Charles Krauthammer argues that Trump’s comments about the judge in the Trump University case are “revealing who he is” and “widening the net of non-Americans”:
Charles Krauthammer: Trump Revealing Himself with Racist Mexican Judge CommentsLook, I think you’re missing the point. Yes, of course this is hurting his candidacy. Of course it makes him look as if he cares more about a personal vendetta than he does about the party or the ideas he espouses.
But it isn’t as if he is — he is. That’s the point. It’s revealing who he is. This isn’t some gaffe or accident. He had ample opportunity over the weekend to retract, to soften, to move away.
Instead he doubled down. He widened the net of ‘non-Americans’ – people who aren’t impartial because of their ethnicity – beyond the Mexican-Americans to now include Muslims.
This isn’t a guy who has made a false step. Of course he did, but the larger point is that he’s revealing who he is. It is not just that those who have now decided to throw in in support of the party … have made a tactical mistake in getting behind it. They have to ask themselves morally, is this the man you want to be the leader of your party?
And that’s what’s at stake here. That’s why it’s a bigger issue.