Donald Trump’s insult of voters, rivals signals downfall: Analysts

Some political observers in the United States see recent attacks by leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump against his rivals and voters signal the start of his downfall.

During a tirade in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on Thursday, Trump said voters who support his closest rival Ben Carson are "stupid” and compared him to a “child molester” in a nationally televised interview on CNN on Friday.

Trump’s vicious rants are raising the question whether he can convert his presidential campaign from a personality-driven crowd attraction into a persuasive case for presidency that can draw a bigger plurality of Republican voters.

Being the front-runner all summer, the billionaire businessman is now almost even with Carson, in large part because of fierce recent competition from the retired neurosurgeon, who has won a following with evangelical voters with his story of spiritual redemption.

But now some Republican pundits believe that his scathing attacks on Carson and his supporters will backfire.

“How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country?” Trump said Thursday of voters who believe Carson’s story of religious awakening.

“He goes into the bathroom for a couple of hours, and he comes out, and now he’s religious,” Trump added. “And the people of Iowa believe him. Give me a break. . . . It doesn’t happen that way. . . . Don’t be fools, okay?”

Those remarks could be deeply damaging, said Dave Carney, a Republican political strategist who ran former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential race in 2012.

“He’s walking on a tightrope,” Carney said of Trump. “But when you start to make fun of being born again and redemption and Christian faith in our party, you can talk yourself right off the tightrope.”

Some Republicans said that Trump’s non-stop spree of extreme disrespect could at last signal his eventual defeat.

“Trump’s attacks on Carson could be the hole in the dike,” said Edward Rollins, a veteran Republican consultant. “Many Republicans didn’t like McCain. It was also early in the campaign and many were viewing Trump as a protest candidate. Now he is viewed as a front-runner and potential nominee. To attack Carson yesterday as viciously as he did may make voters take a second look.”

Longtime Republican pollster Ed Goeas said the biggest problem for Trump may be the use of the word “stupid.” Voters may forgive many things, like insulting Mexicans and Sen. John McCain, he said, but they do not like being called stupid.

“It will be impossible to win the Republican nomination, much less the White House, by slashing and burning down the field,” said Matt Moore, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party.

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