Stoddard: Can Trump close the deal with the GOP?

Donald Trump has made history with a remarkable, unprecedented accomplishment — he’s defeated 16 rival candidates, including numerous governors and senators, without any political experience, and he’s spent less than half of what Jeb Bush spent and a third of what Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders invested to reach the finish line first.

To win the White House, however, Trump’s next accomplishment will have to be far more remarkable and unprecedented. The GOP presumptive nominee begins the general election campaign as a way-underdog, with a projected 191 electoral votes to 347 for Clinton. His highest disapproval numbers have registered with Latinos, women, African-Americans and young voters, worse than any nominee of either party recorded in polling.

{mosads}After bashing Republican leaders as dishonest bosses who rigged the system, Trump’s victory was met by some with begrudging respect and resignation, and a widespread acknowledgment that the billionaire businessman understood Republican voters far better in 2016 than their party leaders did. Consultants and those whose financial livelihoods depend on their professional connections to the party were quick to come around. But there was also an audible stampede away from the presumptive nominee.

Republican Sens. Ben Sasse (Neb.), Dean Heller (Nev.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) said outright they wouldn’t support him, while other elected Republicans equivocated in extreme discomfort. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday said he is “not ready” to support Trump yet. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, up for reelection in New Hampshire, said she would “support” Trump but wasn’t endorsing him, whatever that means. Rep. Pete King (N.Y.) told The New York Times he would support Trump but called him “a guy with no knowledge of what’s going on.”

Republicans from Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate, to conservative Rep. Steve King (Iowa) declared Trump would need to stop insulting people. Both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush let it be known immediately the real estate mogul wouldn’t be getting their endorsements.

Within 24 hours of clinching the Republican nomination, and pledging to unite the GOP, Trump made sure to outrage Republicans — three times.

First, though Ted Cruz wasn’t likely to win Indiana’s primary and foreclose a contested convention Tuesday night, Trump attacked Cruz’s father, citing a National Enquirer story that suggested Rafael Cruz was someone involved, with Lee Harvey Oswald, in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The next day he lied, saying “no one denied it,” which earned him two Pinocchio’s from The Washington Post Fact Checker. Cruz himself had disavowed the story that contained no evidence, merely a photo of someone resembling Rafael Cruz near Oswald. The third strike was Trump’s admission he could flip-flip and now support raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour after opposing it in the primary. 

Conservatives who have proclaimed #NeverTrump aren’t going to come around, they say. To them Trump is a Democrat who happens to be an immigration hardliner: he won’t touch entitlement reform, he is anti-trade and anti-interventionist, he loves eminent domain and the ObamaCare mandate, wants the government to provide subsidized coverage for those who can’t afford it, and defends Planned Parenthood. Add a minimum wage increase perhaps.

The most conflicted Republicans are lawmakers campaigning in swing seats. The Senate map, for Republicans, has gone from fragile to nearly doomed. Both Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) have said in public and private that Trump’s nomination is likely to imperil their reelection.

Yet it’s not at all hard to imagine Trump winning. After all, he is a salesman who has proven he can close the deal. And Republicans are stuck with him. One veteran of two GOP administrations described his resignation this way: “We’re going to lose the Senate either way, if he wins or she wins, so we may as well embrace him.”

Stoddard is an associate editor of The Hill.