In addition to the usual suspects (WaPo, HuffPo) over the past few days a new media nemesis has emerged for Trump: the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal.
On Thursday, Trump posted several of tweets in response to a Journal editorial that criticized him for refusing to participate in a debate next week, for being unwilling to consult foreign policy experts and other issues. This is what he said:
- @WSJ Editorial says “Clinton primary vote total is 8,646,551.Trump’s is 7,533,692”-a knock. But she had only 3 opponents-I had 16.Apologize
- @WSJ is bad at math. The good news is, nobody cares what they say in their editorials anymore, especially me!
- Please explain to the dummies at the @WSJ Editorial Board that I love to debate and have won, according to Drudge etc., all 11 of them!
Overnight, the WSJ has fired back with the following “Trump Reality Check“
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Donald Trump won’t debate his Republican rivals again but he will continue to argue on Twitter. On Thursday the businessman demanded an apology after we—“the dummies at the @WSJ Editorial Board”—accurately noted that Hillary Clinton has received about a million more votes than he has. The truth hurts, though Mr. Trump would rather walk down Fifth Avenue shooting the messenger.
Mr. Trump says his numbers can’t be compared to Mrs. Clinton’s because “she had only 3 opponents—I had 16.” Actually his rise has been cleared by the large and fractured GOP field. Of the 20.35 million GOP primary votes cast so far, he has received 7.54 million, or a mere 37%. Despite the media desire to call him unstoppable, Mr. Trump is the weakest Republican front-runner since Gerald Ford in 1976.
After Reagan, George H.W. Bush in 1988, Bob Dole in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000 romped to nomination victories with only minor early setbacks. Mitt Romney and John McCain faced protracted challenges beyond Super Tuesday like Mr. Trump. The primary calendar and delegate allocation methods change from cycle to cycle, but at roughly the same stage of the campaign, both were performing far better.
In 2012 Mr. Romney was in a three-way race with Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, with Ron Paul also nabbing votes. Yet by mid-March Mr. Romney had carried the popular vote in 21 states and won 57% of the allocated delegates, according to our calculation. Mr. Trump has 18 wins and 47% of allocated delegates. Mr. Romney swept the remaining primaries by convincing margins. Mr. Trump hasn’t won 50% in any state.
Mr. McCain in 2008 was even more of a consensus pick than Mr. Romney, whom he defeated that year. By this point the Senator had won 24 states and 59% of allocated delegates.
Mr. Trump has fervent support but equally as passionate opposition, including among Republicans. Gallup reports his March 10-16 “net favorable” in the GOP is 22%, meaning the share of people with positive views minus those with negative views. Hard-fought campaigns tend to drive down everyone’s approval for a time, but at this point Mr. Romney’s net favorable was 28% and Mr. McCain’s was 30%.
The Real Clear Politics polling average shows twice as many adults have negative views (61%) than positive views (32.5%) of Mr. Trump. Gallup reports he “has a higher unfavorable rating than any nominated candidate from either of the two major parties going back to the 1992 election when we began to track favorability using the current format.”
Mr. Trump also tweeted Thursday that “The good news is, nobody cares what they say in their editorials anymore, especially me!,” and we’re glad he’s such a loyal reader. We also aren’t among those who think Mr. Trump is a sure loser in November, not least because Hillary Clinton’s negatives are also historically high.
But Mr. Trump has some major coalition repair work to do. The opinions he should care about are the 39% of GOP voters who said in Tuesday’s exit polls that they would consider supporting a third-party candidate if Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton are the nominees, or the 44% of non-Trump GOP voters who said they won’t cast a ballot for him in November. As Mr. Trump likes to tweet, better be careful!
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