Trump Blows It in Wisconsin

W. James Antle III

Domestic Politics, United States

Donald Trump is playing into the hands of those who never want the GOP to unite behind him, even if he is the nominee.

Wisconsin may or may not be the “turning point” Ted Cruz predicted after his comfortable win Tuesday night.

After all, the Texas senator has a steep climb to even be competitive with Donald Trump in New York less than two weeks from now. Despite public protestations to the contrary, Cruz is still playing for a contested convention and keeping Trump from hitting 1,237 delegates.

But make no mistake: Trump blew it.

When Marco Rubio dropped out of the race, Cruz came within a John Kasich of finally having what he wanted: a one-on-one fight with the brash, unconventional billionaire who has rocked the Republican presidential race while taking a series of heterodox policy positions.

Yet Trump had what he should have wanted too: he was within a Kasich of a one-on-one race with the only candidate the Republican establishment hated more than him.

In December, the buzz was that a lot of potential anti-Trump money was sitting on the sidelines, refusing to bankroll ads as long as Cruz was the primary beneficiary rather than Rubio, Jeb Bush or Chris Christie.

By January, you had grand old men of the Republican Party ranging from Bob Dole to Orrin Hatch favorably comparing Trump to Cruz, especially as concerned electoral prospects. This was right as Cruz was poised to defeat Trump in the Iowa caucuses.

When the field winnowed to the point where only Trump or Cruz could win the nomination through the primary process, as opposed to a contested convention, the reality TV star should have demonstrated he could be presidential. He should have reassured a Republican establishment looking to rationalize its continued opposition to Cruz (even now, as the party is supposedly rallying around the Texas senator, he has only two endorsements from his Senate colleagues, one of which was as backhanded as any in recent memory).

This was an opportunity for Trump. Instead he has behaved as if he was trying to prove his quip that he could shoot people on Fifth Avenue without losing votes.

The candidate’s attacks on Heidi Cruz, his main opponent’s wife, were bizarre. So was his team’s refusal to apologize to former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, the woman at the center of the simple battery charge against Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.