Tag: Donald Trump
Trump Lists Possible SCOTUS Nominees
This about sums up my reaction.
But let’s be clear, this is a campaign announcement designed to assuage conservatives. It’s a political document, in essence. There’s no reason to believe that Trump would feel bound by this list.
Trump Posed as His Own Spokesman
The evidence is pretty compelling that he did do this and his denial is a lie.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump masqueraded as a spokesman for himself in the 1990s, the Washington Postreports.
In a recording obtained by the paper, a voice similar to Mr Trump’s purporting to be a media representative advocates for the billionaire businessman.
Reporters would hear from the “spokesman”, John Miller or John Baron, when asking to interview Mr Trump.
Mr Trump denied the story to the Today Show on Friday.
The RPW Need Not be Trumped
My column for the West Bend Daily News is online. Here you go:
It has been a week since Donald Trump won the Indiana primary and, with Ted Cruz and John Kasich dropping out, became the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for president of the United States of America. In a primary field full of weighty Republicans, the most lightweight candidate floated to the top.
With a presumptive nominee, now is the time for Republicans to coalesce around the candidate to defeat Hillary Clinton, or so the narrative goes. Certainly, Trump has tapped into a rage that many Americans are feeling toward a government that has become increasingly intrusive while failing to address the real problems within our nation. That rage is justified and Republicans need to respond to it.
But as someone who has voted for the Republican presidential candidate for his entire adult life, I refuse to cast a vote for Trump. In choosing Trump as their candidate, the Republican Party has left me behind. Since I will also not vote for Clinton, I am looking hard at third party candidates.
My reasons for not voting for Trump are fairly simple. I am a lifelong conservative who votes for candidates who will advance conservative solutions for our nation’s problems. That is not to say that I must agree with everything a candidate believes in order to support him or her. I did not agree completely with Mitt Romney, John McCain, or George W. Bush, but I agreed with them on most of the big issues.
Trump is not a conservative — he is not even close. Based on his seven decades of history on earth and not on whatever platitudes he has been mouthing for the past few months, Trump is a New York liberal Democrat. He is prochoice, anti-second Amendment, pro-big government, prosocialized healthcare and on and on. He has not offered a single policy prescription that does not include an expansion of government power.
Trump combines his liberalism with a revolting character and personality. He is a serial and unapologetic adulterer. Trump is a braggart in victory and petty in defeat. Trump’s bigoted and elitist rhetoric is a big reason why his unfavorable ratings are more than 50 percent with women, minorities, millennials and conservatives. He is a man unencumbered by social or ethical mores and is proud of it.
There are some Republicans who argue that we must support Trump to make sure Clinton is denied the opportunity to appoint liberal justices to the Supreme Court. That argument rests on two tenuous pillars. First, it assumes that Trump will win, which is highly unlikely given his polling and the electoral map. Second, it assumes he would appoint more conservative justices when there is no evidence to suggest he will do so. Trump is a liberal and assurances to the contrary from a habitual liar do not bring comfort.
More simply, I will need to be able to go to sleep Nov. 8 with a clean conscience and wake up Nov. 9 and look my children in the eyes. I would not be able to do that should I exercise my franchise to commit my great nation to the governance of Trump.
While the presidential election is lost for conservatives, Wisconsin is not, and it is important to hold it. For the past six years, Wisconsin has been the center of a renaissance for conservatism. This renaissance is at grave risk. During the primary election, 65 percent of Wisconsin Republicans voted against Trump and now he will be at the top of the ballot. The task for the Republican Party of Wisconsin is to acknowledge and respect the anger of Trump’s supporters while affirming that Trumpism is not conservatism for the rest of Wisconsinites.
To do this, the RPW and leading Republicans should commit all state resources to supporting Wisconsin Republicans and not spend a dollar on supporting Trump. In a state that already leans Democratic and has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate since 1984, Trump’s incredibly divisive campaign means that he stands virtually no chance of winning the state. The RPW should not waste state resources on a losing effort and should, instead, focus all of their time and money on making sure Republicans hold the state Senate, Assembly and incumbent Congressional seats. In particular, the open 8th Congressional seat and Sen. Ron Johnson are in serious danger of turning Democratic in this election.
