Who Is The Real Donald?

The Donald has now entered center stage, and while he may be a fascinating personality, the one debate I would love to see is not The Donald debating the rest of the Republican field but The Donald debating The Donald.

Over the past fifteen years, Trump has changed parties and his ideas leaving one to ask, who is the real Donald Trump? As Jonah Goldberg observed, over the years Trump has taken position that would have made him both a RINO and CINO.

Trump answered Bill O’ Riley’s question on what to do about those illegals who were here just four years ago:

“I think right now you’ve going to have to do something. It’s hard to generalize but you’re going to have to look at the individual people. See how they’ve done. See how productive they have been. See what their references are and then make a decision…you know, you have some great productive people that came in.”

He did not rule out a path to citizenship. One year later, he criticized Romney for his self-deporting statement as not just politically stupid but wrong. Now every Mexican coming across the border is a criminal or a dreg of Mexican society? Why has Donald Trump changed his position of just three years ago?

Trump has called for universal health care and single payer in the past. He even praised Hillary’s healthcare proposal in 2007, so what is Donald Trump’s position on health care now?

Trump called for a one-time 14.5% surcharge on the wealthy to help balance the budget, so Mr. Trump, still believes in taxing the rich to balance the budget. How will this benefit the economy and help create jobs?

Donald Trump has supported the Kelo decision which allowed local government to declare Eminent Domain over private property, then pass it on to other private property. Trump’s viewpoint is important since he has been willing to use local government connections to obtain private property from others. A true conservative respects private property. The old Donald Trump was a crony capitalist. What is Trump’s view of the judicial branch and what judicial philosophy will Trump demand of potential jurists to the Federal Courts?

Trump has made it clear he is anxious for a trade war with Mexico and China. He is hard core protectionist or at least he is on the stump. Since Republicans have been a free trade party, a question to ask Mr. Trump is whether he is going to push protectionism as part of the Republican platform. How will this produce more economic opportunity for Americans?

We know donations to the Clinton Foundation have ended up in the pockets of the Clintons and their entourage and not to the needs promoted. Mr. Trump might want to answer, does he ever regret giving to the Clinton Foundation based on what we know now?

Donald Trump has hit a nerve dealing with the grassroots' distrust of the Republican establishment. Carly Fiorina echoed this theme on ABC's This Week:

“People are angry at a professional political class of both parties that talks a good game, gives good speeches but somehow nothing ever changes.”

She added that Trump is also benefiting from a backlash against media double standards that goes after Trump while ignoring the inflammatory rhetoric of Al Sharpton or Bernie Sanders. (Bernie Sanders actually stated one reason women get ovarian cancer is because they don’t have enough orgasms. Can you imagine how the media would react if Donald Trump said that?)

A political operative friend of mine told me that Donald Trump has the ability to connect with the guy at the end of the bar who knows the system is not working and is stuck in an economic rut not of his making. That is a strength that can’t be overlooked. Trump is a street fighter and God knows, Republicans could use a few street fighters. He is taking on the establishment of both parties, but is he the right messenger?

And as National Review John Fund observed, Trump is as likely to run an independent race if he doesn’t get the nomination and pull a Ross Perot. Just as Ross Perot helped elect Bill Clinton, will Trump be willing to do the same and help elect Hillary Clinton? Before we jump on the Trump bandwagon, we might want to know exactly how committed Trump is to conservativism. Before Trump gets into forums with his fellow Republicans, he might want to debate the old Trump.