers. Marco Rubio did not have Bill and Hillary Clinton at his wedding. John Kasich would have to beg for an audience with people who jump to return Mr. Trump’s calls.
It was amusing in the CBS debate on Feb. 13 to hear the titan complain that the audience was stacked with “special interest” donors. He’d know. He likely recognized them from lunches at his golf clubs. This is a guy so disconnected from and uninterested in the average American that he refers to his voters in generic stereotypes. “I love the poorly educated,” he gushed after the Nevada caucuses. You can almost picture him, like Felonius Gru in “Despicable Me,” surveying his crowds of identical Minions. Though at least Gru knew that one is named Kevin.
Nor is Mr. Trump outside of, or even slightly opposed to, Washington business as usual. It’s how he does business. Americans are angry at Beltway back-scratching, logrolling and backroom agreements. This is the art of the deal. In explaining his $100,000 contribution to the Clinton Foundation, Mr. Trump bragged: “When they call, I give. And you know what, when I need something from them . . . I call them. They are there for me.”
Where are the ads playing that tape? Where are the ads questioning whether a President Trump would turn down that buddy who asked to keep his federal Nascar-track-owner tax break? Or asking what he’d barter away in an ObamaCare “reform” deal? Mr. Trump will get stuff “done” in Washington, all right. He’d put today’s backroom Beltway culture on steroids.
And all the angry little people won’t be Mr. Trump’s concern. They never have been. His rivals have made much of the billionaire’s attempt to use eminent domain to build a limousine lot—knocking him on property rights. But the better version of the tale is of how the billionaire used city officials to condemn the house of an average American, further underwriting his casino business.
This is a repeating theme. Mr. Trump likes to claim it was only “killer” lenders who lost their shirts in his Atlantic City casino bankruptcies. But state lawmakers have claimed that local, small- and medium-size business owners also got stiffed and hundreds more lost their day jobs. Mr. Trump by contrast sucked out his money and boasted about his “great timing” in ditching the investment.
Or how about the thousands of average folk who poured their savings into Trump University, to attend what some participants, who are now suing, describe as sham real-estate seminars. (A Trump attorney has insisted “no one was defrauded.”) The Atlantic in 2014 reported on a 41-page “playbook” for Trump University, which directed school staffers to “Set the hook” and convince attendees to sign up for additional courses, like the “Trump Gold Elite” package at $34,995.
You can bet all this is directly related to Mr. Trump’s unwillingness to release his tax returns. The billionaire likes to suggest that release will be about proving he has lots of money. More interesting will be how he made and kept it. How many exclusive tax breaks and shelters and write-offs are nestled within? How many get-rich schemes? Who lost so that Mr. Trump could be a winner?
In the rural America in which I grew up, conservatives like to apply a basic candidate test: Would I want to have a beer with that dude? (Barack Obama: No. Harry Reid: Ew. Hillary Clinton: Please.) Right now, a lot are thinking they’d enjoy knocking back a brewski with someone as colorful as Mr. Trump. What they seem not to have realized is this: Mr. Trump would never, ever have a beer with them. He’s never been interested in people who can’t help him—99% of America. And Coors Light doesn’t come in gold cans.
Mr. Trump’s rivals have the means to slow him. But they’ll first have to remember just who the voters are that they are talking to.
Write to kim@wsj.com.
