t’s one thing for the republican establishment to throw up all over the candidacy of Donald Trump: frankly, the GOP has not been relevant as a political power ever since Boehner started folding like a lawn chair to Obama’s every demand just around the time of the first US downgrade, and as such what the Republican party – torn apart and very much irrelevant as the best of the “establishment” GOP candidates demonstrate – thinks is largely irrelevant.

However, when such stalwart titans of financial establishmentarianism as the Council of Foreign Relations and The Economist, who until now had been largely ignoring Trump’s ascent in the political hierarchy finally unleash an all out assault and go after Trump on the very same day, you know that the flamboyant, hyperbolic billionaire has finally gotten on the nerves of some very high net worth individuals.

Below are excerpts from the panicked lamentations of the Economist as written down this weekend in “Time to fire Trump“… just in case there was any confusion what The Economist thinks.

If the field remains split as it is now, it is possible for Mr Trump to win with just a plurality of votes. To prevent that, others must drop out. Although we are yet to be convinced by Mr Rubio, he stands a better chance of beating Mr Trump than anyone else. All the other candidates—including Mr Cruz, who wrongly sees himself as the likeliest challenger—should get out of his way. If they decline to do so, it could soon be too late to prevent the party of Abraham Lincoln from being led into a presidential election by Donald Trump.

And then there is the Council of Foreign Relations’ Benn Steil with “Selling America Short” of which sections have been excerpted below: