Michigan Governor Questions Trump's Suitability for President

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Fresh from the first debates in the Republican race for the White House, Donald Trump makes his first Michigan campaign appearance next week – and those cheering his arrival don’t include Gov. Rick Snyder.

Snyder, who briefly entertained the idea of his own presidential run, told the Associated Press he has doubts about Trump’s suitability for the office of president.

A computer executive and venture capitalist turned politician himself, the governor said he understands from his own experience the appeal of political neophytes among voters who think “the overall political culture in the country is broken.”

“He’s had a lot of success in terms of business, but a number of his comments are clearly inappropriate and would be a major concern,” Snyder said in an interview with the AP at an auto industry conference near Traverse City Wednesday. “And I think that’s something people need to take into account in their decision-making process.”

Related:

• Michigan GOP Won’t Dump Trump as Keynote Speaker
• GOP Spoiler Trump to Bring Firebrand Campaign to Michigan

Since his mid-June announcement, widely denounced as denigrating to immigrants, Trump has been a lightning rod for the GOP as the party tries to broaden its base and attract minority voters away from Democrats.

The flamboyant billionaire was sharply criticized last month after he said former Sen. John McCain, held as a POW for five years after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War, is only regarded as a war hero “because he was captured.” One of the strongest rebukes came former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, also a candidate, who said in his now-epic rage that Trump “a cancer on conservatism” that “must be clearly diagnose, excised and discarded.”

Trump made fun of Perry a few days later, saying he “put glasses on so people will think he’s smart.”

As Trump has gone from laughingstock to frontrunner, though, advisers are warning him that he needs to tone down his rhetoric and start acting like a frontrunner if he expects to convince Americans to take his campaign seriously.

Snyder said he hasn’t decided who he will support. Whoever it is should be a “problem solver” who rejects “the old, broken culture of fighting blame,” according to the AP.

Trump’s first Michigan appearance as a candidate is Tuesday, Aug. 11, when he gives the keynote address at Genesee and Saginaw county Republicans’ Lincoln Day dinner at Birch Run Expo Center.

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Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr