In questioning the designation of John McCain as a “war hero,” Donald Trump said “he’s a hero because he was captured… I like people who weren’t captured.” This line got even the Wall Street Journal upset, which wrote that those who applaud him are “hurting the cause.” The WSJ opined that Trump’s McCain hero rhetoric is the moment Trump’s presidential campaign jumped the shark. “Donald Trump’s inevitable self-immolation arrived on the weekend when he assailed John McCain’s war record,” wrote the Journal. “The question is how long his political and media apologists on the right will keep pretending he’s a serious candidate.”
It’s Shark Week on Discover Channel and Sharknado Week on SyFy just now, so maybe it’s appropriate to take Jumping the Shark as a guide to that last question about Trump’s longevity. (BTW, on this year’s Sharknado 3, Mark Cuban will portray the president and Ann Coulter is VP.) For the record, the famous Fonzie jumping the shark on water skis episode kicked off Season 5 of the widely loved Happy Days TV show. The shark jumping was a huge hit, with 30 million viewers. And Happy Days lasted seven more seasons.
