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Donald Trump Tag

Posted by New Neo on December 24, 2015 17 Comments
Trump has now scandalized people by using a Yiddish expression to describe what happened to Hillary Clinton at the hands of the Obama forces back in 2008:
She was favored to win and she got schlonged, she lost.
Now, for those of you who aren't especially up on Yiddish, "schlong" is one of the many Yiddish words used to describe the male member, as in genitalia. I won't bother to list the others; you can probably do it yourself. But, even as an ex-New Yorker, although I'm familiar with the word, I can't ever recall it being used as a verb before---which is the way Trump is using it here, as an equivalent of "screwed."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 23, 2015 62 Comments
Hillary lives with Bill Clinton. It's doubtful there is ANYTHING that could truly shock or dismay her when it comes to frat-boy-like behavior. Or sexual innuendo. Donald Trump said Hillary got "schlonged" in the 2008 election. Trump's explanation is that it means to be beaten badly: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/679506175239532545 Regardless, whether a slang word to be beaten badly, or a Yiddish term for a schlong, there is zero chance Hillary was actually offended or upset. Zero. SHE LIVES WITH BILL CLINTON. She has covered for Bill Clinton's sexual antics and went after his female victims. Yet Hillary got teary eyed when talking about campaign bullying later that same day, an obvious reference to Trump's comment.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 22, 2015 9 Comments
Hillary Clinton flat-out lied when she claimed during the Democratic Debate on December 19, 2015, that ISIS was showing videos of Donald Trump's immigration comments as a recruiting tool. Despite the lack of any proof of the video claim, Team Hillary is refusing to apologize, and instead has fallen back on the more general claim that Trump still is ISIS's best recruiting tool:
“He is becoming ISIS’s best recruiter,” she said. “They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.”… When asked if Mrs. Clinton would apologize, Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said, “Hell no. Hillary Clinton will not be apologizing to Donald Trump for correctly pointing out how his hateful rhetoric only helps ISIS recruit more terrorists.”
Really? One can disagree with Trump's comments AND acknowledge that Hillary lied and Team Clinton is distracting from Clinton's own failures as Secretary of State.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 20, 2015 39 Comments
Hillary Clinton flat-out lied during the Democratic Debate on Saturday night. Throughout the debate, even when not the subject of a question, the candidates tried to out-do each other in condemning Donald Trump. It was a preview of a general election strategy. At one dramatic point, Hillary claimed that Trump's comments about a temporary halt to Muslim immigration were being used in ISIS videos as a recruiting tool. It was not a claim made in isolation. It came as Clinton tried to explain her ISIS and refugee strategies in the face of an American public which strongly (though not majority) supports Trump's position. This was Hillary's opportunity to convince the public that people need not give in to fear. Rather than making the case, Hillary just made stuff up:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 17, 2015 79 Comments
While I didn't think Donald Trump did a particularly great job in Tuesday's CNN debate, his poll numbers and recent comment about a temporary halt to Muslims coming into the country have stirred interest in his candidacy abroad.  The latest foreign leader to weigh in on Trump is Russian president Vladimir Putin who thinks Trump is "brilliant," "talented," and "very colorful." The Hill reports:
Russian President Vladimir Putin had kind words for his “stablemate” Donald Trump during an annual end-of-the-year Q-and-A session in Moscow. "He’s a really brilliant and talented person, without any doubt,” Putin told reporters, according to a translation by Interfax. "It’s not our job to judge his qualities, that’s a job for American voters, but he’s the absolute leader in the presidential race.”
Putin claims that Trump was the "absolute leader" in the GOP presidential debates.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 15, 2015 103 Comments
The CNN Debate just ended, and I have only one clear impression -- Donald Trump has so completely emasculated Jeb Bush that this may be Jeb's last hurrah. Before getting to that, I don't think there was a clear winner. Trump was Trump; I don't think he gained or lost support based on this performance. He reiterated his pledge not to run independent, clearly and unequivocally. Rubio was very good ... except that for the first time people (particularly Rand Paul) hit him over the head hard on the Gang of 8 bill. I thought Cruz had some strong moments, but I just don't know that this will catapult him. Of the others, the only one who made any impression was Carly Fiorina, when she went after Hillary; but she played the gender card pretty hard, so I don't know if that turned people off. Now the big impression. Donald Trump has mastered the art of making Jeb look small. Even when Jeb scores a substantive point about Trump, Jeb lessens his own stature for the fight after Trump mocks him.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 15, 2015 13 Comments
Both Donald Trump and Ben Carson have stated that if the GOP attempts to manipulate the primary process they will run as independents. Trump tweeted: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/674317248803307520 According to the Columbus Dispatch, March is the latest that they can launch independent runs.
State filing deadlines would give the two Republicans until about March to launch independent or third-party campaigns, experts said. That would give a well-financed campaign enough time to gather sufficient signatures on petitions so the candidate could appear on the ballot in every state.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 14, 2015 25 Comments
I noted the other night that Donald Trump may have opened the "Overton Window" for Ted Cruz, by making Cruz acceptable to both Republican establishment types and general election voters who otherwise would have considered him Cruz conservative. I noted the fear of a liberal who wrote:
Donald Trump looks like the warm-up act. Whoever follows him from the Republican party looks reasonable (and sane) by comparison.
How will the mainstream media react if Cruz's current poll surge holds and he looks like a viable challenger to Trump? We know the answer, because there's a history here, one I documented back in August 2013. And ironically, it's a theme Trump appears to be taking up in a recent attack on Cruz. I called it the crazying of Ted Cruz, focusing on a Daily Beast article trying to portray Cruz as "creepy":
A lifetime of achievement that would normally be heralded by liberals if achieved by a liberal Hispanic, devolves into creepiness on the slimmest of pretexts. This is all part of the crazying of Ted Cruz by liberal publications like the Daily Beast. It doesn’t matter what the substance is, they just want to associate the word “creepy” with Ted Cruz in the minds of the public, many of whom don’t read past the headline.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 12, 2015 44 Comments
I noticed this Facebook comment on the page of a local Ithaca liberal Democrat, on a post criticizing Donald Trump:
Donald Trump looks like the warm-up act. Whoever follows him from the Republican party looks reasonable (and sane) by comparison.
The commenter didn't use the term, but she was describing how Trump has moved The Overton Window. The Overton Window has been described as follows:
The Overton window is a political theory that refers to the range (or window) of policies that the public will accept. The idea is that any policy falling outside the Overton window is out of step with public opinion and the current political climate, and formulated to try and shift the Overton window in a different direction, or to expand it to be wider.
Has Trump moved the Overton Window? That's a theory advanced the other day by David French at National Review (h/t Instapundit):

