Here’s why Trump, despite being worth many times what Mitt Romney’s worth and infinitely more vulgar in showing it off, gets away with it in a way Romney never could. He’s so proud of it, it’s shtick. If you attacked him for having a three-story car garage, he’d tell you it’s six stories, actually, because that’s how many he needs to house all of his Lambos. There’s no way to shame him for being fabulously rich. If you tried, he’d hand you a 24-karat gold Rolex with “suck it” inscribed on the back.

This isn’t quite poetry, but it’s not not poetry either.

"This report was not designed for a man of Mr. Trump‟s massive wealth." pic.twitter.com/2lISumYMeH

— Rebecca Sinderbrand (@sinderbrand) July 15, 2015

The all caps for “TEN BILLION DOLLARS” really locks it down. One underappreciated element of Trump’s persona, I think, is the fact that he comes off as nouveau riche even though he’s not. The brashness, the relentless branding, the fact that he sounds like the sort of guy who, in another life, would be ranting on a barstool in Queens, all of it creates the impression that he started off middle-class and never quite fully escaped it. If you polled the public, I bet a heavy majority would guess that he’s an entirely self-made man. He isn’t (although he’s multiplied the wealth he inherited with his business successes), but thinking that he is makes people more comfortable with him flashing his money, I bet. Americans grumble about old money but they don’t begrudge those who made bank through sheer grit the spoils of their wealth. Trump benefits from that.

Meanwhile, to revisit a point from the last Trump post, is it really true that Trump is pulling votes mostly from the right side of the GOP field? Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight says nope:

In everybody's fav Suffolk poll, Rubio/Bush pretty much tied as tops among Trump's supporters for second choice.

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) July 15, 2015

In the Suffolk poll, Trump is actually doing slightly better (19%) among moderates/liberals than overall (17%).

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) July 15, 2015

Hmmmm. Maybe my theory that Trump is helping Jeb Bush by sinking all the credible tea-party challengers is bunk. Or maybe not:

Graph makes it clear where Trump's support comes from — out of the hide of all Jeb!'s other opponents https://t.co/cVEtmeseMV

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) July 15, 2015

I’m not sure why Trump fans would prefer Bush or Rubio as their second choice. He’s been all about right-wing populism since jumping in. I can imagine that it might be a pure name-recognition thing, where low-information voters who’d otherwise jump at the name “Bush” jump even more quickly at the name “Trump,” but in that case, why would Rubio be on their radar? He’s not nearly as well known as the other two. What’s the overlap between him and Trump?