GOP Spoiler Trump to Bring Firebrand Campaign to Michigan

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Republican spoiler Donald Trump, who is leading a crowded GOP in polls, will bring his firebrand campaign to southeast Michigan next month as the keynote speaker at a party fundraiser.

Campaigning in Iowa Saturday, the flamboyant businessman offered a sample of what Republicans in Genesee and Saginaw counties might expect on Aug. 11. There, he made withering remarks about Arizona Sen. John McCain’s war record that ignited another firestorm of criticism.

McCain, a naval aviator who spent five years as a prisoner war after his plane was shot down over Hanoi during the Vietnam War, but “he’s not a war hero,” Trump said at a gathering of candidates sponsored by a conservative Christian group. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

McCain and Trump have been feuding over the past week.

McCain said Trump “fired up the crazies” with sweeping generalizations about crime among unauthorized Mexican immigrants, and is threatening progress the party has made toward immigration reform. “Now he galvanized them,” McCain said after a Trump rally in Phoenix a week ago. “He’s really got them activated.”

Republican contenders attending the same Iowa campaign event Saturday quickly condemned Trump for the affront to McCain, including former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, both retired Air Force officers.

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• Would you vote for Donald Trump? Do you think he will be hurt by remarks that Arizona Sen. John McCain isn’t a war hero because he was captured during the Vietnam War?

Perry said Trump “owes every American veteran and in particular John McCain an apology,” and Graham said the remark called into question Trump’s viability as a candidate. He thinks the remark is fatal in nominating states like Iowa.

“Here’s what I think they’re going to say: ‘Donald Trump, you’re fired,’ ” Graham said.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who previously had not criticized Trump, said in an Iowa campaign stop later Saturday, “I unequivocally denounce him.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who sided with Trump on immigration, refused to refused to denounce him.

“You know I recognize that folks in the press love to see Republican-on-Republican violence, and so you want me to say something bad about Donald Trump, or bad about John McCain or bad about anyone else,” he said. “I’m not going to do it.”

GOP Asked Trump to “Tone Down” Rhetoric

The Republican National Committee responded quickly and rebuked Trump in a statement.

“Senator McCain is an American hero because he served his country and sacrificed more than most can imagine. Period,” said Sean Spicer, the RNC’s chief strategist and communications director. “There is no place in our party or our country for comments that disparage those who have served honorably.”

Republican leaders have been fretting about what to do about Trump, whose no-holds-barred approach to engagement threatens to split a party trying to appeal to Hispanic voters, a group that cost Republicans dearly in the 2012 election. Again Saturday, Trump refused to rule out a third-party run for the White House.

The RNC said last week that its chairman, Reince Priebus, had privately asked Trump to “tone down” his comments about immigration, but Trump was not swayed. He said Priebus ”should have known better” than to lecture him.

How to See Trump in Michigan

Tickets for Trump’s Aug. 11 appearance at the Lincoln Day event for Genesee and Saginaw haven’t been announced yet, but details will be posted in the next couple of days on GeneseeGOP.org, according to the Facebook post announcing the event.

Tickets will be $25 to the general public and will be also be available at the door.

The event will be held at Birch Run Expo, 1160 North Beyer Road, Birch Run, MI 48415.. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the event begins at 7 p.m.

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Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr