Of course there had been news reports and discussion of Trump University earlier in the campaign. But it wasn’t in the news on May 27, when Trump appeared at a campaign rally in San Diego. The city just happens to be where the Trump University case will be tried in federal court, under U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. While Trump has discussed the suit in speeches before, being in San Diego apparently put him in the mood to dissect it at length.
Great length. In a speech that went a little less than an hour, Trump spent more than ten minutes talking about Trump University. Ten minutes is a lot of time. It was far more, for example, than Trump spent talking about jobs — one week before a terrible jobs report raised serious questions about the recovery. Ten minutes was more than Trump spent talking about illegal immigration, his signature issue. Or veterans, a recent favorite. Or even, astonishingly, the damning State Department report on Hillary Clinton’s email scandal…
“He won’t let it go,” said Strategist Two, a veteran of an earlier GOP campaign. “This was litigated during the primary. Trump’s rivals brought up the issue of Trump University, and Republican primary voters evaluated it, and it didn’t seem to matter.” Even if Democrats are sure to bring it up in the general election campaign, Trump is under no obligation to do it himself.
“In a year where nothing has been rational, the only rational explanation would be that he is wilfully trying to imperil his own campaign,” said Strategist Three, a Hill veteran. “But again, logic need not apply.”
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