Stalking horse

A stalking horse candidate is meant to harm someone for the benefit of a third party while intending that connection to remain unknown.  It is a hunting term, which describes the use of a horse to stalk game, which become very alarmed at the appearance of people that they run away before a chance to take a shot.  The horse is used to screen the hunter from the animals, which aren't as alarmed by the horse as they would be by a man.

With respect to Donald Trump, I wonder if he is a stalking horse intended to harm the interests of another player or players in the political arena.  One could be the Tea Party, which appears to be suffering in the latest poll.  Guess who's getting connecting to racism, but the Tea Partiers themselves?  Now, Trump comes out with this birther stuff, and the Tea Party takes a hit in the polls, even though the Tea Party has nothing to do with Trump.  Could it be that Trump is working at the behest of the liberals who keep calling the Tea Party racist?  And wasn't the idea of birtherism a Hillary Clinton idea?  Why should Republicans laud anything that Trump says when he hasn't been a Republican in the past?  Trump could be a stalking horse to harm the Tea Party, and the beneficiary to this is the liberal Democrats.