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 12, 2015 16 Comments
Trump Derangement Syndrome is in high gear among the GOP establishment and even more so among those on the left.  In a jaw-dropping story, an ACLU board member took to Facebook to urge people to massacre people who support Trump.  This person has since resigned in disgrace. CBSDenver reports:
A board member for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado has resigned after urging people to kill supporters of presidential candidate Donald Trump. Loring Wirbel’s Facebook post was captured by The Daily Caller – a right-leaning online newspaper. The post states, “The thing is, we have to really reach out to those who might consider voting for Trump and say, ‘This is Goebbels. This is the final solution. If you are voting for him I will have to shoot you before Election Day.’ They’re not going to listen to reason, so when justice is gone, there’s always force…”

Posted by Anne Segal on December 11, 2015 19 Comments
This past Wednesday night, GOP consultant Frank Luntz discussed the results of his "focus group" with Donald Trump supporters, concluding that their enthusiasm for the candidate is unshakeable. From the Washington Post to National Review and FOX News, much is being made of the focus group participants' unwavering support for Trump even when presented with negative ads and statements from the candidate, including Kasich's ad comparing Trump to Hitler. The wearying theatrics of Frank-Luntz "focus groups" are one of the speed bumps we viewers have to navigate during the election season. I am resigned to the fact that producers think someone still marvels at the "dials" and the Price Is Right aspect to it all. Why we shouldn't pay any attention to this focus group:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 10, 2015 0 Comments
In July, Professor Jacobson wrote about the Huffington Post's decision to move its Donald Trump coverage to its Entertainment section.  He wrote:
It is a political decision by HuffPo to impose on readers its view of Trump in the most pernicious way — not as part of an explicit and open editorial process but by corrupting HuffPo’s own news process. In what universe, other than the liberal media bias, is a candidate currently leading national polls and all but guaranteed to be included in the first debate not a political issue? You can hate Trump’s campaign, but it’s still politics.
HuffPo was stuck with this ridiculous decision, even going so far as to beclown itself further by announcing Trump's decision to forego a third-party run on its Entertainment pages.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 09, 2015 62 Comments
This should be interesting. When two over-sized personalities collide, neither of whom is known for backing down. On Twitter and Facebook, Benjamin Netanyahu just released the following statement: https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/674653302852816896
Prime Minister Netanyahu rejects Donald Trump's recent remarks about Muslims. The State of Israel respects all religions and strictly guarantees the rights of all its citizens. At the same time, Israel is fighting against militant Islam that targets Muslims, Christians and Jews alike and threatens the entire world.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 08, 2015 84 Comments
Monday, Presidential hopeful Donald Trump called for, "complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." Republican leadership spoke out against Trump's remarks Tuesday. "I do not comment on what's going on in the presidential election; I will take an exception today," said Speaker Paul Ryan. "This is not conservatism. What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for and more importantly, it's not what this country stands for."

