A new Trump low in a campaign that has spiralled downhill from day one to ever newer depths. He never ceases to bewilder. This time a suggestion that gun owners could solve the problem that is Hillary Clinton.
The same Donald Trump boasted at one point after another outrageous statement that even murder would not drive his supporters away. "Obviously it was a joke," he insisted later. But, as much of America is now asking, does he actually believe it? Is this assumption in fact the operating principle of his campaign? Is there nothing his supporters and the Republican Party will not wear? A new poll from Reuters/Ipsos – taken before the latest clanger – suggests that one-fifth of registered Republicans want Donald Trump to drop out of the race for the White House. Only one fifth? Though there are signs of a sharp decline in his support among Republican women.
On Tuesday at a rally in North Carolina, Trump again falsely claimed that “Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment [which upholds the right to bear arms]”. Then he added: “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know”. He has claimed that this is being misinterpreted by a hostile press – his meaning, his campaign insists, is that the “Second Amendment people” can vote to ensure Clinton is not elected.
But his intentions are almost immaterial. As former CIA director Michael Hayden put it on CNN: “You’re not just responsible for what you say. You are responsible for what people hear”. And out there in hurting, alienated redneck America there only needs to be one lone wolf would-be killer with an AK47 who will read those words as most normal readers will read them, as an invitation to kill. As validation from the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
Trump should not be given the benefit of the doubt. At his rallies , unchecked by the candidate, supporters have chanted like a lynch mob “kill her”, “lock her up”. Trump has “jokingly” urged supporters to punch protesters. One convention delegate, unrepudiated, suggested Clinton should be put before a firing squad for treason. Trump has thrived in and encouraged this feverish descent of populist politics into hate politics, violence never far from the surface.
At best his remarks were an unintended, grotesque manifestation of the candidate’s verbal diarrhoea. Much of the time, as he rambles on poisonously, a petty and vindictive narcissist concerned only with his image, it is clear Trump has little idea what he is saying and no concern about its consequences. In truth he is unable to control himself.
The possibility of his election is a terrifying prospect. When will the decent Republican majority decide that enough is enough?