The RPW has had success recently because of smart, conservative leadership and an educated, motivated base that votes in exceptional numbers. If the RPW goes the way of Trump, it will be abandoning the former and betraying the latter. An electoral rout would be the inevitable, and justifiable, result.
Conservatives are walking back into the wilderness at the national level, but there is no need for that to happen in Wisconsin. We still have a lot of work to do.
Trump on Trial
So here we are in this strange state of affairs where there’s a good chance that both of the candidates for the major parties are involved with trials as we consider them for president. 
A federal judge in San Diego set the stage on Friday for what could be one of the strangest presidential transitions in history: He ordered that Donald Trump must go to trial starting Nov. 28 in a civil case in which he is accused of defrauding students who attended Trump University.
“No doubt this will be a challenge … we’re in unchartered waters,” said Daniel Petrocelli, Trump’s lead lawyer in the case, when asked later how his client — if elected in November — would be able to balance preparing to take over the presidency with taking the witness stand in a trial that could run almost until the eve of the following January’s inauguration.
But Petrocelli said Trump was fully prepared to testify and would even attend “most, if not all” of the trial in order to vindicate himself. “His preference would be to be here for the entirety of the trial,” Petrocelli said. “He believes this case is unwarranted and he wants to defend himself fully.”
Trump Changes Underwear
And with it, his positions on issues. I know… you’re shocked.
Trump’s abrupt dismissal of his own tax plan, which he regularly cited on the campaign trail, came a day after he signaled a willingness to raise the federal minimum wage, which would be a major reversal from his stance in the primaries.
“I am open to doing something with it, because I don’t like that,” Trump told CNN on Wednesday after being asked if he thought the $7.25 minimum wage should be increased.
Trump added that “you have to have something that you can live on” and that his willingness to entertain a wage increase showed he was “very different from most Republicans.”
This was, to put it mildly, a complete flip flop from his position in the primaries.
Trump’s Foreign Policy Speech
This about sums up my reaction.
The most remarkable aspect of Donald Trump’s foreign policy speech was that someone actually wrote it out and put it in the teleprompter. It was so filled with internal contradictions, falsehoods and genuinely crazy assertions that one would have thought Trump was speaking extemporaneously. It was a vivid display as to why he is thoroughly unprepared to become commander in chief.
New Yorkers Winning New York
It looks like the two on the right will win the New York primary.
Trump Hires Wiley
Rick Wiley, who managed Gov. Scott Walker’s brief presidential run, will now be the national political director for Donald Trump’s campaign.
In a news release today, Trump called him a “seasoned political expert with a very successful career in winning elections.”
“He brings decades of experience, and his deep ties to political leaders and activists across the country will be a tremendous asset as we enter the final phase of securing the nomination,” Trump said.
Trump’s Oral Diarrhea Mentions Walker
“I like Walker actually in a lot of ways,” Trump told the newspaper. “I hit him very hard. … But I’ve always liked him. There are people I like, but I don’t think they like me because I have hit them hard.”
Asked Monday in Madison about the comments, Walker wouldn’t rule out being Trump’s vice presidential pick, instead saying he was focused on being governor. He said he laughed when he read Trump’s comments.
“It’s kind of interesting to hear that after the things that were said about me a couple weeks ago,” Walker said. “It’s almost breathtaking that I was listed in the first place.”
Trump Rattles Allies
This man doesn’t put any thought into issues before blurting out his latest inanity.
The front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination stunned two of America’s strongest allies with the suggestion that the U.S. military would be withdrawn from their shores, with nuclear weapons replacing them.There are currently 54,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan and 28,500 in South Korea.“Japan is better if it protects itself against this maniac of North Korea,” Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Tuesday. “We are better off frankly if South Korea is going to start protecting itself … they have to protect themselves or they have to pay us.”
Trump Waffles on Abortion Issue
Serious people who actually think about issues know their own mind on an issue as important as abortion. Trump’s meandering thoughts on it show that he has either never seriously thought about one of the most important social issues of our time, or he is simply pandering to whoever is in front of him at the moment. I strongly suspect that it’s both.
Throughout his campaign, Trump has faced questions about the authenticity of his position on abortion. He said he was “pro-choice in every respect” in a 1999 interview, though he said he hated the “concept of abortion.”His comments on Wednesday appeared to be the latest in Trump’s persistent efforts to court the support of socially conservative voters. But his efforts backfired as three leading anti-abortion groups swiftly criticized Trump’s comments.March for Life released the toughest statement of the three groups, calling Trump’s remarks “completely out of touch with the pro-life movement.”
Trump Campaign Manager Charged with Battery
Innocent until proven guilty, but the video sure makes him look guilty.
(CNN)Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was arrested and charged in Jupiter, Florida, with simple battery of former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, according to police.
The Jupiter Police Department told CNN that Lewandowski was arrested Tuesday morning after turning himself in on the misdemeanor charge of simple battery.They said Lewandowski has been released and his initial court appearance is scheduled for May 4. The department also released new video that shows the alleged incident from an overhead angle.Campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks and one of Lewandowski’s lawyers, Scott Richardson, both released a statement Tuesday saying Lewandowski is “absolutely innocent of this charge,” and will plead not guilty.
Trump Runs Into Wisconsin Talk Radio Buzzsaw
Donald Trump came off as pretty clueless about Wisconsin and its conservative landscape in a series of talk radio interviews. He hung up on Vicki McKenna. You can hear him bluster with Charlie Sykes here:
Here’s the thing… Wisconsin has been one of the centers of the Conservative movement in the nation for the past 5-8 years. If you are a conservative, you are at least somewhat familiar with Wisconsin and the key players. Trump doesn’t have a clue. It should serve to remind his supporters that whatever Trump is, he is not a Conservative. And a lot of us conservatives are not going to make a choice between two wealthy liberal New York tyrants. We’ll choose another way.
Two Democrats
It’s always sad when the foreign press nails it so much more accurately than the American press.
It may be useful to stop thinking of this presidential campaign as a contest between Democrats and Republicans.
Hillary Clinton is a Democrat. Donald Trump is also a Democrat.
Come on, you know it’s true. This isn’t a political race, it’s a class race.
Trump Displays Constitutional Ignorance
Heh.
The Republican frontrunner said the demonstrators who shut down an Arizona highway leading to the Phoenix suburb where he was scheduled to speak were violating his right to free speech — and the rights of his supporters to come hear him.
“They’re really stopping our First Amendment rights,” Trump said. “If you think about it, George, they block … they blocked a road, they put their cars in front of a road. We had thousands and thousands of people wanting to come. They were delayed for an hour because of these protesters.”
The 1st Amendment restricts the government’s power to quash speech. It does not restrict private people from disrupting the speech of other private people. There are other laws that apply here, but the 1st Amendment does not.
That being said, what these goons are doing in disrupting events for the sole purpose of stopping someone from speaking, and being heard, is deplorable behavior. They should be arrested and prosecuted for every crime they have committed.
Carson Endorses Trump
Disappointing, but not surprising. We knew that Trump and Carson were acquainted in their personal lives. Carson’s endorsement of Trump confirms that he does not have the judgment to be president and the voters wisely withheld their support from him.
Palm Beach, Florida (CNN)Ben Carson threw his support behind Donald Trump Friday morning, saying the two men had “buried the hatchet” and praising the Republican Party’s front-runner as a “the voice of the people to be heard.”
Paul Ryan Pushes Back on Trump
Heh.
“When I see something that runs counter to who we are as a party and as a country, I will speak up, so today I want to be very clear about something,” Ryan said.
“If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry. This party does not prey on people’s prejudices. We appeal to their highest ideals. This is the party of Lincoln.”
He added: “This is fundamental. And if someone wants to be our nominee, they must understand this. I hope this is the last time I need to speak out on this race.”
Ryan appeared heartfelt in his denunciations, which were plainly aimed at Trump’s failure to disavow David Duke over the weekend, as well as at Trump’s casual use of his mighty twitter feed to promote the rantings of racists. And Ryan deserves credit for doing this, just as he deserved credit for denouncing in unequivocal terms Trump’s call for a temporary ban on non-citizen Muslims from entering the United States. There’s little doubt that Ryan personally finds Trumpism to be horrifying.
So… we are in a situation where if Trump wins the nomination and makes it into the White House, he already has a worse relationship with the Republican leaders in both chambers of the Congress than he does with the Democratic leaders.
