Trump Is More Than Just Politically Incorrect

His message matters, but the delivery can be vulgar, juvenile and off-putting—and that’s why he’s losing.

“The current politically correct response cripples our ability to talk and to think and act clearly,” Mr. Trump said after the Orlando shooting. “We’re not acting clearly. We’re not talking clearly. We’ve got problems. If we don’t get tough, and if we don’t get smart and fast, we’re not going to have our country anymore.”

Despite the fact that the gunman had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, also known as ISIS, the White House responded by changing the subject to firearms. President Obama described the shooter, Omar Mateen, as a “single deranged person” who was able to skirt lax gun-control regulations. The president wants Americans to view Orlando through the lens of the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., which was perpetrated by mentally ill Adam Lanza. But the more appropriate comparison is to the attacks carried out by Mateen’s fellow jihadists in Paris and Brussels and San Bernardino, Calif.

So eager was the Obama administration to divorce radical Islam from Mateen’s actions that the Justice Department released a transcript of the shooter’s call to 911 that blacked out any references to ISIS. Only after coming under blistering criticism for the redactions did the Justice Department reverse course and unveil the full transcript. The terrorists keep telling us that they are acting in the name of Islam. Mr. Obama refuses to take them at their word and persists in trying to play the American people for fools. Last week he said the U.S. is making “significant progress” against terrorism.

This is a textbook example of political correctness, and Mr. Trump is right to denounce it day and night. Along with the economy—a record 102 million people in the U.S. are unemployed or no longer looking for work—national security ought to be a winning issue for the presumptive Republican nominee. The world’s most dangerous terror threat is ISIS, which is directing or inspiring attacks in the West seemingly at will. CIA Director John Brennan told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week that “our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach” and that more attacks could be coming. ISIS is an organization that did not exist when Mr. Obama took office and that was born of his feckless foreign-policy decisions. And Mr. Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, not only advised Mr. Obama on foreign affairs as secretary of state but has repeatedly praised his antiterror approach.

So why is Mr. Trump trailing both nationally and in battleground states, and why has his unfavorablity rating climbed 10 points to an astounding 70% inside of a month? That’s easy: The problem is Donald Trump. Some political incorrectness is refreshing after seven years of Mr. Obama, but Mr. Trump’s attempts to stretch the definition aren’t working.

Questioning the impartiality of a federal judge born in Indiana because his parents emigrated from Mexico isn’t politically incorrect. It’s inappropriate.

Degrading the military service of Sen. John McCain, who spent more than five years in a POW camp, isn’t politically incorrect. It’s unfathomable and somewhat undermines Mr. Trump’s professed support for veterans.

Claiming that President George W. Bush lied about chemical weapons to wage war in Iraq isn’t politically incorrect. It’s a liberal talking point that has been repeatedly debunked.

Mocking Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who shamelessly claimed Native American ancestry to advance her academic career, as “Pocahontas” isn’t politically incorrect. It’s juvenile and off-putting.

When Mr. Trump calls for closer scrutiny of mosques and Islamic organizations as an effective way to prevent future attacks, he’s being politically incorrect. But calling for a religious test on people entering the country is bigotry and un-American.

Similarly, Mr. Trump’s past references to his anatomy and to women as pigs are nothing more than crudeness and vulgarity masquerading as politically incorrect straight talk. And if the polls are accurate, such comments are drowning out the constructive policy criticism he wants to offer. When an NBC reporter told the candidate that “parents are trying to figure out how to explain some of the language they’re hearing on the campaign trail,” Mr. Trump’s response was, “Oh, you’re so politically correct.”

Back in April, Trump campaign adviser Paul Manafort said that his candidate soon would demonstrate “more depth” and show that he is “evolving.” The candidate himself has promised: “At some point, I’m going to be so presidential that you people will be so bored.” If only.

This piece originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal

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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a Wall Street Journal columnist, and a Fox News commentator

This piece originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal