Will lack of detail doom Trump?

Republicans believe Donald Trump’s lack of specifics on major policy issues was on full display at the second Republican debate last week and will give his rivals the opening they need to finally begin cutting him down.

{mosads}Some Republicans have been seeking to draw attention to Trump’s rhetoric on the issues, and foreign policy in particular, claiming he’s running on platitudes rather than substance.

That line of attack burst into the open at the debate last week in Simi Valley. Some Republicans now say that Trump has been exposed for having a weak grasp on policy, and believe it will drive a decline in the polls.

“There’s a threshold you have to meet for the public to have confidence that you can handle the important issues,” said GOP pollster David Winston, a veteran of Newt Gingrich’s 2012 campaign. “The debate will create doubts about whether Trump meets that threshold. He and his team should be anxious to see what these new polling numbers look like.”

By most counts, Trump had a strong debate, displaying the skilled showmanship and barbed attacks that have catapulted him to the top of the field.

But Trump was under constant attack from his rivals for lacking the intellectual curiosity and temperament to be commander-in-chief. The “incoming,” as Trump calls it, continued after the debate.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board, a bastion of establishment conservative thinking, excoriated Trump for relying on “his usual fierce generalities” in an editorial titled “Carly Trumps Donald.”

“Mr. Trump was full of his usual bluster and bragging but seemed out of his depth when the debate turned toward specifics,” the paper wrote.

Trump’s biggest nemesis in the race, Jeb Bush, took that same message to Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity on Thursday night, hitting Trump for a past comment in which the businessman said newspaper reports and political TV shows are what shape his national security agenda.

“He needs to be challenged like all of us about what our experience is to be president of the United States,” Bush said. “This is a big, serious job and you have to have the skills necessary to lead.”

Trump in recent weeks has sought to address the issue with papers and speeches outlining his ideas. 

In an interview with The Hill on Thursday, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said several policy papers have been completed and would be released “on our timing, not someone else’s.”



He said the next in the series would probably be released next week and would focus on tax reform. It’s an issue that would play to Trump’s strengths as a businessman.

On Friday, Trump’s campaign released a position paper on how he would defend Americans’ Second Amendment rights after he cancelled an appearance at a conservative candidates’ forum in South Carolina amid criticism that he didn’t take on an audience member at rally who called President Obama a Muslim and questioned whether he was an American.

Trump released a policy paper on immigration last month with the help of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the foremost border security hawk in the Senate.

And a day before the debate, Trump announced his foreign policy platform from the deck of decommissioned battleship near Los Angeles.

But Trump’s proposals have been met with derision in conservative circles.

“It was cotton candy and fluff,” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said of Trump’s foreign policy speech. “When you have a former game show host (Wink Martindale) introduce you on a battleship, you have to believe this is about shock effect, not policy.”

Trump has said that if elected, he’ll surround himself with the best and brightest on all of the issues to help inform his decision-making. It’s a strategy that has helped him build a multi-billion dollar real estate and media empire, he argues.

“I will know more about the problems of this world by the time I sit,” Trump said at the debate, responding to criticism that he’s not prepared to be president. “You look at what’s going in this world right now by people that supposedly know, this world is a mess.”

That’s a statement that will haunt him, said Iowa conservative activist Doug Gross.

“I don’t think the American people, or even the Tea Party patriots, will be comfortable with someone saying they’ll bone up on the issues when they become president,” Gross said. “I think his numbers are declining as we speak.”


Trump’s backers aren’t worried that the attacks over his policy acumen will catch hold.

“Ronald Reagan was also criticized, not just as a candidate, but also as president, for not being up on the details of things,” said Jeffrey Lord, a Reagan administration alum and Trump supporter.

“This idea that you have to be in the weeds on every policy issue is a favorite story-line for the media and pundits because it’s how Washington runs,” he said. “But part of the reason Donald Trump has been so successful is because people are sick to death of that stuff.”

Lord argued that Trump’s appeal has never been that he’s the most policy savvy politician. Trump has rocketed to the top of the field with an emotionally resonant argument that as an outsider, he’s best equipped to deliver on the years of failed promises from other Republican politicians that they’ll upend the status quo.

“Ronald Reagan didn’t win because he was into the details,” Lord said. “He had the vision and he had the message. The same is true of Barack Obama when he drove home the idea of hope and change.”

“Voters in this election are looking for someone who knows how to put the pieces together,” he continued. “You need the money, organization and message to win. Trump has all three.”

Even Republicans who have been critical of Trump admit that he’s defied all of the political laws so far, and worry he may skate on the policy issue by virtue of his supreme confidence, deft political skills, and the deep anti-establishment sentiment driving the early stages of the GOP nominating contest.

The first post-debate survey, a Morning Consult poll of voters who said they watched the debate, showed Trump with an astounding 24 point lead over the next closest contender.

“It’s hard to tell because all of the conventional wisdom about him has been wrong so far,” Bonjean said. “But you have to believe that eventually his lack of expertise on these issues will catch up with him.”