Donald Trump places second in CNN's most recent national Republican primary poll, second in the two most recent polls of New Hampshire, and tied for second in the most recent Iowa poll. As things now stand, he should have no trouble getting onstage in the first Republican primary debate in August, he's drawing intensive media coverage ... and Democrats are looking at him as a gift while Republicans panic.
After all, his new popularity in the polls has come right alongside a series of racist tirades that have led companies like NBC and Macy's to break off ties with him. To say nothing of how immigrant communities feel about his repeated insistence that immigrants are rapists and drug dealers. Democrats like Hillary Clinton are ready to draw strong contrasts:
“Recently a Republican candidate for president described immigrants as drug dealers, rapists and criminals,” Clinton told a raucous rally in Northern Virginia last week. “Maybe he’s never met them. Maybe he’s never stopped to ask the millions of people who love this country, work hard, and want nothing more than a chance to build a better life for themselves and their children what their lives are like.”
And Republicans are scrambling to find reasons this isn't all that bad:
“You can make the argument that hyperbolic rhetoric like this paints the rest of the field as much more moderate,” said Brian Walsh, a veteran Republican operative. “It’s harder in the long run to paint Republicans like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio as representative of the far right when that rhetorical space is being filled by someone like Donald Trump.”
Yes, that'll be a great campaign slogan. "Vote for Jeb!—unlike many of his fellow Republicans, he doesn't think immigrants are rapists."
Trump's campaign will almost certainly collapse (probably in glorious fashion) at some point. But not before the public has gotten a good long look at how he plays to Republican audiences, and how little actual distance there is between his views and those of Republican politicians who are called "mainstream" because they say it all so much more politely.