Trump's Veterans Event

Taking a step back and looking at this as an image marketing strategy:

1. The Republicans as a whole have been using the notion that other countries have been walking all over President Obama. China, Russia, Iran, the TPP trade agreement, the Paris climate change agreement – he keeps giving in because he and Secretary Kerry are bad negotiators.
2. One of the primary messages Donald Trump is using to establish his brand identity as a presidential candidate is that he is a tough negotiator and can get his way when others fail.  This is a direct response to the GOP message and is attractive to potential GOP primary voters.
3. By holding his Wounded Warriors event instead of participating in the GOP debate, he got to say “I wanted to be at the debate. But I am the kind of person who will take a stand for what I believe in. And I won this round because their viewership and advertising rates have gone way down without me [which isn’t actually true, but that has not stopped him before]. I will do the same as President.”
4. Because of the scandal of his competing event, all of the news media covered his event and mentioned this quote several times.
5. If GOP primary voters want a candidate who will stand up for our (Americans) rights and interests and he has shown that this is his raison d’etre, they should all vote for him. Here is all the proof they need.  No other candidate held their own competing event to a debate. News media coverage of the quote proves it is true.

Brilliant as an image marketing strategy.  He got tons of free media without spending a dime on commercials. Funding for the event, since it was for Wounded Warriors rather than his campaign, could be provided without campaign finance limitations and was probably tax deductible for the donors (accountants out there can let us know).

I will leave it up to you to decide on your voting choice.