Now that Donald Trump has declined to lend his expertise on international diplomacy and military strategy to the presidential campaign, it’s time to look at which political commentators Trump proved very wrong with what was, ultimately, a very obvious decision. In all fairness, it did seem for a while like Trump’s quasi-pre-campaign could be more than just a publicity stunt, especially since the vast majority of the publicity he received was negative. Since it certainly wasn’t helping his all-important brand, many wondered (ourselves included) what Trump was getting out of it all, if not the admiration of Republican voters. But some people went beyond wondering or suspecting — they insisted, for some reason, that Trump was definitely running. These people must be held accountable for their grievous errors in judgment.
Bill Maher, who can usually smell bullshit from a mile away, was so certain that Trump would run that he tried to bet a skeptical David Letterman a week’s pay on it:
Conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer, after having a phone conversation with Trump, claimed that Trump was “absolutely” going to run:
Mike Huckabee, who should know a thing or two about candidate coyness, was also convinced after a meeting with Trump:
In an interview with Barbara Walters, Huckabee said that Trump would be a legitimate and tough opponent.
“I believe that if he gets in the race he is going to be formidable because everybody knows ‘The Donald’ and money will be no object for him … and I think he’s going to get in it,” Huckabee said to Walters in an interview scheduled to air later this month on her satellite radio program.
And finally, Dick Morris, who is wrong about basically every prediction he makes (and yet, oddly, is still asked to predict things), not only thought that Trump was going to run, but that he also had “a good shot at the nomination” and “could beat Obama.”
