The media's 5 stages of grief over Donald Trump

[n2doc]

by Ezra Klein

A new Bloomberg poll shows Donald Trump dominating the GOP field with 21 percent of the vote — more than twice what Jeb Bush is pulling in, and 21 times Bobby Jindal's support. Poor Bobby Jindal.

The crosstabs aren't online, but Bloomberg's Joshua Green has them, and he's been tweeting out some of the findings. The main takeaway? Trump's support is growing amongst all factions of the Republican Party. The idea that his supporters are a single kind of Republican — an angry, but marginalized, group — increasingly seems wrong.

Joshua Green ✔@JoshuaGreen
Time to retire theory that Trump has only "fringe" appeal: in @bpolitics poll he wins rich, poor, old, young, male, female, college/no coll

Joshua Green ✔@JoshuaGreen
Thrice-married Trump who sez he "never" seeks forgiveness from God is winning "born again" vote in new @bpolitcs poll, besting even Huckabee

Media coverage of Trump's campaign has been going through something akin to the five stages of grief (though, given what a fun story Trump is to cover, there's a heavy dose of delight, too).

Denial: Coverage of Trump began with denial that his campaign was real. Initially, few thought he would actually run — after all, he had threatened to run for president before, and he had decided against running for president before. The going theory was Trump couldn't bear to file his financial disclosure forms, as that would show his fortune was far less than he estimated.

And then, of course, Trump ran, and he filed financial disclosure forms estimating his fortune at over "TEN BILLION DOLLARS," and the caps lock is in the original, as if Trump was literally saying it in a Dr. Evil voice.

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http://www.vox.com/2015/8/4/9094441/donald-trump-2016