Jonathan Freedland: The Republicans created Donald Trump: no wonder they can’t stop him

t last, the Republican establishment is engaged in a project the entire world can get behind: the campaign to stop Donald Trump. They’ve left it desperately late, but a collective effort is finally under way to prevent the would-be strongman – who boasts of his admiration for Vladimir Putin and insists he will order US soldiers to commit war crimes, torturing prisoners and killing the innocent families of terrorists – from becoming their party’s standard-bearer in November.

The trouble is, nothing seems to work. In fact, it’s worse than that. Trump is coming to resemble a character from a comic-book: not only do bullets bounce off him, they make him stronger. On Thursday, his enemies mounted a double assault. In a move without precedent, the party’s previous nominee – 2012 candidate Mitt Romney – gave a speech that declared this year’s frontrunner unfit to be president. In a more damning indictment than he ever unleashed against Barack Obama, Romney branded Trump a phoney, a fraud, a bankrupt and a misogynist.

Later that night, during yet another televised debate, Trump’s main rivals, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, formed a tag team to pile on Trump, slamming him as a liar and a fake. And that was during the evening’s loftier moments. (Let historians note that one CNN headline read: “Donald Trump defends size of his penis” and leave it at that.)


Yet few believe any of this will make much difference, still less halt the frontrunner. Trump himself just brushes it off, usually by insulting his accusers back. He does the same when confronted with evidence of his dizzying inconsistency and policy U-turns, often simply talking over his inquisitor, drowning them in bluster.

But there’s a reason these punches don’t land. Romney’s critique was calm, coherent and indisputable. Yet he was utterly the wrong messenger. Trump is running as the outsider, the man who dares take on the political and corporate establishment. If that establishment had a face, it would look like Mitt Romney. Trump rails against the outsourcing of jobs away from the US: it was outsourcing that helped Romney make his fortune. (And helped Trump too: note the “Made in China” labels on Trump’s “Signature” shirt collection.)....

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/05/republicans-donald-trump-party-anger