TRUMP

TRUMP THE CANDIDATE 121
Trump has a gift for bullying, in that he can find precisely what a
person is most sensitive about, and will hit them where it hurts the
most. Trump went after Ted Cruz’s wife, making what appeared to
be a reference to her experiences with depression. 422 Trump pointed
out what everyone was thinking (but did not say) after Rick Perry
began to publicly sport a pair of spectacles, observing that “Rick
Perry put on glasses so people think he’s smart.” 423 As with McCain,
Trump took what would ordinarily constitute rudeness and multiplied
it by ten. When asked to apologize, he would not only not
back down, but would often say something far worse. Eventually,
there were so many outrages that people seemed to become numb to
them, and reports of new Trump insults became a regular aspect of
the day-to-day news cycle.
Trump deployed every trick from the playbook that had served
him so well for forty years. He exaggerated the hell out of everything,
bragged shamelessly, and insisted his opponents were a bunch of losers
who would soon be kneeling before him and begging for his favor.
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By the end of the 2016 primary, Trump had set the record for
most GOP primary votes ever. He had won 44% of the votes, 20%
more than the next highest contender, Ted Cruz. 424 He had done so
despite spending far less money on advertising than any other candidate,
and running what Bernie Sanders called “the most unconventional
campaign in the modern history of America.” 425 Conventional
wisdom about primaries had always been that “the party decides,” 426
i.e. that it is the people at the top of the party’s organization, rather
than the voters, who matter the most in determining the nominee.
Donald Trump had proved this totally false; the party had despised
him, and he had steamrolled them. Efforts to form a “Never Trump”
opposition movement had fizzled laughably. 427 Behind him, Trump