Donald Trump just cannot stop whining

DONALD Trump once called himself “the most fabulous whiner”. He’s spent the last week proving himself correct.

No hard feelings: Trump says ex-rivals could get cabinet invite

OPINION

DONALD Trump is that kid who throws a tantrum and overturns the Monopoly board the moment he starts to lose.

Trump has spent the last week whining about his plummeting fortunes in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. He’s blamed the party “establishment”. He’s blamed his rival, Senator Ted Cruz. He’s whinged about the process being “rigged”.

“I am the most fabulous whiner,” Trump boasted last year. “I do whine because I want to win. And I’m not happy if I’m not winning. And I am a whiner. And I’m a whiner and I keep whining and whining until I win.”

For once, he was telling the truth.

(FILES) This file photo taken on April 6, 2016 shows US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses a rally in Bethpage, Long Island, New York. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump says some of his former White House rivals could make his short list for key government posts, despite a bitter campaign that has included name-calling and personal attacks. In an interview published late April 11, 2016, Trump said he is mulling his options for his cabinet, even though he remains in a nip-and-tuck race for the nomination with Ted Cruz, the Texas senator who has been steadily closing the gap in the number of delegates. / AFP PHOTO / KENA BETANCUR

Trump’s dark mood has been in place since April 5, when Cruz walloped him in the critical Wisconsin primary. He responded to the defeat with a wildly aggressive statement.

“Donald J. Trump withstood the onslaught of the establishment yet again,” it read. “Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet — he is a Trojan horse, being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr Trump.”

Some context: Cruz is widely seen as the most anti-establishment Republican in Washington, D.C. He’s on the right wing of the party’s right wing. He’s the guy who drove the US Congress to stop funding its own government during the budget fight of 2013.

To put it another way, Cruz has long been defined by his hatred for the “party bosses” Trump keeps referring to — and their hatred for him in return. Calling Cruz an establishment “Trojan horse” is like accusing Luke Skywalker of being an Imperial plant.

As one commentator said at after Trump’s hissy fit, the Republican frontrunner “acted like a baby”.

Things only got worse from there. Last week another state, Colorado, decided which candidate would receive its 34 delegates to the Republican convention (Trump needs 1237 to claim a majority and win the nomination). Cruz won all 34.

“The Republican National Committee should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this kind of crap to happen,” Trump said at a rally shortly afterwards.

“You know the system, folks, is rigged. It’s a rigged system. Now you have to understand, I’m not talking about the states I won, those are OK.”

He’s been using variations of that argument in every appearance since the disaster in Colorado. The process is “rigged” and “crooked”, Trump says, adding that the Republican establishment has changed the rules to steal the nomination from him.

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks to supporters during a campaign event, Monday, April 11, 2016, in the San Diego. (AP Photo/Sandy Huffaker)

Colorado did use a strange system. Instead of holding a direct, statewide election with the presidential candidates on the ballot (like most other states), Colorado made its voters participate in local elections, with the delegates themselves on the ballot. But a strange process is not necessarily a “rigged” one.

As Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has pointed out, the rules for Colorado’s caucuses were set in stone last year.

“It’s the responsibility of the campaigns to understand it. Complaints now? Give us all a break,” he said.

The rules were not changed at the last minute to rob Trump. His team was just too disorganised and incompetent to compete with Cruz’s well-oiled campaign machine. That’s why he lost.

“Some of Trump’s recent problems have been, to be blunt, categorically dumb mistakes that don’t happen to campaign staff that know what they’re doing,” conservative pundit S.E. Cupp wrote for NBC.

“Trump has been outfoxed by Cruz and he has no one to blame but himself. Now, he can continue to whine like a brat about it, or he can act like a grown-up and actually learn the process.”

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Griffiss International Airport on Tuesday, April 12, 2016, in Rome, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

One of Trump’s favourite tactics is to fall back on his business background. When he doesn’t know a basic answer or can’t come up with a policy, he tells the questioner he’ll hire “the smartest advisers” and “the best people”. Well, Trump hired his campaign staff, and they clearly aren’t the best people.

Trump also likes to brag about how tough he is. He claims he’s a straight talker who tells it like it is. In truth, he chucks the toys out of the pram the moment things start to go wrong and makes up ridiculous excuses for his own failures.

When Trump’s campaign finally crashes and burns, even his fans will have to recognise the truth: He isn’t a winner. He’s just a whiner.