Donald Trump Truthers: Theories Spread He’s Trying to Sabotage His Campaign After His Disastrous Week From Hell

Even by Donald Trump’s standards, last week was a bad week. The Donald’s foot is permanently planted in his mouth, so it’s not unusual for him to say something egregious or stupid. But he’s on quite a roll lately.

First, he cavalierly dismissed the Geneva Conventions, the foundation of international laws concerning the humane treatment of all soldiers. “The problem,” Trump said, “is we have the Geneva Conventions, all sorts of rules and regulations, so the soldiers are afraid to fight. We can’t waterboard, but they can chop off heads. I think we’ve got to make some changes.” To even suggest this is both absurd and an indication of how ill-prepared Trump is for the job.

Trump then went on a conservative Wisconsin radio show (a crucial state in the primary race) and courageously told the truth about Gov. Scott Walker’s neoliberal nightmare: “But you had a $2.2 billion budget deficit and the schools were going begging and everything was going begging because he [Walker] didn’t want to raise taxes because he was going to run for president. So instead of raising taxes he cut back on schools, he cut back on highways, cut back on a lot of things. And that’s why…Wisconsin has a problem.”

This isn’t wrong, but telling inconvenient truths to a Republican audience never ends well. To challenge the no-tax Gospel in this way is pure heresy in conservative circles – it’s as dangerous as professing belief in science. Yet Trump did just that, knowing it would alienate this wing of the party.

Trump also fumbled his attempts to neutralize the story about his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who was charged with simple battery for an altercation with a reporter earlier this month. The wise move is to dismiss Lewandowski. At the very least, though, Trump could’ve remained impartial while the process played itself out. Instead, he questioned the character of the reporter who was roughed up by Lewandowski.

The biggest blunder of the week was Trump’s exchange with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. Asked whether abortion should be punished, Trump initially dodged the question, saying “it’s a very serious problem and it’s a problem we should decide on.” But then he promptly reinserted foot in mouth and added that “There has to be some form of punishment” for women who have abortions.

Even in the Republican Party, this is a preposterous position. It’s the kind of remark that ensures he has no chance of winning a general election. The largest demographic in the country is women – there is no pathway to the nomination without their support. According to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, three-quarters of women now view Trump unfavorably. That number alone all but guarantees a landslide defeat for Trump in November. To threaten women with punishment in this way will only exacerbate his problem.