RIGHT SPEAK: Trump’s Moment of Truth: The Nominee and His Allies Are Responsible For His Election Fate

Photo: Zuma Press

Donald Trump has declared himself unshackled from the Republican Party and says he will now campaign as he’s wanted to all along. This raises the question of whose never-before-seen campaign he’s been running for 16 months, but so be it. The self-declared strategy has the virtue of putting the onus of victory or defeat squarely where it belongs: Mr. Trump and those who led him to the GOP nomination.

“Disloyal R’s are far more difficult than Crooked Hillary,” Mr. Trump tweeted on Tuesday. “They don’t know how to win—I will teach them.” Well, now is his chance. The election is less than a month away, and Mr. Trump can show the pathetic losers in his adopted party how it’s done.

He’s trailing in the polls, and his campaign is advertising that his comeback strategy is to run almost as an independent to drive turnout among his core supporters. He’s given up trying to expand his appeal to women, minorities and college-educated Republicans. Instead he’ll tear into Mrs. Clinton in an attempt to demoralize her voters and motivate his.

At least this will be a political market test of the Trumpian wing of the GOP. Going back to Mitt Romney’s defeat in 2012, the GOP has divided roughly into two strategic political camps.

One camp wants to reach out to minorities, young people and moderates to expand the GOP electorate. The Republican National Committee urged this strategy in a 2013 report, and candidates like Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner followed it to win in 2014. This makes sense to us on demographic grounds but also because it is what a party should do in a healthy democracy. Governing for only half the country has been President Obama’s great mistake.