GOP fears Trump missing opportunities to build case

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Republicans increasingly fear Donald Trump is missing valuable opportunities to build a winning case against Hillary Clinton, compounding their concerns about his campaign’s day-to-day decision making and seeming lack of preparedness for the general election.

While Clinton presses a highly coordinated effort to cast Trump as a reckless, self-serving businessman, he has spent the past few weeks mired in controversies of his own making. Among them: assailing a judge’s Mexican heritage, asserting that President Barack Obama sympathized with terrorists after the Orlando nightclub attacks, and trying to explain away his campaign’s dismal fundraising.

He’s also facing backlash for heading to Scotland to promote a golf resort later in this week in the midst of one of the most tumultuous stretches of his White House bid.

Trump is making some moves this week aimed at steadying his campaign. On Monday, he ousted controversial campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was seen as an impediment to efforts to run a more traditional operation. On Tuesday, he sent out his first fundraising email. And today, he’ll deliver a speech focused on what he describes as Clinton’s “failed policies and bad judgment.”

But with just over four months until Election Day, some fear the changes could be too little, too late.

They point to Republican Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 campaign, which was far better funded and organized than Trump’s, but struggled against a massive Democratic messaging machine and never recovered.