Is Trump Losing It?

Now that Ted Cruz has pulled into the lead in the Iowa polls, Donald Trump has launched an attack on the Texas senator.  I should say that Trump has tried to launch an attack on Cruz, because what The Donald has to say is laughable at best and embarrassing at worst.  Trump has not only missed the mark with his line of attack, but he has shown himself to be strangely out of touch as well.

Here's what Trump said about Cruz on Fox News Sunday:

Ted Cruz doesn’t have the “right temperament” to be president.

 

“The way he’s dealt with the Senate — where he goes in frankly like a bit of a maniac — you never get things done that way,” Trump said on “Fox News Sunday.” “You can’t walk into the Senate and scream and call people liars and not be able to cajole and get along with people. He’ll never get anything done. That’s the problem with Ted.”

 

When I heard this, I actually laughed out loud.  Trump is the man who has called his opponents all sorts of names.  He started by mocking Jeb Bush as slow and "low energy".  He's also been nasty in what he has said about Dr. Ben Carson who, whether you see him as president or not, is a brilliant, honorable and moral man.  Trump has called various people in the media all sorts of names including "liar".  He called Marco Rubio dishonest and actually commented on how much Rubio sweats.  Some of Trump's bigger insults were saved for Rand Paul and John Kasich.  The truth is that Trump insults everyone who disagrees with him.  It is his standard method of operation.  How many times have you heard Trump call people stupid or idiots or morons?  If you listen to him at all, you know that he is constantly tossing those names out there.

 

Cruz, on the other hand, is generally tough but usually respectful of others.  Cruz's parents apparently raised him to be polite and well mannered.  (Perhaps Trump was just another rich spoiled kid who was allowed to say and do anything he wanted.)  At one point a few months ago, however, Cruz was infuriated by something that the Republican leader of the senate Mitch McConnell did.  Cruz went on the floor of the senate and announced that McConnell had promised to do one thing, but had then done the opposite.  Cruz said that McConnell had lied to him.  That's it.  No more, no less.  Cruz once called McConnell a liar in a moment of anger.

 

The truth is that Trump's shot at Cruz based upon having the "right temperament" is much more a case of Trump shooting himself than hitting Cruz.

 

I wonder what's next.  Will Trump start lambasting Rubio for being "too rich" to be president?  Maybe he will shoot at Carly Fiorina for having "too much experience in the private sector" to be president.  Maybe he will criticize Chris Christie for being too nice to Hillary Clinton to be president.  Those criticism, like the one of Cruz, would be idiotic.  Maybe that's where Trump is going.  Has he become unhinged because he has fallen behind in the Iowa polls?