Donald J Trump Rhetoric

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Donald J. Trump, whose presidential campaign has doused the Republican Party with the verbal equivalent of napalm, has escalated his rhetoric to new levels of intensity before the crucial South Carolina primary this week. It is a vote that, if he wins, could erode the prospects of Republican leaders’ stopping his candidacy.
During the Republican debate in South Carolina over the weekend, Mr. Trump condemned former President George W. Bush in acid terms, saying his administration had lied about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. “They lied,” Mr. Trump said — words that even two Democratic presidential nominees declined to use about Mr. Bush and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and that were more akin to what the rabble-rouser liberal …show more content…

“I could say, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful,’ or I could say, ‘Excuse me, the World Trade Center'” came down during Mr. Bush’s tenure.
Mr. Trump headed into the final week in South Carolina with a crescendo of orthodoxy-challenging pronouncements, including criticism of the home-state Senator Lindsey Graham. He also defended his previous comments about the work of Planned Parenthood, saying during the debate, when challenged by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, that he did not approve of abortion but that the organization did “wonderful work” for women’s health more broadly. That remark could be toxic for Republican primary voters; it had made its way into an ad from Mr. Cruz by late Sunday afternoon.
Mr. Trump’s comments about the former president overshadowed those about Planned Parenthood. But even some former advisers to George Bush did not believe that the remarks about the Iraq war and the World Trade Center would do much damage to Mr. …show more content…

Bush, but most Republicans also don’t want to debate” Mr. Bush’s legacy, said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist who was a top adviser to Mr. Bush’s 2004 campaign.
Most people share Mr. Trump’s view that the war was a mistake, Mr. Schmidt added, and in a state heavy with military members, many families have grown weary of repeated deployments.
Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster who advised Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky’s presidential campaign, also saw little peril for Mr. Trump, even if one of his opponents puts the remark into a television or radio ad.
“It could potentially bring down his margin, but when you’ve got a guy who wins by double digits, does it matter?” Mr. Fabrizio said.
For Mr. Trump, standing by even his contentious comments has been a hallmark of his appeal.
“What the electorate’s been responding to is strength,” Mr. Schmidt said. “Mr. Trump once again last night showed what many Republican voters will regard as strength.”
More problematic for Mr. Trump, Mr. Fabrizio said, could be his Planned Parenthood

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