The Wall Street Journal gives Donald Trump until Labor Day 'to change his act'

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last updated 15 August 2016

It's fair to say that The Wall Street Journal's editorial board is not impressed with Donald Trump's presidential campaign, or lack thereof. Trump "has alienated his party and he isn't running a competent campaign," the Journal said in a tough-love editorial posted Sunday night. "Trump is on the path to losing a winnable race" against an unpopular Hillary Clinton, and "the tragedy is that this is happening in a year when Republicans should win."

His advisers are griping to a media that already "want him to lose," something that's "true of every Republican presidential nominee," the WSJ editorialists write, but while all "failing campaigns" suffer from similar leaks, the "recriminations typically start in October, not mid-August." Then the Journal laid down an ultimatum for Trump, the conservatives "who sold Mr. Trump to GOP voters as the man who could defeat Hillary Clinton," and the Republican Party:

If they can't get Mr. Trump to change his act by Labor Day, the GOP will have no choice but to write off the nominee as hopeless and focus on salvaging the Senate and House and other down-ballot races. As for Mr. Trump, he needs to stop blaming everyone else and decide if he wants to behave like someone who wants to be president — or turn the nomination over to Mike Pence. [The Wall Street Journal]

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.