But curiously, Trump has been very sparing in his criticism of Hillary Clinton. His most pointed jab came only this week after Clinton attacked his immigration comments. Trump responded the next day by calling her “the worst secretary of state in the history of our nation. Why would she be a good president? I think she would be a terrible president.”

But for many years Trump has been far more positive about Clinton. Hillary Clinton attended Trump’s 2005 wedding (and her husband Bill attended the wedding reception), and he has showered her Senate campaigns with contributions on four separate occasions. In 2012, after Clinton had been secretary of state for over three years, he told Fox News that she was a “terrific woman.”…

Rather than first admitting that Trump has a point about the egregious failure of U.S. officials to deport known illegal-alien criminals, GOP candidates have rushed to personally make him the issue by denouncing him. Nothing is more likely to give Donald Trump the grievance quotient he needs to run a third-party race than to have the GOP establishment belittle him and make light of the issues he raises. Even people here at the Las Vegas FreedomFest who disagree with Trump are angry that Republicans seem to find being politically correct about Trump more important than discussing sanctuary cities.

Donald Trump has been called by columnist Charles Krauthammer a “rodeo clown,” but in reality Trump is more like the bucking bronco in a rodeo. Trump is a smart, canny operator who looks after his own interests. The GOP should worry that they seem to have no effective strategy to corral the bronco and indeed may be providing him an opening to bust up their joint.