COLUMN: Trump trips up the rich and famous (media elites & GOP snobs)

It certainly is satisfying to see the Republican Party establishment squirm at the meteoric rise of Donald Trump to front-runner status in the GOP presidential race.

You don’t have to like everything Trump says to enjoy watching him topple icons, expose shibboleths and challenge his fellow candidates to be political leaders instead of poll readers.

Clearly, on one issue after another, billionaire Trump is ringing the bell with everyday GOP voters, while his opponents are shooting themselves in the foot.

It all started on June 16 when Trump announced his campaign with an impromptu speech at the eponymous Trump Tower in New York. He sucked all the oxygen out of the race with his much reported (generally incorrectly so) comments about Mexico and illegal immigration. So let’s just look at that one issue, and see why Trump’s “shoot from the lip” approach is working.

Although the establishment Republican Party leaders, along with the entire Democratic Party and their wholly owned subsidiaries in the national media, blasted Trump for what they tried to categorize as a racist rant, they were all shocked to find out that Trump’s popularity started to soar. That’s because he was telling the people what they already knew to be true, and what they had never heard come out of a politician’s mouth before.

But he didn’t say what you think he did, any more than when Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said that she could see Russia from her house. Palin said Russia was a close neighbor to Alaska, no different than when Texan Rick Perry brags about being a governor with experience dealing with Mexico because Texas shares a border with our neighbor to the south.

And as for Trump, he didn’t say that all Mexicans are rapists or murderers; he said that Mexico — along with China and other countries — was using the United States as a “dumping ground” for its problems.

Here’s the relevant part of his announcement speech — in context:

“Our country is in serious trouble. We don’t have victories anymore. We used to have victories, but we don’t have them. When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let’s say, China in a trade deal? They kill us. I beat China all the time. All the time.

“When did we beat Japan at anything? ...

“When do we beat Mexico at the border? They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity. And now they are beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me. But they’re killing us economically.

“The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems.

“Thank you. It’s true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

“But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people.”

Plainly, Trump compliments Mexico on outsmarting us. “These are the best and the finest,” he says, and it is clear he is talking about the Mexican leaders who in his words are “killing us economically.” He then goes on to contrast those Mexican leaders with the lawbreakers who are coming across the border, and he tacitly makes the point that these illegal aliens are part of a migration that Mexico has supported and encouraged. The illegal aliens are not just coming across the border by chance; they are being “sent” by the “best and finest” in Mexico who are “laughing at us, at our stupidity.”

This is the language that resonates with the American people. This is what makes us feel like someone is finally standing up for us, instead of for the invaders. When Sen. John McCain or President Obama talk about illegal immigration, it seems like all they are concerned about is how to accommodate the lawbreakers, how to grant them amnesty and ensure they have jobs and government services.

But when Trump talks about them, he talks about how they are taking advantage of our good nature, how they do not assimilate into our culture, how they too often bring crime and drugs with them (he could have added disease) and how the open border is devastating us economically.

Do the liberal elites really need to be convinced that the porous border is a magnet for Mexican and other Latino gang members? That the criminal element in Mexico is drawn to our country because it is ripe for prostitution, for drug profiteering, for theft and abuse? Can anyone really think that the folks coming across the border illegally are lawyers and doctors and business owners — the kind of people we would gladly welcome from any country?

Trump looked around the room at the Trump Tower and he said, “They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us.”

It was here that Trump made the famous statement: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

The pundits and politicos went crazy. Did Trump really just say that all Mexicans are rapists and criminals and drug dealers? Well, no, actually he did not. He said that the people “sent” across the border are bringing problems like those with them, and yes he even acknowledged that not everyone who comes from Mexico is a troublemaker. “Some, I assume, are good people.”

But the lines were drawn. It was going to be Trump and the little guy, the plain American, against the media elites and the political establishment. Trump had common sense on his side, and on their side his opponents had the ability to twist his honest words spoken on behalf of restoring American greatness into something akin to genocidal insanity.

But it didn’t work. The facts kept getting in the way. On July 1, an illegal Mexican immigrant named Francisco Sanchez killed 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle in an apparently random shooting in San Francisco. Steinle was not just a victim of Sanchez, a repeat border crosser; she was a victim of a failed U.S. border policy, and a victim of federal tolerance of the so-called “sanctuary city” policy that allows San Francisco and other cities to harbor illegal aliens and protect them from deportation.

Trump’s rant against Mexico “not sending their best” suddenly made sense even to the political class. Suddenly Congress was entertaining the idea of “Kate’s Law” that would impose a mandatory prison sentence on deported felons who cross back into the United States. In addition, the House passed a bill that would block sanctuary cities from receiving federal law enforcement funding. It remains to be seen whether the Senate will have the cojones to pass the common-sense bill or not, and President Obama, of course, vowed to veto the bill, which came to be known as the Donald Trump Act.

As I write this column on Friday, a brutal murder in Montana is adding fuel to the fire. Jesus Deniz Mendoza, 18, is accused of shooting and killing two good Samaritans who stopped to help him on the roadside when his car broke down on the Crow Reservation. He allegedly killed Jason Shane and his wife, Tana Shane, after he ordered them to walk away from their car. Their daughter Jorah survived after being shot in the head and the back.

Mendoza had legal status in the U.S., but that doesn’t improve the story any. He reportedly lived illegally in Wyoming for many years with his parents before being granted permanent resident status in the U.S. in 2013. The question, of course, is what warranted granting him legal status. What exactly does the country stand to gain by granting him the privilege of living here?

I certainly know what we stood to gain by deporting him years ago — the continued life of the good Samaritans, Jason and Tana Shane. Do you think the Shanes’ lives were worth anything? Do you think they had a right to expect the federal government to protect them as zealously as it protects illegal immigrants?

Last month, Mendoza was charged in Wyoming with felony burglary and marijuana possession and released on his own recognizance. After the murder charges were filed last week, the Wyoming county attorney who had allowed Mendoza to be released from jail, said, “There was nothing at all to point to this kid doing anything like this.”

Really? I bet Donald Trump (and most of America) would beg to differ.

Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake. If you don’t like his opinion, stop by the office and he will gladly refund your two cents.  E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com