The stars are finally aligning for a significant swing in Donald Trump’s favor in this presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton is rightly under siege. The polls have already tightened, and Trump has hit home runs — at least three times — in Mexico City and Phoenix.
Every day brings news of another scandal involving the Clintons—or recent information about ongoing ones—confirming the public’s belief that the Clintons are unrivaled among untrustworthy, bloodthirsty politicians.
In addition to all of Hillary Clinton’s other sensational emails, we have learned that after leaving the State Department she continued to send classified information from her private email account — yet another example of her brazenness and boundless arrogance.
If that wasn’t enough, the State Department revealed that it had found about 30 emails from Clinton’s account that related to the attacks in Benghazi, Libya. They were part of 15,000 emails recovered by the FBI, despite Clinton’s plan to permanently delete them. The FBI will also release some of the documents from its investigation in the next few days.
Clinton’s very bad week wasn’t just about her email scandal. It was also reported that Bill Clinton’s staff brazenly milked a federal government program—designed to assist former presidents cover legitimate post-presidential expenses—to subsidize the Clinton Foundation and related activities. The Clintons—you know, the ones who are all about ending income inequality and fighting class privilege—were abusing the program to employ taxpayer money to buy computer equipment stored at the Clinton Foundation and to supplement the salaries and benefits of aides.
In addition, several recent polls have shown Clinton’s lead shrinking, both nationally and in several key swing states. A Monmouth University poll shows her lead among likely voters shrinking to 7 percent, down 5 points from her 12-point lead in an August poll.
A Fox News poll shows the gap shrinking to just 2 points, with Clinton at 41 percent and Trump at 39 percent in a four-candidate race. And three polls in the key states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan show Trump narrowing the gap significantly.
Hillary Clinton’s bad news doesn’t end with her own scandals and sinking poll numbers. Trump, by his standards, had an unusually positive week — much of it coming after the latest polls.
Apparently, before he had even changed his position on the key immigration issue, he had already redeemed himself doubly by undertaking a risky but successful trip to Mexico and delivering a forceful and clarifying speech in Phoenix that was intended to allay fears that he had unacceptably softened his position.
By traveling to Mexico for a one-on-one meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Trump showed that he can be polite, diplomatic, and, most importantly, presidential. He must listen to his advisers—I suspect Kellyanne Conway has a lot of influence—and at least sometimes curb his voracious appetite for unfiltered speech.
Trump has managed to leverage America’s mutual interests with Mexico on the complicated issue of immigration and reinforce his commitment to securing our border and stopping illegal immigration without alienating Mexico’s president. He has also found common ground by suggesting they work together to combat drug cartels and improve NAFTA.
Whether it was mostly a photo op or not, Trump accomplished a lot in a few compact hours, not least showing that he can be a firm but good neighbor. While he softened some of his hardline positions on immigration, he wisely reinforced them with his base in his next speech in Phoenix.
There seems to be a consensus on the right that Trump scored a major success with his Phoenix speech, and that’s saying something, given that the ardent, never-Trumpers on the right tend to find nothing to like about Trump. Here again, Trump seems able to pivot in the right direction and pay attention to his advisers rather than letting his instincts toward overindulgence take over.
Yes, he has undoubtedly changed his position on deportation, which many warned was untenable. But he has delivered a full-throated, uncompromising defense of American sovereignty and his philosophy that our immigration policy should be directed toward the best interests of the United States and its citizens, not the “needs of the 11 million illegal immigrants” in the United States. He said, in direct opposition to the Democratic (and, frankly, Republican establishment) position, “There is only one fundamental issue in the immigration debate, and that issue is the good of the American people. Nothing comes close to the other. … We will treat everyone who lives or is in our country with the utmost dignity. That’s how important it is. We will be fair, just, and compassionate to all. But our greatest compassion must be for our American citizens.”
Amen. This is Trump at his best – fiercely fighting political correctness without fear of media backlash. It would be good if he continued to take such stances on this and other issues that concern Americans, without engaging in Twitter wars or criticizing his critics.
I have no illusions that Trump has undergone a spectacular metamorphosis, nor have I suddenly become his apologist, but I do believe that we must defeat Clinton, and I will give him credit when he moves in the right direction.
The events of the past week show that the election could be Trump’s to win if he disciplines himself to stick to his message and resists his tendency to be petty. He needs to build on the progress of the past week, proving to people that he will be mature in the White House and making them feel comfortable enough with him not to vote for the vile Hillary Clinton.
