Gillian Tett
‘Not only is it unclear whether the Republican elders can ever control Trump, it is less clear whether Trump can control himself’
Selling Donald Trump
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arlier this month, I attended a delightful dinner in New York with a collection of Republican luminaries. Unsurprisingly, the conversation was dominated by the topic of Donald Trump – and many of the assem mbled Republicans were deeply anxious. Litttle wonder: in recent days Trump, the presu umptive Republican nominee for president, has de elivered another stream of invective that makes many top Republicans cringe; or, mo ore accurately, long for the patrician self-control of a man such as George HW Bush. Bu ut this particular dinner included an intrig guing twist: the main speaker at the table was a charming Republican power broker who I shall call “Bob”. And Bob had arrived with a mission to “sell” Trump – verbal gaffes and all. Bob has dealt extensively with The Donald for many y years and endorsed him. And now he has embaarked on the challenging task of persuading otherr elite Republicans to do the same. So how do you make Trump sound palatable to nerr vous conservative voters? It is worth laying g out the sales pitch I heard from Bob, not be ecause I endorse it but because I suspe ect these arguments will be tossed aroun nd numerous other dinner tables in the e coming weeks and months. Esssentially, Bob’s argument boiled down n to three points. First – and most obvio ously – Trump is a genius at conne ecting with the crowds. That is one e good reason for Republicans to em mbrace him, Bob said, given that other leaders of the GOP have lacked that popular touch h (just think of Mitt Romn ney or Jeb Bush). Seccond, Trump also has in nnate “leadership” skills and is “decisive”, not le east because he is, acccording to Bob, “the first entrepreneur to run n for president”. Of cou urse, the fact that Trum mp has spent his life in busin ness does have one huge disadv vantage in the eyes of the po olitical class: he does not speak k or act like a traditional Illustration Shonagh Rae
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politician – just listen to his aggressive diatribes. But as the wine flowed over dinner, Bob smoothly brushed away the misgivings that some Republicans might feel about Trump’s more incendiary comments by stressing that The Donald is still a political neophyte.
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nd that leads into the th hird – and most important – pointt in this sales pitch: Trump will only be the frontman of any Re epublican campaign. More specifi fically, precisely because he is a political neophyte, he does not have the type of sophisticated organisational framew work or funding structure in place that is nee eded to win elections. Under normal circumstances, that might seem to be a disadvantage e but it underlines his outsider credentials, while at the same time leaving room for the Republican establishment to bring its own ideas,, funding machine and priorities into play. Or to put it another way, Trump iss best viewed as an “empty vessel” that me en such as Paul Ryan, the speaker of the Ho ouse of Representatives, will fill, by prov viding the policy brains and organisationaal brawn. And that, Bob argued, is why senior Republicans should now fall in line: by voting for Trump now, you get a future administration that will be essentially controlled by people such as Ryan. Now I dare say that som me FT readers will recoil in horror from the cynicism embedded in this sales pittch; others will argue that it is dange erously naive. After all, it is faar from clear right now that the e Republican elite can ever con ntrol Trump – not least becau use it is even less certain that Trump can control himself. But by the end d of the meal I had the im mpression that the table was split: some of the diners were still too uneasy to vote fo or Trump; others were relucctantly falling in line. But what happens next is an nyone’s guess; we now live in n a political Alice-in-Wonderland d world. 6 gillian.tett@ft.com ft.com/magazine june 18/19 2016
