Category: Donald Trump

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Domestic Policies Donald Trump Donald Trump

Voters Scratch the 35 Year Itch

I think I understand why more than a third of Republican voters are fed up with the Republican Party and are supporting Donald Trump for president (including this list of august personalities who have endorsed the man). The GOP has played lip service to the small government, socially conservative crowd for decades without really committing serious national resources to break the grip that the wealthy have on the party. These voters want someone who won’t compromise and who will follow through on the time-tested xenophobia and intolerance that’s a hallmark of this country’s past. What a message.

And now they have their man. Perhaps. Saturday’s caucus and primary results saw a slowing of the Trump train at the hands of none other than the candidate the party regulars despise only less so than the Donald. That would be Ted Cruz.

Be very careful what you wish for Mitt.

It’s been 35 years since Ronald Reagan’s election ushered in the great conservative reaction to almost 50 years of Democratic-liberal rule. As the country, and certainly the GOP, moved harder to the right and the tax cuts moved more swiftly into the hands of the already wealthy, social conservatives wanted more action.

What they got was the old country club Republican brushoff. Now the guy that built all of the country clubs wants to be president. The irony is ironic.

But the nomination is not Trump’s yet. Ted Cruz is running a solid campaign and is now most likely the candidate best positioned to challenge Trump. The latest polls in Florida show that Marco Rubio’s best presidential opportunities lie in 2020 or beyond. Once he loses his home state next week, I expect him to drop out. Likewise John Kasich, who will get a taste of backyard defeat in Michigan and follow Rubio out the door by March 16. At that point, Trump will have 165 more delegates from those winner-take-all states, but his lead will not be insurmountable if Republicans rally around Cruz. The party wants Rubio and sees both Trump and Cruz as losers in November. So the question will come down to which guy you dislike least.

Again, quite a choice.

Of course, the Democrats are feeling similarly frisky after enduring 35 years of right-leaning government programs, which is why Bernie’s take-down-the-banks rhetoric is so powerful. Hillary looks downright boring by comparison, but she’ll still be the nominee. I’m sure she’ll add some of Sanders’ best lines to her campaign repertoire to appeal to the new, young voters that are now part of the political landscape.

We might have reached a crisis point in the campaign last week, with the seventh grade debate and Chris Christie cannon-balling into the race, then looking miserable about it. But despite the backlash against Romney’s jeremiad, there might be enough GOPers willing to search their souls and questions whether they really want Trump as their nominee.

The next 10 days will tell.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Donald Trump Politics

SNL – The Rise of Trump is like The Rise of Hitler – Video

It’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt, and Saturday Night Live see a comparison to be made between Adolph Hitler and Donald Trump.

“Saturday Night Live” opened its latest show with election coverage from CNN’s “election center,” where “bona fide hunk” host Jake Tapper, played by cast member Beck Bennett, looked back at the “crazy week in politics.”

Highlights included the Super Tuesday press conference of GOP front-runner Donald Trump, played by Darrell Hammond.

“What a great, great night. I really am running the best campaign, aren’t I? The media is saying they haven’t seen anything like this, not since Germany in the 1930s,” Hammond says.

“I mean everyone loves me: racists, ugly racists, people who didn’t know they were racists.”

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who awkwardly stood behind Trump during the news conference, is not spared.

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Please, sir, may I have another,” Bobby Moynihan, portraying Christie, says after being insulted.

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Donald Trump Politics

How Donald Trump Spells Lying – “LYEN” – Video

The man is running for president of the United States AND he is leading in the Republican field. So, given that Republicans want the least qualified person in the nation to be their leader, Trump’s inability to spell is perfectly fine with them.

Appearing at a rally in Kansas today, Trump told the audience about some of his fellow liars running for the Republican nomination. Ted Cruz came to mind and Trump felt the need to emphasize just much lying Cruz does on the stump by spelling the word.

“How would you spell that? L-Y-E-N, with a big apostrophe,” Trump said.

