Donald Trump veers off into crazy land trying to seize political advantage after Orlando

Trump wondering out loud about Obama's commitment to fighting terror echoes nutty birther movement

‘They built a country based on this big new deal called freedom. I’m Trump. Believe me, nobody does deals better than me’ (AP)

Donald Trump is attempting to project a disciplined message in the wake of the Orlando shootings, outlined in a speech on Monday and set to be pursued at campaign appearances all week: President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are responsible for loose immigration policies that are endangering America.

The strategy that has worked before - his call for a ban on Muslims entering the country in response to the Paris attacks turbo-boosted his ratings among Republican primary voters. But discipline is not easy for Mr Trump; in this time of tragedy he may be jumping his own tracks.

A new furore is now growing around him following remarks he made to Fox News on Monday in which he appeared to insinuate that Mr Obama isn’t just weak on immigration policy and domestic terror but may in some way harbour sympathy for terrorists inspired by radical Islam.

Not for the first time in the last few weeks a question arises: is Mr Trump, who will use a string of campaign appearances across the country the week to further hammer away at Ms Clinton and Mr Obama on security, sabotaging his own narrative by polluting it with too much crazy?

“We’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind,” he said. “The something else in mind - you know, people can’t believe it. People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can’t even mention the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable. There’s something going on.”

Mr Trump pretends not to know what he is doing. When the Washington Post ran a story saying that he had implied to Fox that Mr Obama has secret sympathies for the terrorists - hardly the only outlet to do so - he feigned shock and summarily banned it from covering his campaign events.

But scholars of Trump might not be surprised. When Mr Obama was in his first term, the billionaire spawned the so-called ‘birther’ movement, the main premise of which was Mr Obama had not released his full birth certificate because he was really a Muslim born in Kenya.

It remains possible the Orlando crisis will end up propelling Mr Trump still closer to his goal of winning the White House. The country is anxious and never more so than this week and his projection of himself as a strong leader will clearly continue to resonate with many.

People take part in a candlelight memorial service the day after a mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando (Reuters)

Many believe the screening process now in place for immigrants is inadequate. In the meantime, the Obama administration has said that it will accept some 85,000 refugees this year, up from about 70,000 last year, including 1,682 Syrian refugees. Out of about 70,000 refugees the accepted last year, about 28,300 identified as Muslim, according to State Department statistics.

“American (sic) must now get very tough, very smart and very vigilant,” Mr Trump said in a Twitter message on Tuesday. “We cannot admit people into our country without extraordinary screening”.

In his New Hampshire speech, he named Ms Clinton 15 times. He even attempted to turn her record of supporting LGBT rights on its head.

“Hillary Clinton can never claim to be a friend of the gay community as long as she continues to support immigration policies that bring Islamic extremists to our country who suppress women, gays and anyone who doesn’t share their views,” he said, while doubling down on his proposal to close US borders to immigrants from any country with a record of supporting terrorism.

But Mr Trump is ignoring the records of the leaders he attacks. Mr Obama’s record includes the killing of Osama bin Laden and the regular extra-judicial killing of Jihadist leaders through drone attacks. It is hardly one of a Jihad sympathiser. Ms Clinton meanwhile has for years carefully cultivated her image as a foreign policy hawk, for instance backing military action in Iraq and Libya.

The White House issued a rebuke after Mr Trump's remarks to Fox, saying the President's record on fighting terror “speaks for itself” and includes a “lot of dead terrorists”. John Podesta, the Clinton campaign manager, said Mr. Trump’s speech “offered some disturbing insights into the dangers of a Trump White House. Nothing in his rambling remarks came close to resembling a real strategy for fighting terrorists and keeping our people safe.”

It maybe those departures into crazy land that eventually trips Mr Trump. He showed signs of it two weeks ago when he assailed the judge presiding over the civil cases against his former Trump University for being unfair to him on account of his being “Mexican”. His remarks drew widespread opprobrium including from his own party. (Aside form anything else, the judge is not Mexican.)

Now comes the notion that Mr Obama is weak on immigration because he likes people who want to shoot up Americans.

It might be that Mr Trump is firming up support among those primary voters that responded so well when he first suggested shutting out Muslims from America. But they are not a broad enough coalition of voters to win him the general election against Ms Clinton. While some 75 per cent of primary voters agreed with the plan in individual primary states, nationwide only 40 per cent of Republicans approved, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC survey in December.

To win the White House he needs to broaden his base of support and attract moderate Republicans and independents to his cause. So far he has shown no sign that he is either willing, or politically capable enough, to do that.