For a politician who is the media’s persona non grata for espousing views supposedly beyond the pale of polite and acceptable discourse, Donald Trump is doing a surprisingly good job of directing the national conversation.

Time and time again, Trump’s talking points have become everyone’s talking points.

Time and time again, Trump’s talking points have become everyone’s talking points, even for those who only a few months before would have done anything possible to avoid the topics on which Trump often speaks.

“[L]et me just say that one of the greatest challenges of our times — besides the fight against extremism — is to deal with the enormous battle of climate change,” John Kerry said in Denmark on Thursday — only days after Trump launched an all-out attack on the Obama administration’s refusal to recognize the unique threat of radical Islam.

Kerry’s inclusion of the phrase “besides the fight against extremism” is uncharacteristic, suggesting he recognizes terrorism as the most pressing global threat. This is a marked departure for Kerry, who in In 2014 called climate change “the greatest challenge of our generation” as well as the world’s “largest weapon of mass destruction.”

Kerry isn’t the only one who seemed to change his tune after tough talk from Trump on Islamic terror. A day before Kerry finally admitted that mujahadeen pose a greater threat to world peace than melting ice caps, House Speaker Paul Ryan lied to Bill O’Reilly on air after O’Reilly asked about Somali refugees supporting Islamic terror.

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“Right. Right. That’s why — just so you know that’s why we passed a bill pausing this refugee program, because we don’t think the refugee program works,” Ryan said. “That’s why we don’t want it to continue right now.” Unfortunately for Ryan, the bill he was talking about applied only to refugees from Syria and Iraq. Thanks to Trump, Ryan is apparently so afraid of being seen as soft on terror that he thought it less risky to lie on national television.

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These rhetorical about-faces came on the heels of Trump’s impassioned response to the Islamic terror attack in Orlando, which actually forced Hillary Clinton to attack “radical Islam” by name. It wasn’t the first time Clinton has changed her tune thanks to Trump popularizing a different melody.

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After Trump railed against the TPP and free trade, a clarion call echoed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton did an abrupt turnaround on her previous position on the trade agreement. Now the two main presidential candidates are ostensibly against the TPP and “unfair” free trade, and the multinational deal is stuck in limbo. “The Trump phenomenon … will make politicians wary of deals seen as risking jobs,” said John Sinclair, senior fellow at the Centre for International Policy Studies at the University of Ottawa.

Of course, Trump has displayed an uncanny ability to control the national conversation ever since he first declared his candidacy. From the moment he mentioned Mexico and the types of people immigrating illegally into the United States, the questions that have marked the 2016 race so far have been Trump’s.