It may seem to believe, given his meteoric rise to the top of the polls and his ability to fend off controversies that would ordinarily sink the candidacy of any other White House hopeful, but Donald Trump is not having a good week.
The GOP frontrunner and real estate magnate is under fire for not correcting a claim made Thursday night by supporters that President Obama is a Muslim who was born overseas.
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“We have a problem in this country, it’s called Muslims. We know our current president is one -- you know he’s not even an American. But anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question, when can we get rid of them?” one man asked during a Trump campaign rally in New Hampshire.
He was followed by another man who made the same claim.
“I applaud the gentleman who stood and said Obama is a Muslim born abroad and about the military camps, everyone knows that,” he said.
“Right,” Trump replied before moving on.
The billionaire’s campaign has since said Trump didn’t hear the question and that’s why he didn’t refute it at the time.
While Obama is a Christian who was born in Hawaii, the episode evoked memories of when Trump questioned the president’s citizenship, and his quest to get the president to release his college transcripts and passport history – at one point offering to donate $5 million to charity if the commander-in-chief did so.
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Other 2016 contenders, like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), have already condemned Trump for not immediately rejecting the remarks.
The rally capped what has been a rough week for Trump.
While he was front and center at this week’s GOP presidential debate, he didn’t loom over the event as his did during the first one in Cleveland last month. Trump largely disappeared in the last hour of the debate, possibly owing to the over three-hour format.
Media coverage after the event has mostly focused on former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, whose dominant performance is likely to catapult her to the upper echelon of the GOP field.
Meanwhile, a key conservative group this week signaled it’s had enough of Trump’s candidacy.
On Tuesday, the influential Club for Growth announced its political arm would launch a $1 million advertising campaign in the crucial state of Iowa. The two television ads seek to paint Trump as “the worst kind of politician” and play up his past claims, like that he identifies as a Democrat.
Trump is “playing us for chumps,” one spot says.
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Thus far, Trump has shown a Teflon-like ability to shrug off criticism from his fellow candidates, Democrats and the media. However, this week shows his time atop the polls is beginning to have an accumulative effect, with several possible battlefronts opening up before him.
The trend is likely to continue after Wednesday night’s debate, where Trump mixed it up with several other contenders. The often heated exchanges could spark more oppositions ads, more critiques in the days ahead.
Plus, Trump’s seemingly endless capacity to make questionable, off-the-cuff remarks about his rivals could also prompt more scrutiny ahead of next month’s debate in Colorado and lead to more embarrassing exchanges, similar to the one he had Wednesday with Fiorina.
She asked to respond to a critique Trump made about her looks during an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
"I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said," the 2016 hopeful said to sustained cheers and wild applause.