Yes, he is running to be the most powerful man in the world, the leader of the free world! “LYEN!”

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Donald Trump Featured Politics Racism

White Supremacist Group to Hold Rally for Donald Trump in DC – Video

Flirting with the racist among him, Donald Trump has found another reason to act ignorant and to pretend that endorsements from hate groups like the Klu Klux Klan, or David Duke, or White Supremacist, can be accepted on a case by case basis.

On Saturday evening, an Arlington-based think tank called the National Policy Institute plans to hold its annual conference in the rotunda of the Reagan building in D.C., with around 150 attendees expected.  The topic of the conference will be the Republican presidential frontrunner, Donald Trump.
But the NPI isn’t just any think tank. The Southern Poverty Law Center considers its president Richard Spencer to be one of the “most successful young white nationalist leaders” in the country today.
The NPI’s website says the group is  “dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of  people of European descent in the United States.”
In Trump, Spencer sees a figure “energizing” the white nationalist movement. So on Saturday, conference attendees will enjoy cocktails, dinner, desert, and three speakers praising and parsing the “Trump phenomenon.”

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Domestic Policies Donald Trump Mitt Romney

The GOP Creates a False Reality

I don’t know why people are so concerned about Donald Trump’s foreign policy experience. He’s currently fighting a war right here in the United States, and he seems to be winning.

The past couple of days have shown, in vivid monochromatic white, that the Republican Party is in full-blown Three Mile Island meltdown mode, what with talk about a brokered convention and establishment plots to deny Donald Trump the nomination and vast amounts of money to stop his campaign that should have come in November when, perhaps, and I mean perhaps, it could have made a difference. What’s clear is that the party wants to stop him, but in the absence of any one candidate that has been identified as the anti-Donald, this is not going to happen.

Carting out Mitt Romney, of all people, to tell the world that Trump is a fraud is in itself a fraud of momentous proportions, but it is emblematic of how far the GOP has fallen and how they have, in Karl Rove’s famous words, created their own reality. Remember that it was Republican fuzzy math that gave them the false idea that Romney was going to defeat Obama until FOX News called Ohio for the president and Rove went into mini-meltdown mode on national television.

Then they thought that simply by winning some House seats that they were going to force the president to give up his signature accomplishment because, well, the base demanded that he do that. Then there’s the Cruz shutdown gambit  and the proposed Planned Parenthood shutdown gambit and the climate denial gambit and now the Supreme Court shutdown denial gambit that just got a whole lot more interesting.

But they’re saving the biggest reality denial for the fall, and that’s the idea that a political party that loathes its potential nominee and is publicly and loudly looking for an alternative that includes forcing a brokered convention and inviting talk about a third-party challenge can actually win a presidential election in November. Moderate Republicans, and I mean real moderates, not right wingers like John Kasich or Marco Rubio, will flee the GOP in the fall. Senators will run from Trump and try to create their own local reality in a news environment that will force them to take sides. And if the GOP does give in and support Trump, it will lose Hispanic voters and ensure that more women, young people and African-Americans will go to the polls. It’s difficult enough to win national elections when the party is helping its nominee; it’s almost impossible to win with a party that is spilt along three or four fronts.

I said repeatedly that Trump would not be the nominee because I assumed that the Republican Party would do anything to ensure its viability. That clearly is happening too late and I will admit that I am wrong as soon as Trump crosses the delegate math finish line. But if the party is still this fractured at the convention, then they will find it extraordinarily difficult to win in the fall.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Donald Trump Featured

Trump’s Campaign Co-chair Arrested for Conspiracy to Commit Crimes Against America

And now this!

Jerry Delemus, the husband of a New Hampshire Republican lawmaker and co-chair of the state’s“Veterans for Trump” coalition, was arrested Thursday for his role in the armed standoff nearly two years ago at the Bundy ranch.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Delemus on nine federal charges — including conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, threatening a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction of justice, attempting to impede or injure a federal law enforcement officer and several firearms charges,reported Portsmouth Patch.

