Republican frontrunner’s insurgent candidacy threatens to scramble the Republican coalition
Republican frontrunner’s insurgent candidacy threatens to scramble the Republican coalition
Even in boycotting a debate with his Republican rivals, frontrunner Donald Trump managed to upstage the event on Thursday with a typical dramatic flourish. Instead of attending a seventh debate, the former reality TV star held a competing event across town that he said raised $6 million for US military veterans. In doing so, he cast a shadow over his rivals, who frequently tossed barbs his way.
Mr Trump’s gamble that he could leave the battlefield to his rivals for one night appeared to pay off, with just days to go before Iowa holds the first nominating contest of the 2016 electi-on season. No one app-eared to emerge as a central challenger to him during the two-hour face-off in Des Moines.
Mr Trump’s refusal to participate in the debate out of anger that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was a moderator prompted a flurry of last-minute phone calls with channel chairman that failed to resolve their dispute. The deb-ate was the type of eve-nt Republicans would routinely have without the Mr Trump on stage, and it lacked the electricity that he brings to the party’s search for a nominee for the November 8 election.
Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, the two top challengers to Mr Trump in Iowa, enga-ged in squabbles over immigration and natio-nal security and did not appear to threaten Mr Trump’s lead. He holds the edge over Mr Cruz in polls of Iowa Republicans. Mr Trump’s riv-als mocked his decision to sit out the debate and found ways to criticise him.
With his veterans’ eve-nt drawing live TV ne-ws coverage on Fox News competitors, Mr Trump absorbed plenty of media attention. He clung to his insistence that Fox News had treated him badly. He has complained that Ms Kelly insulted him at a debate in August and that a statement from the network earlier this week had belittled him.
Meanwhile, Mr Trum-p’s insurgent candidacy has carved new fissures into the party, splitting conservative talk-radio hosts, religious leaders, and Washington pundits, with some sounding the alarm while others implore the party to respond to the anger toward Republican inc-umbents among voters who are fuelling Mr Trump’s rise. The tyco-on has mounted his campaign on the notion of the fading American working-class, arguing they are under threat by both free trade deals favoured by Republica-ns that encourage companies to send jobs overseas and by waves of illegal immigrants that work for low wages.
