politico.com Donald Trump’s Wednesday attack on Hillary Clinton was, for many Republicans, exactly what they’d been waiting for: a disciplined, scripted attack on what the GOP contends is a deeply flawed Democratic candidate.
But with Trump, it’s never quite that simple: Even as some Republicans praised his anti-Clinton jeremiad, others ripped their party’s presumptive nominee for pushing a policy agenda that, at points, strayed far from the party line.
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“There was a lot to like. He did an effective job of connecting Hillary Clinton to the Washington cartel that is the insiders game and effectively connected her to her record ... He effectively gave the voters a choice between more of the same, anemic job growth versus a new vision,†said Rick Tyler, the former communications director for Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign.
But in his assessment of Trump’s economic proposals, Tyler was more muted: “I don't think he’s ideologically steeped in how economies work,†he said of Trump.
Others couldn’t get past Trump’s attacks on international trade deals, which have often enjoyed Republican support over the objections of Democrats.
“This is a populist speech. It speaks for a faction of the Republican Party but it certainly does not speak for most people who have considered themselves economic conservatives,†said Eli Lehrer, president of the free-market R Street Institute think tank and former speechwriter for former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, noting Trump’s broadside against the North American Free Trade Agreement. “NAFTA and free trade agreements like it are key to the open and competitive economy that conservatives have traditionally favored.â€
The rift between Trump and conservatives is nothing new. Throughout the primary, Trump turned his heterodox views into an asset, painting himself as a fighter for the American worker who was the lone candidate capable of taking power away from the elites and restoring prosperity to a working class in decline. But that message has gotten lost of late amid Trump’s attacks on a federal judge and his harsh comments about Muslims.
On Wednesday, Trump was much more disciplined, making an explicit appeal to Bernie Sanders’ supporters and lifting the Vermont senator’s language on a “rigged†economy and framing of a struggle between “large corporations†and struggling American workers.
It’s a delicate dance for Trump as he works to expand his support past the base that propelled him to the top of the GOP field but still leaves him trailing Clinton in national polls. Traditionally, the onset of general election has seen candidates work to win over moderates, but Trump seemed to be aiming Wednesday’s speech at the “radical center†— downscale white voters who generally don’t fit on the traditional political spectrum.
If so, his conservative critics said, it was unlikely that Trump’s message would win over new supporters.
“I can’t see this speech getting anybody who doesn’t support Trump already to support him and a handful of people who might think that he’s going to temper some of this economic populism will probably be sorely disappointed,†said Lehrer.
Still, Trump and the GOP remain in lockstep in one area: their disapproval of Clinton, both in her personal dealings and her policy record.
“It’s a good start because it walks through both the failures that Hillary had and where he wants to go,†said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “What people need to see and hear is the focus he had in the primaries which was so effective: jobs: jobs, jobs.â€
And Rush Limbaugh, for one, was delighted by the tack Trump took in ripping Clinton, saying he would traffic in territory that other Republicans wouldn’t.
Indeed, many of Trump’s attacks were either unsourced or were at odds with publicly available information — his assertion, for instance, that Clinton is backed financially by “Communist China†— but Limbaugh saw that as Trump being willing to take off the gloves in a way that a more genteel class of politician wouldn’t.
“So Trump basically said things about Hillary Clinton that you just don't hear Republicans saying … But you just do not hear Mitt Romney say this, for example. You wouldn't hear the Bush family talk this way about Hillary,†Limbaugh said. “You wouldn't hear fellow establishment types talk about this, 'cause it's too close to home for all of them. But Trump can say this stuff as an outsider.â€
Following Trump's speech, Tucker Carlson, editor in chief of conservative website The Daily Caller, captured conservatives' ongoing ambivalence over their party's presumptive nominee: "Like everything with Trump, it was both exhilarating to hear someone tell the truth but very frustrating to hear someone articulate it badly or muddy it with irrelevancies."
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