Trump golf course here loses big PGA tournament too

The PGA backed up its distancing from Donald Trump over his demonizing of Mexican immigrants by announcing that it will not hold a scheduled October tournament at the Trump National golf course on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The association is looking for another home for the PGA Grand Slam of Golf. The PGA announced the decision was reached jointly in a meeting with Trump on Monday.

"The PGA of America met with Donald J. Trump yesterday and the parties mutually agreed that it is in the best interest of all not to conduct the 2015 PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Trump National -- Los Angeles. The PGA of America is in the process of exploring options, including a venue for its annual PGA Junior League Golf Championship, and will comment further at the appropriate time."

Trump had previously claimed that the "golf community" supports his un-nuanced views that Mexican immigrants are, above all else, rapists and other kinds of criminals. Since his outburst, and subsequent insulting tweet about candidate Jeb Bush's wife, Trump has lost business with NBC Universal among other companies and has been facing criticism from some — but not all — of his fellow Republican candidates for president.

In his LA Times column this morning, conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg calls out Trump for setting back the Republican Party (presumably for giving immigrants, especially Latinos, more reason to be leery) and giving more of his own money to Democrats. Trump's problem, Goldberg says, is he listens to the ass kissers who tell any rich guy what he wants to hear. An excerpt:

For years, wherever The Donald went, he met people who told him he should run for president. His retinue of sycophants surely saw little to gain from explaining that "birthers," celebrity-worshippers and devotees of "The Apprentice" are not a statistically meaningful sample of the electorate.

Nor did it dawn on him that some people say "you should run for president" the way you tell your long-winded uncle "you should write a book." History is full of failed men who mistook flattery for insight.

In the past, Trump always pulled back from the brink. Why risk his beloved TV show? Why endure the embarrassment of revealing he's not as rich as he claims? Better to play a Cincinnatus who won't relinquish the plow — or in this case the cologne. Flirt but don't commit was the rule.

But something changed. One too many Twitter followers said, "Do it!" One too many valets whispered, "America needs you" — probably just before asking for a raise. And Trump took the leap — though he hasn't provided the required financial disclosures yet, which inclines me to think that he will either suddenly find an excuse to retreat or that he has a team of accountants trying to figure out how he can simultaneously save face and avoid perjury.

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Republicans are fielding the best candidates in a generation, but Trump is poised to make them chumps by association. He has no chance of becoming president, but he has the huge potential to deny his alleged party a White House victory in 2016.