Is Trump Damaging The GOP Brand On National Security?

Democrats are planning to connect the GOP to Trump’s national security comments, and Republicans are concerned.

To this point, Donald Trump has made his political career on outlandish comments. But Democrats inside Congress are beginning to wonder whether they can end any Republican careers by connecting members to those Trumpian statements, particularly when it comes to one area of GOP advantage: national security.

Voters have traditionally viewed Republicans as the stronger party on defense, and even Democrats acknowledge that Republicans are the ones who want to spend more on the military. House Democrats know they need to make inroads with voters concerned about national security, especially after Democratic leaders recently presented their members with polling showing Republicans ahead by 23 points with those defense-minded voters.

But Trump could dramatically eat into that Republican advantage. Comments about the use of torture (“We have to beat the savages”); murdering the children of ISIS fighters (“Take out their families”); and giving nuclear weapons to new countries (“We’re better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea”) may give voters pause about which party is best equipped to keep the country safe – in this election and in the future.

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