Abbreviated pundit roundup: GOP divided on how to deal with Trump
It has dawned on the Republican presidential field that Donald Trump’s inevitable self-destruction might be, gulp, evitable. Waiting for the unlikely front-runner to beat himself is starting to look like a plan, as Trump might put it, for total losers.Robert Costa and Philip Rucker at The Washington Post:So the other candidates are trying various strategies to seize the initiative. Thus far, nothing seems to work.
The worst idea is to try to out-Trump Trump. This is the approach Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — who may be suffering the most from the Trump surge — is trying to take.
Though flummoxed by Trump’s staying power and aghast at the coarse tone he has brought to the race, party elites said they have no plan to take him down. Donors feel powerless. Republican officials have little leverage. Candidates are skittish. Super PAC operatives say attack ads against him could backfire. And everyone agrees that the Trump factor in this chaotic multi-candidate field is so unpredictable that any move carries dangerous risks.The non-Trump candidates are falling into three categories: Those who are emulating and befriending him in an effort to win over his supporters; those who are assailing his background or calling him out for his views and rhetoric; and those who prefer to stay silent, as if hunkering down in the basement to ride out the tornado.