When Donald Trump uttered the words “I like people who weren’t captured” in response to a question about Sen. John McCain’s service in Vietnam, there was a universal sentiment among both admirers and detractors that he would sink like a rock in the polls. His meteoric rise was destined for a swift collapse. Except – that collapse never occurred. Why not?

Trump Maintains his Lead in the Polls

According to a new CNN-ORC International poll, which was conducted a week after Trump’s major gaffe, Trump is leading the field nationally with 18% of the vote, followed by Jeb Bush and Scott Walker. As Breitbart observes, Cruz is now beginning to surpass Rubio for 4th place. In addition, a new NBC News/Marist poll shows Trump with a commanding lead in New Hampshire, leading his closest rival 21%-14%.

When was the last time a Republican survived such a widely circulated career-ending gaffe?

In order to understand this unprecedented stubbornness of the GOP base in coalescing around a protest vote like Trump, look no further than the circus on display in the GOP-led Senate this past Sunday.

The Sunday Massacre in the Senate

What was the emergency impetus for this rare Sunday session in middle of the summer? Were the senators meeting to overturn Obama’s Iran alliance? Were they preparing a package of bills to “comprehensively” address the imminent problem of criminal illegal aliens? Were they holding a crisis session over the Supreme Court’s coup against our Constitution and the impending disaster of anti-religious bigotry unfolding in a number of states? Were they concocting a response to the growing homegrown Islamic terror attacks on our soil? Did they finally decide that our military bases, which have become prime targets for terror attacks, should be populated by armed soldiers instead of unarmed soldiers?

Nope – none of the above. They met on Sunday to renew the corporate welfare Export-Import Bank, the one government agency conservatives have successfully closed down for the first time in years. They met to rush through a massive $300 billion highway bill, in which McConnell blocked all amendments addressing some of the aforementioned issues so that the amendment process can be reserved for the crony Export-Import Bank.

The Senate voted 67-26 to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank and attach it to the “must-pass” highway bill. This amendment was supported by 24 Republicans. Accordingly, McConnell has now followed through with his private commitment to attach Ex-Im to the highway bill, in contravention to what he told GOP members privately. Yet, instead of exhibiting outrage over McConnell’s lie, Sens. Hatch, Alexander, and Cornyn – three allies of McConnell – took to the Senate floor to condemn Cruz for calling him a liar. If only they cared as much about our Constitution and the existential national security and sovereignty threats as they did “Senate decorum.”

Yes to Corporate Welfare, No to Conservative Priorities

Next, Cruz attempted to force a vote on an amendment prohibiting the lifting of sanctions on Iran until they recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and release the four U.S. hostages. Although his amendment was ruled out of order, any senator can force a vote overruling the decision of the chair if 10 other senators (for a total of one-fifth of the 51 quorum) join to “second” the request for a vote. Yet, for the first time in recent memory, GOP senators refused to second the motion, thereby saving Democrats, once again, from having to vote on Iran and Israel. McConnell and Corker had already blocked such amendments in May when they originally passed the unconstitutional Corker-Cardin Iran bill.

John Cornyn had the nerve to argue Sunday that the Corker-Cardin process has already granted the Senate sufficient oversight over the Iran deal and that there was no need for Cruz’s amendment. Evidently, he’s not up on the news that Obama has already abrogated that process.

Finally, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) attempted to offer an amendment to defund Planned Parenthood. Once again, he was rebuffed by the chair and he could not muster even 10 colleagues to force a vote on defunding Planned Parenthood.

Hence, corporate welfare is in; fighting Iran and Planned Parenthood is out. Is this what the American people thought they were getting when they voted for a GOP Senate last November?

The American people, and the GOP base in particular, are tired of liars. They are tired of Obama fundamentally transforming every value, principle, and tradition of this country before their very eyes while the Republican majority they elected stands by idly and focuses on liberal, petty, or trivial priorities – or downright helps Obama implement his policies.

This is exactly why the polls are continuing to show strong support for Trump. He is a protest vote through which voters are declaring their independence from the failed and corrupt Republican Party.

Over the weekend, Ted Cruz has shown a willingness to fight this corrupt political cartel like nobody else in recent history. Obviously, Trump’s persona as a pop culture figure has overshadowed Cruz’s work in the Senate, especially given the “inside baseball” nature of this fight. But if he continues to bring this sort of fighting spirit to the campaign trail, he will be well positioned to reap the windfall from the wave Trump has created if and when The Donald implodes. Unfortunately, that cannot be said of most of the other contenders running in the field. (Published with permission from the author, “Sunday’s Circus in the Senate Is Exactly Why Trump Is Surging”, originally appeared HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

(Editor’s note: Trump has previously made statements unambiguously supporting forms of amnesty. However, the below article – and many others today like it – are designed by the MSM to make Trump’s current positions appear soft on illegal aliens to help soften his hard-right support. But suggesting Trump is currently advocating for amnesty based upon his statements in the below video is weak, at best. Listen to Joe’s perspective on the Trump candidacy at the end of the below article)

At a campaign event today at the U.S.-Mexico border, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump left the door open to amnesty. He did so at a press conference on the border.

A reporter asked, “Mr. Trump, what would you do with the 11 million undocument immigrants who are already here?”

“The first thing we have to do is strengthen our borders,” Trump started . . .

Trump has not made clear how as president of the United States he would deal with the illegal immigrants already in this country. Today’s press conference left the door open for some sort of amnesty in the future.

