Trump will get so much mileage out of this and he will beat Bush over the head with it every opportunity he gets. Then there is CNN and they will not forget this moment.
Coverage: Viral
Total cost: a few minutes of time.
To hire someone who works in a Senator’s office is not exactly stealthy. Maybe they calculate that the initial shock is worth a couple of points even if it is eventually discovered that she is a plant. The people who care the most about the dirty politics of it weren’t likely going to vote for Jeb. But this makes clear that Jeb is the party insider’s favorite.
I imagine that we will soon see some more aggressive infighting between other insiders. If Trump has his strategy right, he may soon be finding ways to set these guys and gals off on each other. But of course he won’t want to be in the fracas himself. But, they are all pointing at him so he should find some ways to trip them up. The big danger there I see is that he may inadvertently give them attention they didn’t have before. He sucks so much energy out of the race that he’s at risk of accidentally starting someone else on a road to the head of the pack. He seems like Teflon right now, there is not much the voters don’t already know so it will be hard for them to bring him down. They will just try things like this give him more chances to make a mistake.