Trump bids to turn tide as GOP fears mount
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DONALD Trump is seeking to quell concerns he lacks the discipline or policy know-how to make a competent US president, even as the list of fellow Republicans deeming him unfit for the Oval Office grows.
Maine Senator Susan Collins, a moderate long wary of Trump, became the latest Republican to announce her intent not to vote for her party’s nominee. Days after rebuking Trump for insinuating Somali refugees in Maine were dangerous, Collins said late on Monday she’d thought “long and hard” about whether she was obligated to support the GOP nominee and decided she could not.
“With the passage of time, I have become increasingly dismayed by his constant stream of cruel comments and his inability to admit error or apologize,” she wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.
Collins wrote she supports neither party’s nominee, though previously she’s said she’s open to voting for Hillary Clinton.
The defection from a respected senator added to a chorus of GOP voices not backing Trump.
Some 50 Republican former national security officials signed an open letter calling Trump the most reckless candidate in history, prompting a counterattack from Trump, who said that the signatories share blame with Clinton for making the world “a mess” and fueling the Islamic State group’s formation.
The renewed focus on GOP discord was not the theme Trump hoped to emphasize, especially as fresh polls appear to show Clinton widening her lead. But Trump suggested yesterday there would be no dramatic change of strategy to regain control of the race.
“I think it’s just, you know, steadiness,” Trump told Fox Business. “And it’s just doing what I’m doing.”
A day earlier, Trump had tried in a major policy speech at the Detroit Economic Club to turn the page on a dreadful stretch in his campaign by unveiling a revamped economic plan centered on far-reaching tax cuts.
Clinton quickly dismissed Trump’s proposal, which would reduce to three the number of income tax brackets and cut corporate taxes to 15 percent. She accused Trump of offering “super big tax breaks” to huge companies and rich people and disputed his claim she wanted the middle class to pay more.
“I have said throughout this campaign I am not going to raise the taxes on the middle class, but with your help we are going to raise it on the wealthy,” she said at a Monday rally in the battleground state of Florida.
In his speech, Trump revised his previous tax plan increasing the rate he said the highest-earning Americans should pay. He also unveiled a new proposal to allow parents to fully deduct the average cost of child care from their taxable income.
Though Trump argues his “America First” policies will return the economy to the boom era of a half-century ago, his vision sidesteps massive changes that have since occurred in the global economy. The United States faces far more overseas competition now than after World War II, and manufacturing expenses for many goods are higher in the US than in Asia, where wages are still lower.
Characteristically short on details, Trump said little about how he would equip American workers to succeed, nor about how returning manufacturing to the US could prove costly for American consumers.
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