Sept. 15--When Donald Trump holds a rally, people come to listen. And when he comes to Southern California on Tuesday to deliver an address aboard a battleship, the spectacle is sure to draw both a crowd and yet another shower of attention on the eve of the next Republican debate.
Trump will talk national security and veterans issues aboard the Iowa in San Pedro, in an event being billed as a campaign rally and a fundraiser for a veterans group.
He has called on CNN, the sponsor of the Reagan Presidential Library debate, to donate its advertising revenue to veterans groups. But his stature with veterans has been bumpy in recent months. Trump offended some this summer when he mocked Arizona Sen. John McCain's record of service as a prisoner of war for five years in Vietnam, saying he's "not a war hero."
Despite calls for Trump to apologize, he did not -- to little effect on his standing. Predictions that the comment would doom his campaign proved wrong; he has continued to climb in the polls nationally as well as in early nominating states. In California, a recent USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found that 24% of the state's Republicans support Trump, followed by 18% support for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
"Right now, he [Trump] can say almost anything and Republican voters are OK with it," said Stuart Stevens, a Republican strategist who was a senior aide to Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign. (Stevens' firm is assisting the campaign of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.) "He's having fun and for voters -- right now -- it's fun to support him. Will it hold until early next year? Time will tell."
For all the pomp of Trump's rallies -- he handed out baseball hats emblazoned with his campaign message of "Make America Great Again" at a rally in Iowa over the weekend -- critics have castigated him for offering few policy proposals. With Trump's appearance aboard the Iowa, an outlying question remains: Will a policy-minded candidate emerge, will he stick to inflammatory rhetoric, or both?
Trump has, for the most part, offered vague platitudes when it comes to foreign policy. On U.S. trade with China, he's said, in typical Trump fashion, "When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let's say China in a trade deal? They kill us. I beat China all the time. All the time."
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He criticized the Iran nuclear deal as a threat to Israel but has taken a more nuanced approach than some of his rivals. Last week at a rally on Capitol Hill, as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas vowed rip the deal to pieces if elected, Trump said he instead would "police" it and "renegotiate" it.
For Trump, immigration has become the pillar to his candidacy, appealing to the concerns of conservative voters who believe the nation's border is not secure. When he traveled to Los Angeles in July, he assailed so-called sanctuary cities and said that "illegals" are coming into the country and killing children, noting the death of a San Francisco woman. The suspect in her case was in the country illegally.
Since then, Trump has unveiled an immigration plan that would build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border (Mexico must pay for it) and eliminate birthright citizenship -- a move that would require a change of the Constitution.
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