Taking Trump Down

My modest proposal for a Republican candidate in a death spiral. 

Hit Trump hard.   

Don't do it by whining about his tactics.  Instead use Trump tactics.  Do a "Trump" on him.  And copy the Swift Boat people.

The Swift Boat people back in 2004 criticized John Kerry at his point of strength, for having medals for courage and 3 Purple Heart medals.   They called him a coward and fraud, on behalf of a campaign for George Bush who sat out the Vietnam War in Texas and Alabama.     And it worked! The strategy was brilliant: complicate and confuse the public on the point of Kerry's greatest strength.   Where there is smoke there must be fire, so maybe Kerry wasn't a hero.   

The Trump formula is to attack and belittle: mock and demean.  Make it personal and insulting.   Carly is ugly and lousy at business!  Rosie O'Donnell is fat! ! Jeb is weak!  Christie hugged Obama!  Rubio sweats like a little boy!  Big questions on Cruz's nationality!

People generally like seeing a bully get his comeuppance.   I say this not as a data-driven scientist or a psychologist.   I cite the evidence of someone who watches TV.  Every single Columbo episode involves the comeuppance of a self-satisfied big shot attempting to get away with murder.  Think about your favorite shows.   Does the plot narrative involve the powerful bully winning again and again?  No.  It is about the worthy person bringing the bully to justice.   We don't get tired of that plot line.  

The tortoise beats the hare.   David beats Goliath.   Imagine yourself a screenwriter making a movie out of Goliath coming out onto the field, killing David quickly, then going back to lunch, same ol' same ol'.   It might be the commonplace outcome between the strong and the weak but it wouldn't be a story.

Someone should call him a LOSER

Time for someone to do a "Trump" on Trump.

Argue:   "Trump is low average smart.  He is an affirmative action admission to Wharton, where he was mediocre.  He had crap grades in high school and at Fordham.  He was mediocre at Wharton.   He got in because his father was filthy rich and his brother's best friend was on the Wharton admission committee!   Trump is a fraud, the Bernie Maddow of politics.  Stupid."

What is true??   1.  Trump admits he was a mediocre student, Wharton records do NOT show him graduating with any honors whatsoever.   2.  Trump was at Wharton only two years, having transferred from Fordham.   3.  Trump will not release his own school records, even though he demands that Obama do so.  What is he hiding???

Argue:    "Trump is a hypocrite.  He stands on the backs of working people holding them down.  He faked his 'bone spur' to get a medical exemption so some other kid would serve in his place.   He got into Wharton using rich-boy pull instead of some actually smart person getting that place.  He actually likes poor Mexicans coming to America in the "great big door" so they can work at low minimum wages at his golf courses, at the expense of American workers!  He opposes raising the minimum wage.  He exploits working people!"

What is true??  He did in fact get a high draft number but not until he stayed out of the draft with supposed heel bone spurs that he now cannot remember which foot it was in.  He got into Wharton because of friendly pull. Some draftee served in his place.  He took the place of someone else at Wharton.  He opposes a higher minimum wage and brags that he employs Mexicans, thus competing with real American workers taking their jobs and holding down their wages.   

Argue:   "Trump isn't successful.  He is a business loser!   He was born on home plate and thinks he made money!   If Trump had just invested the money he inherited in the SP500 index and sat back and did nothing at all he would be way, way richer than he is today.   No bankruptcies, no endless bragging.   He did  worse than if he had just bought an index fund--to say nothing of how he would have done if he actually had known something and bought Apple or just let Warren Buffet invest his money.  Trump destroyed capital rather than created it.   He is a loser.  Any Financial Advisor whose clients only did as well as Trump would have been run out of the business!"

What is true??  Trump was on the Forbes 400 list in 1982, with net worth of "over $200 million."  Trump said he was worth $500 million.   An index fund of the SP500 would have grown 40 times in that period, to about $20 billion dollars, TWICE what Trump says he is worth today.

The Trump formula is to attack and belittle.  Trump is vulnerable, and can be made to argue that--no, I really am smart, I really didn't take advantage of working people, a actually am good at business.   It puts the "where there's smoke there's fire" question onto Trump.   Maybe he isn't all that smart--and he hides the evidence that would show he is.   Maybe he has getting ahead thanks to privilege not merit.   And maybe he isn't a good businessman--just a stuck up rich boy.

Bernie Sanders has an opportunity here, if he will take it

Recommendations for who should make this argument:    Republican candidates with nothing to lose.   A Super Pac of any Republican candidate.   

Bernie Sanders could do it.   If Bernie takes on and takes down Trump, he will elevate to a "giant killer".   This totally repositions Sanders, a strong hero, tough enough to take on Putin and ISIS.  He would have done what Hillary couldn't do, what the Bush family couldn't do, what the combined media couldn't do, what no Republican could do. 

Or, any Super Pac associated with the Democratic Party could do it.  But in that case they should wait until Trump wins the nomination and THEN do it.   Colombo doesn't arrest the rich villain until the time is ripe.