The Tea Party activist and outspoken Donald Trump supporter traveled cross-country in 2014 to take part in the armed standoff between Bureau of Land Management agents and Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his militia supporters in a dispute over unpaid grazing fees.

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Canada Donald Trump Featured

Google – Searches to “Move to Canada” Increased 350 Percent Since Super Tuesday

I thought I was the only one seriously considering a move to Canada if Donald Trump wins the White House. Apparently, I’m not the only one.

Google says the search “How can I move to Canada?” spiked 350 percent as results came in late Tuesday showing wins for GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

“Searches for ‘how can I move to Canada’ on Google have spiked +350% in the past hours,” tweeted Simon Rogers, the search engine’s data editor, Tuesday evening alongside the hashtag #SuperTuesday.

“Searches for ‘Move to Canada’ are higher than at any time in Google history,” the company later added.

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Donald Trump Politics

Donald Trump Jr. Gives Radio Interview to White Supremacist

Donald Trump found himself in hot water on Sunday when he refused to denounce an endorsement by the former leader of the KKK, David Duke Now his son, Donald Trump Jr., apparently thought it appropriate to give a 20-minute radio interview to a white supremacist, a man who said slavery was great for black Americans.

James Edwards, host of the show “Political Cesspool,” scored a 20-minute interview with Donald Trump Jr. at a Memphis rally on Saturday, he wrote on his blog.

Edwards, who calls his views unabashedly “pro-white,” has hosted Ku Klux Klan leaders and Holocaust deniers on his show. He once wrote of slavery: “For blacks in the Americas, slavery is the greatest thing that ever happened to them. Unfortunately, it’s the worst thing that ever happened to white Americans.”

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Donald Trump Paul Ryan Politics

Paul Ryan Slams Donald Trump on Super Tuesday

It’s all for show. Someone had to stand up and pretend to tell the rest of America that Republicans are not as crazy as they seem, and Paul Ryan was the chosen one.

After Donald Trump basically embraced former KKK leader David Duke with his initial refusal to reject Duke and the KKK, Paul Ryan was tapped to try and convince Americans that Trump was wrong.

“If a person wants to be a nominee of the Republican Party there can be no evasion and no games,” said Ryan in one of the party leadership’s most pointed attacks on Trump.

“They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry … This is the party of Lincoln. If someone wants to be our nominee, they must understand this.”

Ryan’s rebuke of Trump came as voters in 11 states headed to the polls on Super Tuesday. Prognosticators believe Trump will win the majority of delegates up for grabs on the busiest day of the battle for the nominations in both parties.

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Donald Trump Politics

The New Hampshire Union-Leader Retracts its Chris Christie Endorsement

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie obviously did not win the Republican nomination for president, as the loser candidate dropped out a couple of weeks ago. But while he ran, some were fooled into thinking Christy had what it takes to be President.

Boy were they wrong. And that is exactly what one of Christie’s top endorser is saying now after Christie endorsed Donald Trump.

The New Hampshire Union-Leader just published an editorial on Monday titled “Christie was our bad choice,” it said it made a poor decision.

In its endorsement, the paper said that Christie had conservative values and could take down Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

“Boy, were we wrong,” Monday’s editorial begins.

The Union-Leader says despite the governor’s “baggage,” the paper thought he had the skills and experience necessary to take the presidency — and the best chance to take down Trump.

It then went on to slam Christie for his recent endorsement of Trump — something he said he’d never do, the editorial said.

“Watching Christie kiss the Donald’s ring this weekend — and make excuses for the man Christie himself had said was unfit for the presidency — demonstrated how wrong we were,” the editorial said.

“Rather than standing up to the bully, Christie bent his knee. In doing so, he rejected the very principles of his campaign that attracted our support.”

