ORLANDO — Businessman Donald Trump — after weeks of bristling at rising challengers — has again seized center stage in the chaotic Republican nomination race, unleashing a torrent of personal and sometimes profane attacks that forced his rivals to respond and underscored his continued dominance.
Trump’s latest attention-grabbing comments came during a rally in northwestern Iowa late Thursday night. He called former technology executive Carly Fiorina “Carly whatever-the-hell-her-name-is” and said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was “weak like a baby.” He also accused retired surgeon Ben Carson of lying about his violent childhood and having a “pathological disease” with no cure, which he said is similar to being a child molester.
“How stupid are the people of Iowa?” Trump said, marveling that Carson is polling nearly as well as he is despite providing autobiographical details that Trump says don’t make sense. “How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?”
Such comments that could end presidential dreams for most candidates, yet for months Trump has defied the traditional rules of politics and continued to lead the pack. His endurance comes much to the chagrin of Republican leaders, who can’t believe that a billionaire reality television star has built such a dedicated following and dominated the polls for so many months. There are also worries about the direction in which Trump is leading the party on immigration and other issues.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to guests during a campaign stop at Iowa Central Community College on Thursday in Fort Dodge, Iowa. (Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post)
“We have a marketing problem,” Florida Republican Party Chairman Blaise Ingoglia told party colleagues during a two-day conference in Orlando that heard from Trump and Carson late Friday. Ingoglia said Republicans “need to be smart when it comes to elections. We need a lot more vision and a lot less vitriol in our own primaries.”
Carson responded to Trump’s attacks during a campaign stop in Greenville, S.C., and called on his rival to put aside “politics of personal destruction” and “deal with the real issues.”
“I’m hopeful that at some point we reach a level of maturity so that we can actually deal with the issues that are facing us right now, and we can stop getting into the mud,” Carson told reporters Friday on the campus of Bob Jones University ahead of a town hall.
If there was any question whether Trump meant what he said Thursday night, confirmation came Friday morning in a video posted on Instagram that showed a brief clip of Carson’s biographical claims being contradicted by a childhood friend, along with this message: “Violent criminal? Or pathological liar? We don’t need either as president.”
Others candidates quickly chimed in Friday. Rubio claimed he didn’t know the details of Trump’s comments, but he complimented Iowa Republicans: “I think the Iowa voters are some of the nicest, most informed voters in the country,” he said.
Bush, campaigning in Franklin, N.H., before traveling to Orlando, called Carson “the nicest guy. I think personal attacks aren’t going to cut it.”
People selling badges and T-shirts outside where Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke during a campaign stop at Iowa Central Community College on Thursday in Fort Dodge, Iowa. (Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post)
Regarding Trump’s comments about Iowa voters, Bush said: “He better go back to the marketing department on that one. Look, I don’t get why he says what he says. Can’t help you on that.”
Fiorina posted a snarky response on Facebook that said, in part, “all the money in the world won’t make you as smart as Ben Carson.”
Responding to Trump often means becoming the victim of his backlash — which some candidates craving media attention welcome. Trump fired back at Fiorina in a series of tweets Friday afternoon, including this message: “Carly, whose campaign is dead, is making false statements about me in order to salvage hope! Sad.”
All of which leaves the question: Will Trump’s latest round of controversial comments turn off potential supporters?
Trump had been more controlled in recent weeks as he endured in the race, but he appeared to unravel a bit onstage Thursday night at a community college in Fort Dodge, Iowa. At first, the audience was quick to laugh at Trump’s sharp insults, but the applause came less often and grew softer as the speech dragged on. The audience grew quiet, with a few shaking their heads, after Trump’s attacks on Carson grew personal. A man sitting in the back of the auditorium loudly gasped.
The Iowa caucuses are often dominated by evangelicals, many of whom have been captivated by Carson, who talks frequently about his faith. As part of his critique of Carson’s autobiography, Trump said he doesn’t believe that Carson was able to so quickly overcome his violent temper after finding God. He also mocked and pantomimed Carson’s claim that a youthful stabbing incident was stopped by a friend’s belt buckle.
“And the people of Iowa believe him,” Trump said. “Give me a break. It doesn’t happen that way. . . . Don’t be fools, okay?”
Carson and Trump have long attracted some of the same types of voters. Karen Dixon, 71, a homemaker who attended Carson’s event in South Carolina on Friday, said she once supported Trump but that his performance this week had changed her opinion. She would not rule out voting for him but is more drawn to Carson now.
“That brought him down in a mighty, mighty way,” Dixon said. “To get up on a stage in front of so many people and have no dignity for another human being, much less a fellow Republican — for him to do all that with his coat and belt, that was totally unpresidential, in my eyes.”
Carson fan Don Pendleton, 64, said Trump “has a real chance to win if he didn’t have the language he has. His language turns me off. Don’t call people ‘stupid,’ especially the Iowa voters.”
At the “Sunshine Summit” in Orlando on Friday, tone and inclusion — especially on issues such as immigration reform — were a subtle subtext of the party gathering in a state with a booming Hispanic population in the critical Central Florida corridor between Tampa and Orlando.
But Trump’s 20-minute speech in Orlando urging harsh immigration policies and other tough measures was warmly received. The crowd cheered wildly when he said that the border wall he wants to build “is going to be a real wall. It’s going to be a Trump wall.”
Bush and Rubio supporters were quick to predict that Trump’s comments would hurt his campaign.
"Somebody said to me recently that one of the reasons that they think Mr. Trump is doing so well is because he’s not a politician,” said Florida Republican State Rep. Colleen Burton, a longtime Bush supporter. “I said, ‘He is the consummate politician. He’s exactly what you don’t like about politicians: He’s saying what he thinks he knows people want to hear.’ ”
In Iowa, Patrick Schaeffer, a Republican who lives in the Des Moines area, wasn’t too high on Trump before, but he said he considers him an embarrassment now. Schaeffer said if Trump becomes the GOP nominee and faces off against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he’ll probably stay home.
“I don’t appreciate what he said about Iowa voters,” said Schaeffer, 54, a facilities engineer with John Deere. “I’m ashamed that there’s no one better in the Republican Party.”
Johnson reported from Fort Dodge, Iowa. Philip Rucker in Greenville, S.C., and John Wagner in Des Moines contributed to this report.
Ed O’Keefe is covering the 2016 presidential campaign, with a focus on Jeb Bush and other Republican candidates. He's covered presidential and congressional politics since 2008. Off the trail, he's covered Capitol Hill, federal agencies and the federal workforce, and spent a brief time covering the war in Iraq.
Jenna Johnson is a political reporter who is covering the 2016 presidential campaign.
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