Donald Trump has been the presumptive Republican nominee for 37 days.
It is not going well.
His bundlers are struggling to raise money. His field organization is a joke; his communications shop is massively outgunned. His aides are squabbling and leaking to the press. Top Republicans are denouncing him daily on national TV. And the latest big national poll — taken after he began attacking a federal judge for being “Mexican” — suggests that his early mistakes are already doing damage.
Meanwhile, Democrats are rallying behind his all-but-certain rival, Hillary Clinton. On Wednesday and Thursday, her campaign orchestrated a dazzling media blitz, booking interviews with 12 news organizations and choreographing the rollout of major endorsements while gently nudging aside Bernie Sanders.
Trump responded with a few tweets.
When Clinton announced her endorsement from President Barack Obama on Thursday afternoon, Trump fired off a relatively tepid message: "Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama—but nobody else does!"
Clinton's team responded within minutes: "Delete your account." A few hours later, Trump offered his rejoinder: "How long did it take your staff of 823 people to think that up--and where are your 33,000 emails that you deleted?" Trump has bristled at comparisons between his staff size and that of Clinton's, using it as another point to argue that his spartan team has been more efficient and lower-cost, suggesting that he would do more with less as president.
The most tangible sign of Trump's floundering, however, came in a Fox News national poll released Thursday night. While recent surveys have shown Trump either closing the gap with or surpassing Clinton, the Fox poll showed Trump's three-point lead in the previous survey against Clinton had turned into a three-point deficit.
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