Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump revealed that he was firing his top adviser, Roger Stone. A few hours later Stone reported that he was actually quitting. Apparently there was disagreement over Trump’s inability to stay of topic during Thursday night GOP debate, and his subsequent rants in which he attacked one of the Fox debate moderators, Megyn Kelly.
“Mr. Trump fired Roger Stone last night. We have a tremendously successful campaign and Roger wanted to use the campaign for his own personal publicity. He has had a number of articles about him recently and Mr. Trump wants to keep the focus of the campaign on how to Make America Great Again,” a campaign spokesperson said in a statement.
Stone reportedly sent an email to Trump’s secretary.
“I was proud to have played a role in the launch of your presidential campaign. Your message of ‘Make America Great Again’ harkened back to the Reagan era. Restoring national pride and bringing jobs back to America – your initial and still underlying message – is a solid conservative message. In fact, it catapulted you instantly into a commanding lead in the race,” Stone’s email said.
“Unfortunately, the current controversies involving personalities and provocative media fights have reached such a high volume that it has distracted attention from your platform and overwhelmed your core message,” Stone wrote. “With this current direction of the candidacy, I no longer can remain involved in your campaign.”
At the end of the day, does it really matter?
The Trump statement says he wants to focus the campaign on “Make American Great Again.” The problem is Trump has yet to say anything specifically substantive on how he will accomplish that. Trump is not shy on telling Americans how much money he has made, how great he is at business, and how he is winning the race for the Republican Nomination, the content of his plan is very thin.
Before this campaign began, many thought this would be the campaign that split the conservatives and the establishment faction of the Republican Party once and for all.
Trump may actually be strengthening the the relationship of the two sides.
One by one Republicans candidates have lined up against Trump and his P.T.Barnum style campaign.
“Mr. Trump: There. Is. No. Excuse,” Fiorina tweeted, before adding that she stands with Kelly.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker tweeted – “I agree with @CarlyFiorina, there’s no excuse for Trump’s comments. Stand with @MegynKelly.”
In a statement, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said “everyone deserves respect and dignity, whether they agree with you or not.”
“Donald Trump has proven once again that he doesn’t have the temperament to hold our nation’s highest office,” Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said.
“Do we want to win? Do we want to insult 53% of all voters? What Donald Trump said is wrong. That is not how we win elections and worse yet, that is not how you bring people together to solve problems,” said Jeb Bush.
Trump is leading the polls. Many observers are perplexed, but it is quite easy to understand. Trump say things out loud that resonate with many Americans angry at what has been going on in American politics, but eventually Trump will have deliver on a plan, more so than political rhetoric.
This is fun for Trump. He is in the limelight, he is the show and that is where he operates best.
When the polls numbers change and unless he starts providing real answer to real problems, they will, it wont really matter whether his campaign adviser was fired or if he quit.
It could be that it isn’t necessary to state explicitly what he will do, simply because a 5 year old could do better at running this country than the present bunch. What more needs to be said? Also, if he says explicitly what he will do, it would be like letting loose the dogs of war. It wouldn’t be good strategy.
The other point that needs to be made, is that if he spoke out specifically, he could just as easily be lying as any other candidate who speaks. Is Trump lying? He hasn’t lied so far. In fact his truth is quite hard to swallow for the present bunch of thieves in Washington.
It’s highly likely that, no matter who we vote for, it’s still just a vote for a new group of thieves and incompetents that a five year old could outdo when it comes to figuring out how to fix this mess.