Trump must be more Republican, presidential
Under any modern definitions of the terms, Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump is neither Republican nor presidential.
He is different, and being different is working pretty well for him.
It propelled him through more than five months of party primaries and allowed him to emerge victorious over a gaggle of opponents, including such stalwarts of the party’s traditional wing as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the man formerly considered the leading Republican rebel, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
The nomination was even more an honor for Trump because his rise to prominence was so unexpected when he announced his run more than a year earlier.
Now the going gets tough.
On Nov. 8, voters will decide whether Trump’s brash talk, his bullying, his boldness to announce positions without explanation — in short, those things that make him so different from other political figures — are strengths for the White House or red flags waved in front of the electorate.
Every week presents another reason to worry about Trump. Time is short, fewer than 60 days — yet this is the most intense time of the presidential campaign, and his three upcoming debates with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton offer him the perfect opportunity to show his strengths.
Millions of potential voters obviously are content with what they see in Trump now. Some polls show him with a thin lead over Clinton.
But to win, he will have to attract undecided voters in swing states where Clinton’s organizational efforts are strong.
Trump needs to bolster his appeal to Republicans, a split party even before he emerged and a confused one now.
With varying degrees of emphasis, Republicans coalesce around key principles like individual liberty, free markets, strong national defense, personal responsibility and a federal government that stays out of the way.
Trump has to stop shooting himself in the foot on these core values.
How does it bolster national defense when he publicly threatens, as he did during a national forum on NBC last week, to sack the military’s top generals?
It doesn’t. It endangers troop morale and could have been said better or left unsaid.
Trump needs to demonstrate that he is presidential — a steady, trustworthy leader — especially on foreign policy.
He made a good start Aug. 31 when he flew to Mexico to visit President Enrique Peña Nieto. The two were respectful in a postvisit news conference.
Yet that respect turned to ash almost immediately when Trump said they did not discuss who would pay for a border wall and Peña Nieto insisted he told Trump in no uncertain terms that Mexico would not pay.
Later the same day, Trump said Mexico “will pay for the wall, 100 percent. They don’t know it yet, but they’re going to pay for the wall.”
That’s a schoolyard braggart speaking, not a president.
It’s not too late for Trump to show a better side. It should be a much better one.
This story was originally published September 9, 2016 at 6:17 PM with the headline "Trump must be more Republican, presidential."