(Read more from “Trump Suggests He May Be Open to Amnesty” HERETwitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Donald Trump’s candidacy raises more urgent issues than the Donald’s sometimes poor choice of words: Trump has sparked a less-noticed but far more important debate about the future of our nation’s economy, the sustainability of American life, jobs, and a decent salary for Americans. This ultimately fuels the economic strength of the United States that makes it possible to defend our nation and its people.

It’s about Smoot-Hawley. I am talking about the myth, the ghost, the coat hanging on the back of the door that looks like a monster in the dark, the nightmare that makes uninformed and gutless politicians wake up with the sweats at 3:00 AM. It’s not the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 which is our problem at hand. It is the fairy tale, the fantasy, the primitive superstition of Smoot-Hawley that is driving our nation’s horrible, self-destructive decisions on economics.

Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee, and other GOP candidates want to create jobs, raise family incomes, and strengthen the U.S. economy by keeping jobs and factories here at home. Remember all that moaning and groaning about out-sourcing, the loss of manufacturing jobs, jobs going overseas, and that “giant sucking sound” (Ross Perot)? Well, Trump actually wants to do something about these problems and expand jobs here in the United States.

But that is protectionism! Blasphemy! Economic giants Larry Kudlow and Arthur Laffer are blasting Trump in columns and on radio. Critics are shouting that Trump’s protectionist policies will drive the country into another depression. It is a deep-seated belief in official Washington, and especially among Republican elites, that favoring U.S. workers, controlling the borders, and enforcing immigration laws damages economic growth. So the elites give lip service to what voters want while actually pushing for free trade and open borders. Trump isn’t playing the establishment’s game.

Washington’s elites are traumatized by a fairy tale. In 1930, after the crash on Wall Street, Congress raised tariffs (taxes or duty) on products traded internationally by the protectionist Smoot-Hawley Act. And then the Great Recession got worse.

So that’s like millions of people who take aspirin die. They take aspirin. And then they die. But Smoot-Hawley did not cause the Great Depression any more than aspirin causes people to die. In fact, both aspirin and protectionism actually help, not hurt. No, washing your car really does not make it rain.

Actually, even those who sit around the campfire telling Smoot-Hawley ghost stories do not claim that high import tariffs or policies favoring U.S. workers cause a recession. Instead, the economists’ catechism is that Smoot-Hawley sparked a vicious trade war. It was, so they say, the furious international exchange of recriminations that contributed to the Great Depression. But Trump’s whole point is that U.S. Government negotiators are just stupid when it comes to handling our international trade relations. Trump’s argument is that we don’t handle those issues very well.

It is well-documented by now that the Federal Reserve turned the 1929 stock market crash after a speculative bubble into the Great Recession. The newly-created Federal Reserve incompetently and dramatically shrank the nation’s money supply, starving the economy and collapsing banks. The enduring myth that protectionism causes a recession or depression has been the boogeyman hiding under politicians’ beds for decades. America’s economic policy, especially internationally, has been corrupted, poisoned, and twisted by the irrational fear that protectionism causes depressions.

Economic conservatives insist that all trade is good. All trade? Always? So do conservatives believe in selling $100,000 luxury cars for $500? You could sell a whole lot of $100,000 cars at $500. Business would be brisk and the customers would surely appear happy. But is that what conservatives mean by trade is good, business is good? Is that what we mean by free trade? Losing money in most international transactions? One of my favorite business jokes is sure we are losing money, but don’t worry, we’ll make it up on volume.

Trump proposes reining in the sheer stupidity of the U.S. Government in international trade deals. The U.S.A. is bleeding from a thousand cuts because our trading partners extract lop-sided deals that benefit those other countries and harm the United States. Trump lambasts U.S. officials who are lousy negotiators and let other countries walk all over us.

The U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Trade Representative have sold out the country for decades. Trump correctly diagnoses the real problem: the United States government is simply stupid. Foreign countries are ripping us off and playing us for suckers And one reason we fall for it is our fear that economic growth requires giving benefits in trade to other countries that they do not give to us in return.

We need to consider some things: First, the original U.S. Constitution was written so that tariffs (taxes or duties on imported products) and excise taxes were the only source of income to finance the entire U.S. Government. Our Constitution is premised on tariffs imposed on trade and other excise taxes. Washington politicians cannot seriously argue that high import tariffs are a bad idea, when they are a part of our Constitution’s foundation.

Second, developing a product in the U.S.A and then transplanting the manufacturing line to another country is not free trade. That is theft of intellectual property and proprietary trade secrets. Innovation in the U.S.A. births an American product using American know-how and engineering. Then the factory is simply relocated after the design is perfected in the U.S.A. That is not what economic theory means by free trade. The U.S.A. bears the costs of development while the foreign country reaps the profits but escapes the costs. The profits are shifted to the other country without the corresponding costs. A product invented and developed in the U.S.A. should not be considered like a product invented in another country.

Putting a high tariff on U.S. products that have been transplanted matches economic theory that the company’s private costs must equal the costs to society as a fundamental assumption of economic theory. If a private company can shift its costs to American society as a whole, then the marketplace is distorted and economic theory fails (by its own terms). Even the most conservative, Austrian School, economist holds that a private business must shoulder the full societal costs of its own activities for economic theory to be valid.

A note in full disclosure: time permitting, your author will be collecting petition signatures for Ted Cruz to get Cruz on Virginia’s primary election ballot. Donald Trump is a wrecking ball to a corrupt political system that sorely needs a wrecking ball. But my analysis is about what is best for our country, not because I am in the tank for any candidate. (Published with permission from the author, “Trump vs. Smoot-Hawley’s Ghost”, originally appeared HERE)

Editor’s Note – Listen to this recent interview with the author:

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