Taking out the hatchets on GOP presidential candidate billionaire real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump, Republicans violated former President Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment, “Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican.” Calling Mexican illegal immigrants “drug dealers and rapists” June 30, Trump prompted instant denunciations from the lion’s share of 16 declared GOP candidates. GOP’s Wyoming-based donor Foster Freiss pleaded with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus to invoke Reagan’s rule, not to attack fellow Republicans. Chicago Cubs’ owner Todd Ricketts echoed Freiss’s call for Republican candidates to show more civility, especially about GOP colleagues. “Would you join the effort to inspire a more civil way of making their points?” asked Freiss, joining Las Vegas Party boss Sheldon Adelson calling for restraint.
Trump’s comments come at a time when most political experts believe that the GOP must appeal to the nation’s Latinos, whether from Mexico, Cuba or some other Latin American country. Ripping Mexicans isn’t the kind of PR the GOP wanted heading into the 2016 presidential campaign. With an overly crowded field now at 16 announced candidates, the GOP garners a lot of publicity. Trump’s comments make the arguments for Democrats: That minorities can’t trust the GOP. Republicans can’t take more of Trump’s insults. Hitting below the belt, Trump attacked former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s Mexican wife, insisting he “has to like Mexican illegals because of his wife,” Columba, who was born in Mexico. Pulling the strings behind the scenes, Republican Party bosses can’t control what happens on the playing field, when candidates must call the shots.
Supplying cash for ads, donors can’t tell candidates what to say or not to say on the stump. If Trump’s colleagues followed Regan’s rule they’d take reticence as supporting Trump’s offensive remarks. Without GOP candidates publicly denouncing Trump’s xenophobic remarks, the Party would sink under its anti-immigrant weight, like it did in 2008 and 2012. Some GOP donors, like John Jordan, said he would not back debates that included Trump, regardless of how high he was polling. “Someone in the Party ought to start some sort of petition, saying ‘if Trump’s going to be on the stage, I’m not to be there with him,’” said Jordan, not realizing that Trump also generates a lot of buzz for the party. Dismissing Trump as a “carnival barker” doesn’t admit that he brings attention to the GOP, where little exists. Whether he’s off-the-wall or not, Trump keeps politically disinterested folks tuned in.
Party donors have their place behind the scenes but shouldn’t opine about who’s in or who’s out. If they don’t like a particular candidate, they should speak with their checkbook, not making public remarks about what candidates should do or not do. Recent press reports about Trump’s real estate company employing illegal immigrants speaks volumes about what Trump really thinks. Pandering to the anti-illegal-immigrant crowd, Trump hopes to burnish his conservative credentials. When House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared immigration reform dead for 2015, it became grist-for-the-mill for GOP candidates, especially knowing that nothing could get done. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet The Press” July 5, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) refused to take part in GOP attacks on Trump’s anti-Mexican attacks.
Given the sheer number of GOP candidates, it’s difficult to keep everyone on the same page, let alone avoid controversy. Trump’s anti-Mexican remarks stirred a backlash among GOP candidates not because they condemn his remarks so strongly but precisely because they can put a dent in his rising poll numbers. Whether you like him or not, Trumps gets a higher media profile than any other GOP candidate. Followed around relentlessly by the paparazzi, Trump can’t sneeze without it getting reported. “I find it ironic, right, that Ted Cruz is giving lectures on Republican-on-Republican violence,” said New Jersey Gov. Christ Christie who declared his candidacy June 30. Christie ripped Cruz for savaging Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) in the 2014 primaries. Whether or not anyone can discourage political attacks on GOP candidates is anyone’s guess, especially in the Party.
Adhering to Reagan’s 11th Commandment won’t be easy for a crowded GOP presidential field. Without publicly denouncing Trump’s anti-Mexican remarks, Republican presidential hopefuls would be lumped in with all the Party’s bigots, including those fighting to keep the Confederate Flag flying in the Deep South. “Ninety-nine percent of leading donors saw the candidates carve each other up in the 2012 primaries and come out weaker for it and are determined not to let that happen again,” said Fred Malek, a long-time GOP donor. Whether admitted to or not, Republicans lost in 2012 not because candidates swiped at each other in the primaries. They lost the race because of a booming stock market and improving economy. Attributing losses to the wrong things only makes success this time around more difficult. Violating Reagan’s Commandment had nothing to do with it.
