Obama to Republicans: Like it or not, you're stuck with Trump

President Obama speaks Friday in the White House briefing room.

By Christi Parsons

May 6, 2016 3:21 PM PT

Reporting from Washington — If Republican leaders won’t line up behind Donald Trump, President Obama is trying to lash them together himself.

Obama seized on the deepening fracture between Republicans and likely nominee Trump on Friday, warning GOP leaders and voters alike that, like it or not, Trump is the face of the party now.

“Their standard-bearer at the moment is Donald Trump,” Obama said in a hastily scheduled appearance in the White House briefing room, ostensibly to discuss the economy. “... Not just Republican officials, but more importantly, Republican voters are going to have to make a decision as to whether this is the guy who speaks for them and represents their values.”

Obama’s pronouncement came amid an onslaught of attacks against Trump by Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton that began as soon as Trump assumed the mantle of presumptive GOP nominee this week, as she sought to frame him as a brash reality TV star who wants to ban Muslims, deport Mexicans and oppress women.

The fusillade from Obama, Clinton and other party leaders has opened the general election with Democrats rushing to frame Trump in a way that his primary opponents aimed for, but mostly stopped short of, to avoid alienating Republican voters.

“The main mistake for the primary season was assuming that Donald Trump was someone else’s responsibility, someone else’s fight,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who advised 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney. “There’s little chance the Democrats make that same mistake.”

Indeed, Democrats appear to be reprising their successful 2012 presidential playbook, in which they defined Romney as a wealthy, out-of-touch venture capitalist before Republicans could present him on their own terms. By the time of the Republican convention that year, it was too late for Romney and the GOP to do much but try to fight an already-cemented perception.

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Since Trump’s last two GOP rivals dropped out, all but determining a general-election match-up between Clinton and Trump that looks to be particularly brutal, Clinton and her surrogates wasted no time in training their sights on him.

They have used the news to raise money and mobilize activists. Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook emailed a note to supporters asking them to pitch into the campaign’s new “Stop Trump” fund.

They’ve crafted a message for independents and moderate Republicans, painting Trump as too extreme to lead the country. It’s circulating on Web ads — including one narrated by Republicans’ own insults of Trump — and appearing in Clinton’s stump speeches.

“We have to recognize that the kind of language coming from Donald Trump is hateful, and we need to repudiate it,” Clinton said at one event this week.

Other Democrats are following her and Obama’s lead. Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois called Trump “a candidate that leads with insults and bigotry.”

As Trump tweeted a picture of his Cinco de Mayo taco bowl and the note “I love Hispanics” this week, Clinton was appearing with dozens of African American lawmakers at an event in California.

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“I never imagined we’d have somebody like the Donald as the nominee for the Republican Party, someone who the KKK has said they are happy will be the nominee,” Rep. Karen Bass of Los Angeles said at the event.

If Obama is wringing his hands about how to unite the Democratic Party after its own divisive primary between Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, other Democrats say they have no such concerns.

“Nothing unites the people of Earth like a threat from Mars,” said Paul Begala, a Democratic political strategist who advises a pro-Clinton super PAC. “And to Democrats, progressives and thinking people everywhere, Donald Trump represents a powerful threat.”

In his first comments on Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee, Obama also warned of the high stakes for a country facing “serious times” and in need of a leader for a “serious job.”

“This is not entertainment,” Obama said. “This is not a reality show.”

Still, Obama took advantage of the split among Republican leaders over whether to endorse Trump, the party outsider who has himself alternately pledged loyalty to the party and threatened to leave it behind should he perceive himself to be treated unfairly.

On Thursday, Trump traded jabs with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, the highest-ranking elected Republican, both saying they weren’t ready to back the other. Ryan, concerned with retaining Republican majorities in Congress, said he still wondered whether Trump would espouse conservative principles of limited government, and the two agreed to meet next week in Washington.

Some of Trump’s GOP primary opponents also said they would not vote for him, joining the ranks of all but one of the party’s nominees of the past three decades who are, to varying degrees, staying on the sidelines of the election. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a favorite punching bag of Trump’s on the campaign trail until he ended his bid after the South Carolina primary, said Trump was not fit for office.

“Trump has not demonstrated that temperament or strength of character,” he wrote on Facebook. “He has not displayed a respect for the Constitution. And he is not a consistent conservative.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who never registered in the polls before dropping out of the race in December, concluded Trump was not “a reliable GOP conservative nor has he displayed the judgment and temperament to serve as commander-in-chief.”

Trump responded by doubling down on his attacks.

“He was a poor representative and an embarrassment to the great people of South Carolina,” Trump wrote on Facebook. “... And like the voters who rejected him, so will I!”

Such broadsides are likely to only further intraparty division, to the chagrin of some Republicans.

“We managed to go and do the one thing that was previously unimaginable, which is nominate someone more polarizing than Hillary Clinton,” Madden said.

The endorsements Trump did win — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry — also included former Vice President Dick Cheney, exactly the type of name so toxic in some quarters that Democrats are certain to scramble to tie him to Trump.

As Clinton demonstrated this week, Democrats don’t have to rely on the media to bring those words and images to the fore. They can do it themselves via social media.

“Once Sanders exits the race,” said Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, “the party will come together with one purpose. Stop Trump.”

Staff writer Evan Halper contributed to this report.

Twitter: @cparsons

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