TRUMP APOSTASIES

“[Donald] Trump has committed many apostasies, such as his increasingly aggressive condemnation of the Iraq War. (In the February 13 [2016] debate, he went so far as to accuse George W. Bush of intentionally lying about Iraq’s alleged weapons. This diverges sharply from the standard Republican line that it’s simply a pity that the intelligence was so wrong.) Trump’s record of statements and positions, which include past support for national health care, abortion rights, and the Clintons, would have been enough to bury most candidates. But for the base of the party he has popular views on Latino and Muslim immigrants, whom he wants respectively to deport and keep out of the country altogether. All else, up through the first three contests at least, two of which he won commandingly, can be forgiven. Or indeed admired. How many of those shocked by his coarseness were among the millions who followed his Apprentice reality show when his bullying manner was already popular?”

Michael Tomasky, “The Dangerous Election,” in the New York Review, March 24, 2016, pp: 4-6.