"Get Him Outta Here"
That has been Donald Trump's "screw you" catch phrase about anyone who dares protest at his rallies. "Get 'em outta here," he declares to the roars of his crowd.
I now believe the anti-Trump movement has reached critical mass in the country, and that Trump -- even if he is the Republican nominee -- will not win the election. And he will have done so much damage to his brand, his party and the country, that he will not be easily forgiven, if forgiven at all.
Expect that within a year or two, Donald may be treated to the experience of walking into a room, a restaurant, a meeting, and being told, "Get HIM outta here."
I think we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the Trump phenomenon (whether Trumpism -- hatred of immigrants, Muslims, women and most of the world's population) will end with it remains to be seen. Probably not. The odds are that the millions who have slavishly followed him this campaign season will find someone else to take his place even when The Donald becomes a louder version of what Sarah Palin became -- a punchline.
Anti-Trumpism has taken a sharp turn upward in the last several days. Mitt Romney has declared he will vote for Ted Cruz. Lindsey Graham went a step further, saying he would work to help Cruz "in every way I can" -- a far cry from what Graham said in February, "If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you."
Even mild-mannered New York Times columnist David Brooks just wrote a column with the headline, "No, Not Trump. Not Ever."
This has a different feel to it than all the hand-wringing and even the secret meetings held to doom Trump (in Palm Beach? Could these anti-Trump plotters not think of someplace that didn't make them seem so predictably establishment?)
Before, it seemed desperate and a little weary. Whatever shall we do to keep Donald from getting the nomination?? Now it seems to have more resolve: We will do everything we can to keep him from being elected, even if he is the nominee. There is talk of a third party candidate from among the ranks of those who tried to challenge Trump in the primaries. There was talk -- quickly dispelled -- of drafting Paul Ryan.
It feels more like the anguish is over; the determination to stop him is firm.
I now believe Trump will be stopped. All the hatred and calls to violence and denial by him of things he says ten minutes after he says them are being overtaken by the realization that this is a genuinely bad guy with poorly thought out ideas, no regard to anyone's advice except his own, and deep contempt for those who rally behind him.
There is nothing that has come out during this campaign season that indicates anything other than that Trump is an egomaniac, bully, racist, misogynist, a guy who talks about himself incessantly and berates with the most vile, personal kind of attacks anyone who challenges him.
And there was precious little before he ran for president that painted him as a good man.
We will, I believe, look back on Trump in a year or two and see him for the scary joke he is and for a man with no perceivable redeeming qualities.
We will wonder, "How did he get that far? How did so many millions -- even if those millions felt angry and disenfranchised -- allow this guy to be their leader?"
Just as something was brewing from the time Trump announced his candidacy last June, in his first of dozens of outrageous declarations, that time about the Mexican rapists and murderers flooding across the border, there seems to be something brewing now that is more powerful than just worry and regret.
It is a recognition that this guy is a unique combination of buffoon and tyrant (though tyrants tend to be buffoons), a guy who must be taken seriously while at the same time not being regarded as a serious man. A man who pimps his steaks and water and pretends his failed companies were successful while at the same time pretending to be worthy of consideration as the leader of the free world.
That will end, maybe by convention time, maybe in November, but it will. His candidacy will end. His brand will be forever damaged. His vast wealth not so impressive after all.
And we might then be able to smile at the prospect of Trump escorted out of a room where is no longer welcome with a chorus of "Get him outta here" ringing in his ears.
Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.
Earlier on Huff/Post50: