Could it get any worse than this? It is a question posed countless times before about Donald Trump’s candidacy. Each time the flak somehow bounces off him. But the 2005 tapes revealing the repugnant way he talks about women — having just embarked on his third marriage — is fatally wounding.
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Short of a character transplant, it is hard to see how he could win the presidency from here. It also looks to be the start of the dirtiest phase from the most tawdry nominee in history. Instead of offering a sincere apology for his remarks, Mr Trump lashed out at Hillary Clinton for having “bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his [Bill Clinton’s female] victims.” This suggests Mr Trump will try to save his skin at the second debate on Sunday by claiming Mrs Clinton is even worse. If he has to go down, then he will take her with him. The logic is pure scorched earth.
Most observers are long past the point of believing Mr Trump is capable of donning a different mask for a few weeks without letting it slip — even assuming suburban Republican women, or other wavering voters, would believe a word of it. Mr Trump is who he is. Few are buying the claim Mr Trump is a different person to the one who was recorded talking about grabbing women’s genitalia 11 years ago.
Just last week he was up at three in the morning fat shaming a former Miss Universe from two decades back. All it took was an artful jab from Mrs Clinton — how Mr Trump liked “hanging around” these beauty contests — to set him off. Four nights later he was still in a sleepless rage. It is safe to assume Mrs Clinton will have the discipline to keep calm with whatever he throws her way on Sunday night. She has had decades of practice. Nor is there much doubt she will have rehearsed a few more choice phrases to trigger Mr Trump’s id.
The bigger question is whether he can survive as Republican nominee until election day. There is no historic precedent for this situation. At any time, Paul Ryan, the Republican Speaker, and Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, could call on Mr Trump to step down. The fact that they have not so far does not mean they will not be goaded into doing so. The more Mr Trump drops in the polls, the greater the temptation to sever their connection to him.
Republican control of both houses of Congress could be in question. Mr Ryan has already pulled out of a joint event with Mr Trump following the leaked tapes, which he described as “sickening”. A growing trickle of elected Republicans have said they can no longer support his candidacy. Mark Kirk, the embattled Republican senator from Illinois, called Mr Trump a “malignant clown”. It will be interesting — and revealing — to see whether any of the big evangelical Christian figures, such as Jerry Falwell Junior, feel obliged to follow suit. Failure to do so could expose irredeemable double standards.
Mr Trump has made it clear he has no intention of stepping down. People around Mr Trump, such as Roger Stone, one of his oldest henchmen, describe Bill Clinton as a “serial rapist” — and Mrs Clinton as his enabler. Such thoughts will be on the tip of Mr Trump’s tongue on Sunday night. It is clear he feels no contrition for what he expressed. The Republican Party — and America as a whole — will puzzle for years over how such a man could have come so close to power.
