Trump campaign anniversary: Has it only been a year?
On June 16, 2015, Donald Trump famously kicked off his seemingly improbable presidential campaign by calmly riding down an escalator in Trump Tower.
He then launched into a freewheeling speech in which he accused the Mexican government of sending its “rapists” and criminals across the U.S. border. The resulting national firestorm would have doomed most campaigns, and business after business severed ties with the Manhattan developer’s organizations.
But Trump doubled down.
It was a reaction that would be constantly repeated over the next 12 months as Trump sparked controversy after controversy. He didn’t back down after questioning Sen. John McCain’s status as a war hero. He didn’t back down after saying Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who grilled him during the first GOP debate, had “blood coming out of her wherever.” And on down the list.
Trump, buoyed by his fame and The Apprentice brand, waged a scorched-earth primary campaign against his GOP rivals, belittling them and attacking the elites whom any other candidate would consider crucial. He insulted “low-energy” Jeb Bush, “Liddle Marco” Rubio and “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz, among many others.
At the end of last year, terror attacks rocked Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. Trump seized the moment by announcing a proposal called dangerous, unconstitutional and immoral by its critics: A wide-ranging ban on Muslim immigration and tourism to the U.S. until Islam’s supposed “hatred” is figured out. Trump would double down on the plan in the aftermath of this month’s mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub, which left 49 victims dead.
But while Trump’s proposal was popular among Republican primary voters, polls show that it faces far more resistance in the the larger pool of voters who will cast ballots in November. Trump’s shoot-from-the-hip campaign is also facing increasing headwinds, and much of the Republican establishment seems deeply uncomfortable with its presumptive nominee.
Trump has almost five months left to continue to shake things up, however. And those five months are certain to be a political roller coaster.
