President Obama and his White House surrogates have pulled back their aggressive attacks against Donald Trump over the last few weeks, and in particular since the billionaire businessman became the presumptive GOP nominee.
The shift is a sharp contrast from the months of dumping on Trump that Obama and his top aides seemed all too happy to do, even from the White House briefing room.
Back then, Obama seemed ready and eager to bemoan the reality TV star’s divisive candidacy, and warn that foreign leaders were worried about Trump taking over the White House. Late last year, White House spokesman Josh Earnest even ridiculed Trump’s hair and wrote him off as a “carnival barker.”
But the morning after Trump’s big Indiana primary win and Ted Cruz’s unexpected decision to drop out of the race, Earnest said Obama didn’t even watch the election returns and had no reaction to Trump becoming the GOP nominee.
Earnest didn’t mention Trump by name, and instead focused on making sure that the Democratic nominee, most likely Hillary Clinton, would continue Obama’s policies and slow but steady economic growth.
“It is undeniable our country is stronger, our economy is stronger than it was eight years ago,” he said. “The question voters will have to ask themselves is do we want to scrap the strategy that has worked so effectively or do we want to build on the progress that we made?”
The subdued response is a far cry from comments Obama and Earnest made just last month.
Exactly one month ago, Obama dismissed Trump’s plan to stop illegal immigrants from sending money back to their home countries as “half-baked, “draconian” and “impractical.” He also said that foreign leaders have been constantly contacting him about some of the “wackier suggestions” Trump has made.
The stream of condemnation started to dissipate a couple of weeks ago, when Trump started racking up primary wins in the Northeast and was building momentum to clinch the nomination.
Since then, Earnest’s main digs have been far more indirect, and mostly involve him saying that he hadn’t listened to Trump or heard his latest remarks.
Veteran Democratic strategists say the White House is likely trying to downplay Trump’s rise by design, by refusing to dignify the presumptive nominee with a presidential swipe that would inevitably make headlines and potentially play to his political advantage.
Erik Smith, a founder of BlueEngineMedia who served as a senior adviser for message development on the Obama 2012 campaign, said it’s wise for the president and his spokesmen to try to stay above the fray at least for the time being.
“It doesn’t serve the president or the Democratic nominee for the president to be engaging with Donald Trump on a daily basis,” he told the Washington Examiner. “If I’m the Democratic nominee, the president is best used a as a validator, not the tip of the spear.”
Longtime Senate Democratic communications strategist Jim Manley also said the White House shouldn’t start taking direct shots just because Trump is now the nominee.
“The first rule of politics is you don’t ever want to get in the middle of a circular firing squad,” he said, referring to the GOP’s internal turmoil.
And although the temptation to react to every snide and derisive comment Trump makes is hard to resist, Manley asked, “Why get into the gutter with the guy? It’s a lose-lose proposition.”
There will be plenty of times when the White House won’t be able to avoid criticizing Trump and his policies, Manley added, but he said there’s “no need for them to comment on every twist and turn of this race.”
The best approach for the White House is for Obama to continue questioning Trump’s presidential credentials and his policy proposals, but otherwise, “most of the back-and-forth should be left to surrogates” and the Democratic nominee’s campaign.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra of California told the Examiner that Obama is too busy being president to worry about Trump. With the Puerto Rican debt crisis and the possible onslaught of Zika cases, “I think the president is focused on getting things done,” Becerra said Wednesday.
As the president’s paid spokesman, Earnest will have a harder time avoiding the daily barrage of Trump-related questions from the insatiable 2016 election-obsessed media.
In late April, Earnest trotted out a Trump talking point he’ll likely have plenty of time to refine over the next seven months in a race that has become so unpredictable that even the top political prognosticators in the country have given up forecasting anyone’s next move.
“I guess I have plenty more important things to be focused on, to prepare for your serious questions, beyond what any individual presidential candidate might have to say,” Earnest said during a press briefing.
When pressed, he quickly added: “I’ve given up trying to divine the intentions of him — or any other presidential candidate.”