Frustrating Trump
My column for the West Bend Daily News is online. Here you go:
Some of our worst mistakes have been born out of the frustration to do something. Frustration over the rising cost of health care pushed the country to lurch into the disaster of Obamacare. Frustration over the ongoing American cost of Iraqi peace lured our nation into a precipitous withdrawal and the rise of ISIS. The Republican Party appears on the cusp of making another horrible mistake by making Donald Trump their nominee.
The rise of Trump is born out of the frustration of many Republicans with the direction of this country and the perceived inability, or unwillingness, of the Republican establishment to alter that direction. Republicans are frustrated with the ongoing failure of the federal government to stem the tide of illegal immigration that continues to drain our nation’s resources and jobs — particularly in the blue collar construction and agricultural industries.
Republicans are frustrated with the ever-increasing scope and size of the federal government. Between the rogue EPA’s onerous regulations to the federal government mandating the parameters of our health insurance, the federal government has its grimy fingers digging into the most mundane aspects of our everyday lives.
Many people, including Republicans, are frustrated with an increasingly violently intolerant culture that demands conformity to liberal thought. There are aspects of our American culture that no longer permit robust and respectful discussion about issues like gay marriage, race relations or even environmental sciences. Instead, any deviation from the current liberal canon is met with accusations of hate speech, ostracization and protests.
In the stew of all of this frustration, Trump bobbled to the top with the promise to “do something.” What will he do? Trump’s prescriptions are generally fanciful ideas, coated in bluster, broiled in rhetoric and sold with a vat of ego on the side. For example, Trump promises to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it. He promises to eliminate the “lines around the states” to fix Obamacare. Trump plans to “make a deal” to bring peace to the Middle East. Serious people can do little but roll their eyes at such dross.
Trump’s lack of substance can, perhaps, be forgiven as people often look to presidents for broad-stroke ideas, not detailed policy plans, but his history and background cannot. Trump is a lifelong New York liberal. He is ardently pro-choice, anti-Second Amendment and pro “yuge” government. That is, he was until about a year ago when he decided to run for president as a Republican. Now he espouses all of the appropriate views if you are dim enough to believe him.
Trump’s personal and business life is also revealing. The story to his personal wealth is a long story of hustling, shady business practices, bankrupting others and outright frauds like Trump University. His personal life is a deviant jumble of mistresses and divorces.
Trump is everything Republicans have stood against for decades, but they are about to nominate him for president because he is speaking to their basest emotional frustrations and too many Republican voters have lost faith in the establishment.
Sometimes, however, the consequences of “doing something” for the sake of an emotional salve to untreated festering frustration is far worse than the disease. Should Trump win in November, he would not only be a bad president, he would be a dangerous one. His morals are unmoored by philosophy, religion, custom or even common decency, and his tempestuous ego will not be fettered by the strictures of the Constitution. Frustration and anger are not governing philosophies.
But more likely, should Trump be the Republican nominee, President Hillary Clinton will be sworn in next year (for you Bernie Sanders fans, the nomination process is rigged for Clinton). Trump has not yet garnered a majority of Republicans and his strong unfavorable ratings make a general election victory virtually impossible absent an utter collapse by the Democrats.
Furthermore, there are many conservatives, of which I am one, who will not vote for Trump in November under any circumstances. A President Trump presents too much of a danger to the republic and the conservative movement for me to even hold my nose and cast a vote in his favor. And while some Republicans will still turn out and vote for their senators and congressmen, many will not. The result could be a catastrophic loss for the Republican Party losing the White House, Senate and threatening the House. But if the Republican Party nominates Trump for president, they deserve a catastrophic loss. Unfortunately, the country will be worse for it.
There is still a little hope that Republicans will get their act together and nominate someone worthy to be our president, but the window of hope is closing rapidly.
Ribble Says Trump Fans’ Frustration is Misplaced
Ribble said those who support Trump are misplacing their anger at the establishment.
“They give Donald Trump a complete pass on the very same things that they’re angry about,” Ribble said. “Because they will cite the president’s overreach and overpromising. They cite Congress overreaching and overpromising, but that sums up the entire Trump campaign.
“And replacing the president with Mr. Trump is not going to change the dynamics in the Congress at all. It certainly isn’t going to solve the problems that they have. And it just seems a little bit unusual to me that they’re reacting, but I do get the frustration because I feel it and experience it myself, and I’m inside Congress.”