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Donald Trump Politics

John Oliver – “Donald Trump is America’s back mole” – Video

You might be asking why John Oliver used the analogy of “a back mole” to describe Donald Trump. Oliver explained the reason – “It may have seemed harmless a year ago, but now that it has gotten frighteningly bigger it is no longer wise to ignore it.”

Oliver claims to understand why Trump’s supporters like him, as Trump is unpredictable and entertaining and could be seen as a “protest candidate.” For Oliver, though, “Donald Trump can seem appealing until you take a closer look, much like a lunch buffet at a strip club — or the NFL.”

Oliver is in a unique position to critique Trump as the current Republican front runner tweeted that he had turned down an invitation to appear on the “very boring and low rated” show, Last Week Tonight, because it was a “waste of time and energy.” However, according to Oliver, no one on his staff has ever invited Trump to be on the show, because it’s not a talk show.

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Domestic Policies Donald Trump Donald Trump News Politics

Trump-Christie Agonistes

This is what happens when a political party is in the midst of self-destruction. I remember it well when the Democrats dissolved between 1972 and 1984, and these last, frantic days should remind us that it’s not pretty or helpful when a major political organization goes nuclear.

Such is the Republican Party.

I have been saying, for quite some time, that I didn’t believe Donald Trump will be the GOP nominee this year, and I will cling to that belief until the numbers say that I’m wrong, but it’s fairly clear that ego, infighting, stubbornness and incompetence have put Trump on the brink of attaining that prize. For once, though, I don’t fully blame the Republican Party as much as I also blame the voters it nurtured and the utter disdain and hatred they have for President Obama and government in general.

There are still some Republican leaders who do understand what their actions have wrought, such as former NJ Governor Christine Todd Whitman, who says that she will support Hillary for president, even as they are now seeing that saying ultra-conservative things, but governing less so, has gotten them into a pot of boiling water they can’t climb out of easily.

The debate last week was bad enough; a WWE-type smack-down that had little to do with politics and everything to do with the stunted maturity of the party’s front-runner and the anger of the intellectual dwarfs who want to take him down. The candidates discussed precious little about what they would do as president, which in all cases would be a disaster for the middle class, women, minorities, anyone whose sexuality differs from the norm, potentially productive immigrants and most animal species, and focused on bodily functions and who might have lied the most. They then continued the fight through the week, referring to bathroom habits and other national security issues they believe are the keys to their success.

And then came the angriest, most-inappropriate, venom-spewing know-nothing of them all: Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, who is so terrifically angry that the GOP decided to support Marco Rubio over him as the party’s savior that he threw away what was left of his dignity, common-sense and governing doctrine. Christie will have to spend most of his time walking back comments he made during the campaign about how unqualified his new friend Don is to be president.

Christie has clearly had it with the Republican Party, and in his mind he has good reason. After all, he spent years cultivating supporters by giving time and speeches to candidates when they were running for office. Then, as Chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association he threw himself  into party politics, doled out resources and, again, spent many months on the campaign trail, biding his time until the 2016 election, when he would gather up his favors and chits and be the instant front-runner for the presidency. The GW Bridge traffic jam destroyed his credibility and his actions on the campaign trail, including his torching of Marco Rubio in the debate just before the New Hampshire primary, proved to be not only his undoing, but the cause of his own political self-immolation.

And now Chris doesn’t have to spend more time in New Jersey being Governor, which I’m certain is one of his main reasons for making this endorsement. Christie is essentially over state politics and craves the national limelight and cable television programs. It’s Kim Guagdano’s gig now, but the Democrats have the power. Christie is fast becoming irrelevant on the state level.

Also, he probably sees Trump as the only candidate who would give him a job if (shudder) he wins the presidency. Does Christie on the Supreme Court grab your attention? It should.

Let’s see what happens on March 1, Super Tuesday, and in the big states that hold primaries between then and March 15. Trump is not likely to gather enough delegates to win the nomination and if Rubio can consistently get 20% or more in each state, he can stay close until April, when more big states will vote. Also, John Kasich will probably be out of the race very soon.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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