WASHINGTON: Maverick Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump attempted to steady his floundering White House bid on Monday with sweeping economic proposals even as moderate GOP lawmakers, foreign policy stalwarts, and long time party loyalists publicly renounced him and polls showed him falling behind Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Trump delivered a restrained hour-long prepared speech at the Detroit Economic Club pledging massive tax breaks for American families, hours after 50 Republican foreign policy grandees wrote an open letter calling him a dangerous national security risk. They said he ''lacks the character, values and experience'' to be president.
Some said they would vote for Hillary Clinton, others said they will sit out of the election, but all of them agreed that if elected, he would be the ''most reckless President in American history.'' Using euphemisms to suggest he is essentially a rank idiot and a bigot, they said ''He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws and U.S. institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press and an independent judiciary.''
Typical of Trump, he lashed out at the lot, calling them ''ailed Washington elite'' looking to hold on to their power and blaming them for ''making the world such a dangerous place.'' It’s time they are held accountable for their actions, he raged, charging them for everything from invasion of Iraq to the rise of the Islamic State.
The rant essentially dumped on eight years of the Republican Bush administration, sundering Trump Republicans from the party mainstream, and resulting in moderate GOP Senators such as Susan Collins publicly declaring they are done with Trump. Signatories to the letter included senior Bush administration officials such as former heads of the CIA (Michael Hayden) and National Security Agency (John Negroponte), two homeland security secretaries, and several ambassadors and senior foreign policy experts.
Apparently, Trump has no fears about the depleted GOP bench strength should be by chance win the election; he has indicated his children, notably his daughter Ivanka Trump, will be part of his cabinet.
Trump was a little more controlled in his economic outreach, embracing what he called ''the biggest tax revolution since the Reagan tax reform, which unleashed years of continued economic growth and job creation.'' Among his proposals are simplification of the tax code to just three brackets from the current seven — 12, 25 and 33 percent. He also called for capping corporate taxes at 15 percent – a long term Republican project -- down from the current 35 percent rate.
And indicative of the influence his daughter Ivanka could have in a Trump White House, he cited her inputs in proposals aimed at making child care less expensive. Parents would be able to fully deduct the average cost of child care from their taxable income, in place of the current 35 per cent of qualifying expenses ceiling capped at $3,000 for one child or $6,000 for two or more.
But the attempt at a more structured and coherent approach to the campaign may be too little too late. Fact checking teams dissected the speech for outright lies and distortions even as the media began to write off Trump’s chances, with the Washington Post acknowledging that the press had hyped his candidature for ratings and readership, and he is in for a rout.
One media outlet began a Donald Trump- Mike Pence divergence tracker to highlight his difference with his running mate. But it wasn’t just one Republican the maverick billionaire was digressing from: The Grand Old Party had made way for the Brand New Party of Trump.
The Trumpians or Trumpistas meanwhile kept up their crusade against Hillary Clinton in the hope of cashing in on her own issues with trust, blaming her for everything from the current economic situation to the execution by Teheran of an Iranian nuclear scientist. The presence of the father of the Orlando gay night club killer at a Clinton rally in Florida came in handy for Trump partisans to announce that she is being supported by ''terrorists.''
With the prospect of victory receding in the face of his shambolic campaign, Trump himself began to make excuses for a possible rout, saying the elections may be rigged. There are also suggestions that he may ditch the three scheduled Presidential debates, for which he is widely seen as lacking depth and substance to hold his own against Hillary Clinton.