Donald Trump's controversial comments about immigrants may have cost him his relationship with NBC, but he's up in the polls and is quickly becoming a unique challenge for other Republican presidential hopefuls.
HuffPost Live's Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani discussed the quandary of how to deal with Trump with a panel of political analysts on Monday. The problem, according to HuffPost senior media reporter Michael Calderone, is that candidates know any negativity toward Trump will be played up in the media, leading to a headline-grabbing counter-attack from Trump himself, which raises his profile even higher.
"A lot of the candidates are very reluctant, and it's difficult because they don't want to get into this war of words over Twitter with Donald Trump all day and not just make him the face of the GOP in 2016, but pull them away from their message," Calderone explained.
The Guardian political reporter Ben Jacobs added that Trump has discovered a useful way to turn insults against him into clout with voters who support him.
"Donald Trump is appealing to people ... who hate politics, who hate politicians. And Donald Trump is someone coming out there who they view as a straight-shooter, someone who's different and fresh. And every time the media attacks Donald Trump, every time a fellow Republican attacks Donald Trump, it strengthens Trump's argument to voters," Jacobs said.
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