In coasting to his second straight Republican primary victory Saturday in South Carolina, Donald Trump proved emphatically that it is possible to win over party faithful while shredding some of the party’s most cherished views.
“Donald Trump has turned the conventional wisdom inside the Republican Party upside down,” said Steve Schmidt, the chief strategist for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. “We live in an era where trust has collapsed in every institution in the country except for the U.S. military. Republican voters in substantial numbers have a deep contempt for the leadership of the Republican Party.”
The billionaire front-runner drew gasps last week when he said in a debate that the Bush administration “lied” about weapons of mass destruction while leading the nation into the Iraq War. At the same debate, Trump credited Planned Parenthood with doing “wonderful things,” partially defending an object of widespread GOP hatred, though he was careful to say he didn’t support their work providing abortions. On Thursday, Trump defended his support for universal health insurance coverage, a cause that has become toxic in conservative circles since the Obamacare debate of 2009 and 2010. “We gotta take care of people that can’t take care of themselves,” Trump told a CNN town hall.
