This comes as no surprise, but…
Facing a prospective tab of more than $1 billion to finance a general-election run for the White House, Donald Trump reversed course Wednesday and said he would actively raise money to ensure his campaign has the resources to compete with Hillary Clinton’s fundraising juggernaut….“I’ll be putting up money, but won’t be completely self-funding,” the presumptive Republican nominee said in an interview Wednesday….The campaign will tap his expansive personal Rolodex and a new base of supporters who aren’t on party rolls, two Trump advisers said.
The new plan represents a shift for Mr. Trump, who has for months portrayed his Republican opponents as “puppets” for relying on super PACs and taking contributions from wealthy donors that he said came with strings attached.
Needless to say, this about-face will have no effect. Trump has long made it clear that he doesn’t really mean anything he says, and his supporters are OK with this. If he attacks you, it’s only because he wants to win. He’ll take it back once you drop out. If he offends an important constituency on a policy issue, he explains that he was just providing “an answer.” Nobody should have taken it seriously. If he’s caught in an outright lie, he simply denies ever having made the offending statement—even if he made it just yesterday and even if it’s on tape.
This is all fine. His supporters accept that this kind of behavior is not just OK, but positively admirable. After all, once he wins he’s going to deploy this kind of combat on their behalf. Right?
You betcha.