Posted by Sarah Rumpf on December 07, 2015 159 Comments
Presidential candidate Donald Trump sucked up all the media oxygen yet again on Monday when his campaign released a statement calling for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." Many on Twitter assumed at first that the statement was a hoax, but it was tweeted by Trump senior adviser Dan Scavino, and then posted on Trump's website and retweeted by Trump himself, who called it "a very important policy statement on the extraordinary influx of hatred & danger coming into our country." Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski confirmed to the Associated Press that the intention was for the ban to apply to "everybody," including both immigrants and tourists. The Hill asked Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks if this would include Muslim-American citizens who were currently abroad, Hicks replied by email: "Mr. Trump says 'everyone.'" https://twitter.com/JonahNRO/status/673987103232012289 Trump also retweeted several tweets from David Brody with the Christian Broadcasting Network that described his proposed Muslim ban as an act of "bravery" that would likely "give him a boost with evangelicals."

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 05, 2015 103 Comments
Last week,  Quinnipiac reported poll results for Iowa that showed Ted Cruz surging to 23%, only 2 points behind Donald Trump. The Wall Street Journal reported:
A new Quinnipiac University poll of likely Republican caucus goers showed Mr. Cruz with 23%, behind only New York real estate developer Donald Trump, with 25%. That is more than double Mr. Cruz’s showing of 10% in the university’s October poll. Mr. Trump gained five points from October.
Today, Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, tweeted the following: https://twitter.com/RichLowry/status/673236631231533056 More Twitter responses:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on November 28, 2015 24 Comments
Between reports that representatives from major networks (CNN, FOX, NBC, ABC, and CBS) gathered together to discuss how to take down Trump and John Kasich's bizarre ad, Trump seems to have more people poised to work against him than with him. The Hill reports that the GOP is in a "panic" over Trump and are finally taking his campaign seriously enough to call him "the clear front-runner" and to wonder how to derail it. So far, GOP strategists and pundits on both sides have been predicting that Trump's success will be short-lived, that it's just like the last presidential election in which each candidate had his or her 15 minutes of fame . . . only to crash, burn, and drop out in a matter of weeks. That, however, is not the case with Trump thus far; the Hill continues:
“The media has twisted and turned through a number of different positions where they tried to explain that it was just a fad — the summer of Trump,” said Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa. “Well, it’s lasted all fall. There is a realization that you are not going to wake up tomorrow and he’s going to vanish.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 25, 2015 34 Comments
There's a big spat over Donald Trump's comments that he remembers seeing video of Muslims in Jersey City or other towns near NYC cheering the attack on the World Trade Center. The argument is over whether it happened, whether there is video and so on. Trump is sticking to his memory, and the media is swarming to prove him wrong. CNN in particular is going all out on the effort. There's no purity of purpose there. What's most interesting to me is that there is an emerging consensus among those who are hammering Trump on this that Trump is not "lying," but likely is thinking of celebrations elsewhere. Since the aspersions that Trump is a "racist" or "Islamophobic" are predicated on a bad intent, whether he is lying as opposed to honestly mistaken seems relevant. The concept of false or suggested memory is something I've often explored both in private practice and in the course I teach. There just are some people who absolutely believe and will swear on a stack of Bibles to something that objectively did not happen -- and they always seem to be on the other side of the case from me! They are not liars, but they are wrong. Proving it is the challenge. Robert Mackey of The New York Times argues that Trump probably is confusing videos of Palestinians cheering with some memory of it taking place in northern New Jersey, The Video of Celebrations That Was Broadcast on 9/11:
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