Donald Trump said what he said about Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge presiding over the Trump University lawsuit. Trump has to live with the consequences.

But imagine an alternate universe in which Trump accused Curiel of bias without directly raising the toxic issues of race and ethnicity. It could have been done, it might even have been effective and it would have spared Trump the current controversy, had he but the wit.

There’s no sensible explanation for Trump’s decision to devote 10 minutes of his speech at a May 27 rally in San Diego to the Trump University suit. (That was longer than Trump spent talking about jobs, immigration and other key issues.)

But if Trump simply had to discuss the case, and if he had to mention Curiel, he might have said something like, “This judge is a lifetime member of an organization that is boycotting all of my businesses. And he’s supposed to be fair in a case involving one of my businesses?”