By Michael Taszarek ’18
THE ROUNDUP
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has set himself up for a loss in November.
As much as I oppose Trump and his policies, it has been his own actions that have set him up to fail in November.
Trump began his campaign in June of 2015, giving a speech that focused on illegal immigration; a speech that many found to be extremely offensive.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump said.” They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Whatever your opinion is with regard to Trump’s aforementioned statement, the fact is that it insulted and angered many people, especially members of the Hispanic population.
The Hispanic voter base, although not extremely influential in the electoral college, is important, and Trump’s recurrent insults toward this population have left very few Hispanic supporters for the Republican nominee.
Trump also insulted many “establishment” Republicans in the early months of his campaign.
When speaking about U.S. Sen. John McCain, Trump said, “He’s not a war hero. He is a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
This statement immediately caught McCain and many of Americans off guard, as McCain is considered a war hero by most Americans.
McCain said that he still supports Mr. Trump, but the five-term senator from Arizona, who is seeking reelection this year, has a seemingly strained relationship with the nominee.
These are just a couple of the plethora of insulting statements that Trump has made toward various individuals and minority groups.
After months of Trump’s statements, he has seemingly lost millions of voters, including many voters in important swing states.
One of the states Trump is in jeopardy of losing this year is Arizona, which historically is a very red state. This is because of the large and growing population of Hispanics in the state, most of which will not be supporting Trump.
A recent poll from Latino Decisions found that 70 percent of the nationwide Hispanic population supporters Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, versus only 19 percent supporting Trump.
Trump’s insulting statements have left permanent damage, and it is highly unlikely that in the last two months before the November election Trump will be able to appeal to these voters.
Trump doesn’t do poorly with everyone, though, as he does do well with white men, who are the backbone of his support.
However, recent polling finds that Mr. Trump is performing as well as or worse than Mitt Romney did with white men in the 2012 election.
With Mr. Trump’s unpopularity with minorities and increasing unpopularity with white men, it looks like Clinton will defeat Trump come November.
