Trump has previously sparked criticism for swipes at servicemembers.
Literally nothing DJT does will cost him votes from people for whom being a Republican is an identity.
I have to disagree a bit here. We’re seeing that even that statement has its limits.
We have more and more formerly staunch Trump supporters who are starting to say “Hol’ up”.
And a lot of people don’t have trouble with the mudslinging Trump dishes out, until it hits them personally. Once they become (or feel they’ve become) a target of the Trump Hate Machine, they tend to change their tune on him pretty quick. I’m not hailing people who do that as heroes, mind you; they were perfectly OK with the hatred until it was directed at them.
I cannot speak and do not speak for those who have served, as I never have. But from everything I’ve learned from the people who I do know that have served, they value their military service and their brotherhood more than their political identity, and they would take unprovoked attacks on their service (or the service of their fallen brothers) like the comments Trump gave last night about as well as showing up in the middle of Harlem and shouting the N-word through a megaphone. I haven’t talked to anybody I know who’s served since Trump made those comments, but I don’t even think the Trump-friendly ones would be willing to vote for him after that. Again, everybody has their limits.
Yeah people say “hold up”, then a week later they’re endorsing him again.
McCarthy, McConnell, Graham, Cruz, Vance, it goes on and on.
Even being willing to go on the air and say “Hey, this isn’t a winning campaign strategy” is a huge step forward for some of these people, many of which spent the past several years trying to bend reality to Trump’s whims. Even daring to criticize God-King-Trump a year or two ago was enough to get you a nasty tweet from Trump, all-but excommunication from the party, and deportation to Jupiter.
Do you think Kellyanne “Alternative Facts” Conway and Kevin “Pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago” McCarthy would have dared to even privately say that this isn’t a winning strategy to Trump, let alone publicly and on Fox News? And if they did, do you honestly think they’d have a career in the morning?
One step forward, two steps back and all of that, but at least now they’re at least attempting to take the forward step every once in a while.
