The story goes, “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men, couldn’t put Humpty together again.”

One historical explanation for the riddle is that it represented the death of King Richard III. Richard had died in the field of battle where he fell from his horse and was hacked to death by his enemies while his troops stood aside.

History apparently does repeat itself, this time with Donald Trump as Humpty Dumpty.

For, most assuredly, Donald is being hacked to death while his Republican troops stand aside. Standing aside are Republican senators and members of the House of Representatives, conservative columnists and, more notably, financial contributors. They may be joined by a rebellion among delegates at the upcoming Republican convention.

The Trump campaign reported having on hand a little more than a million dollars at the end of May, with over $40 million in debt in the form of loans made to the campaign by Trump when the candidate was claiming he was “self-funding.” There is no recognized Super PAC supporting the Trump candidacy at this time. So the Trump campaign, at a time it should be buying media time and hiring state staff, is broke.

In contrast, the Clinton campaign reports over $45 million in funds at the end of May. Priorities USA, a Clinton-supporting Super PAC, reports having $52 million on hand at the end of May. According to Kanter Media/CMAG, the Clinton campaign has reserved $117 million in media advertising already. The Trump campaign media commitments? Zero.

The Clinton campaign has in place in key electoral states, staffs to get out the vote, with a total of nearly 700 employees. The Trump campaign, lacking money, has slightly more than 1/10th of the Clinton staff, with no state structure or staff in place.

And while major Republican donors continue to resist the Trump campaign’s support requests, Trump begins being hacked to pieces by his failure to win their support. The donors are not only concerned with Trump’s irrational remarks and fact free speeches, but by the threat of revolt at the upcoming Cleveland convention.

The “great fall” of Donald Trump began when he became the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for 2016. Traditionally, that designation causes the donor class to send money to the now named candidate. But that did not happen for Donald Trump.

The “fall” was then enlarged when, after several speeches that hurt Trump, his standing in the polls fell. In the latest Real Clear Politics summary of polling, Trump now trails Clinton by almost 6 percent.

At the same time, the national media that had provided Trump largely favorable press, instead turned to fact checking Donald, and the results were not pretty. Trump’s inaccuracies and untruths have been record setting and monumental, creating negative media reporting that continues even now.

The first Humpty Dumpty could not, in spite of others’ best efforts, be “put back together again.” Whether or not that fate faces Trump at the Republican convention remains unlikely, but still possible. But the fact that the Republican Party will, in many cases, give Trump only silent support is already very apparent. And that donors have not helped the campaign and may not help the campaign, is already in evidence, and soon donor lack of support will be too late to be correctable.

Humpty Dumpty Trump may feel the pain already of being hacked to death by his enemies within the Republican Party…while his supporters look on in silence.

 

Jim Crawford is a retired educator and political enthusiast living here in the Tri-State.