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Donald Trump Tag

The new Michael Bay film "13 Hours" is out now and is by all accounts, an accurate portrayal of the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, Libya. In a move that is as funny as it is politically savvy, Donald Trump is making sure the voters of Iowa get a chance to see it. The Des Moines Register reports:
Trump rents Iowa theater to show Benghazi movie Donald Trump has rented space at an Urbandale movie theater and will give Iowans free tickets to a showing of the Benghazi movie that critics of Hillary Clinton have been eagerly awaiting. “Mr. Trump would like all Americans to know the truth about what happened at Benghazi,” the GOP presidential candidate’s Iowa co-chair Tana Goertz said Thursday night.

The exchange between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump on "NY values" was one of the highlights of last night's debate. While Cruz clearly was referring to liberalism, he used a phrase that left him open to Trump's counterattack invoking 9/11: The media is thrilled with Trump's response. Of course, much of that media is in or from NY City. I expressed last night that I wasn't sure that the issue would play in Trump's favor outside NY. I was born in NYC, spent my early childhood there, grew up in and returned to the NYC suburbs after law school until moving to Rhode Island in 1993. And since 2008 have lived (originally part time now full time) in Ithaca. I understand what Cruz was referring to. And it has nothing to do with knocking the heroism of NY police and firemen, or how New Yorkers reacted under attack. It has everything to do with political, economic and social outlooks which are not accepted in the Republican Party in general much less among conservatives. The Cruz campaign apparently thinks this is a fight it needs to have, via Washington Examiner:

Big Picture

Tonight's GOP debate was Ted Cruz's night. He went right after Donald Trump multiple times, but in a way that came across as forceful and informed, but not nasty. He also fended off a pretty vigorous attack from Marco Rubio. His strongest points came early and against Trump, when the audience would be the largest. Trump was runner-up. He had a good moment on Cruz's slam on "NY Values," but I'm not sure how defending NY values plays outside NY. His performance will confirm pre-existing views of him. Rubio had an okay night, not great, not horrible. Maneuvered the immigration issue into one of national security -- in other words Gang of 8 was then, this is now. Landed some punches on Cruz at the end. Christie may have raised his profile as the acceptable establishment candidate, as Jeb again failed to impress, and Kasich was Kasich. At least Christie showed some fight. Biggest loser -- Ben Carson. Didn't seem to be in the game at many levels.

Joining Chris Matthews' Hardball on MSNBC Monday night, Republican strategist Liz Mair sparred with columnist and purveyor of outrage, Ann Coulter, over Donald Trump's candidacy. Coulter, Mitt Romney fan girl and Chris Christie acolyte has been a champion of Trump's candidacy since he announced. Mair, who runs the PAC Trump Card LLC, the "guerrilla effort" to thwart Donald Trump's candidacy, is leading the charge to "Make America Awesome (America is Already Great!)." The result? A smackdown you won't want to miss:

Bill Kristol, Founder and Editor of that mainstay of the Republican Establishment, The Weekly Standard, has finally come to recognize Donald Trump's contribution to the Republican candidates as a group. Kristol is not a Trump supporter and has predicted his fall for months.  After Trump derided John McCain's heroism for merely being a POW for five-plus years, Kristol said, "he's dead to me."  In the same interview he opined, "I don't think he'll stay up in the polls, incidentally. Republican primary voters are pro-respect the military. And he showed disrespect for the military." In September, Kristol said on CNN, “I doubt I’d support Donald. I doubt I’d support the Democrat.” Instead, “I think I’d support getting someone good on the ballot as a third party candidate.”  In reporting Kristol's comments, Salon referred to him as a "notorious neocon" and a "neocon prince."

A new survey shows that Donald Trump has bipartisan appeal and that some Democratic voters would abandon Hillary to vote for him in a general election match-up. If you enjoy imagining nightmare scenarios for Democrats, you'll love this. James Warren of U.S. News and World Report has the story:
Trump Could Win It All So if Donald Trump proved the political universe wrong and won the Republican presidential nomination, he would be creamed by Hillary Clinton, correct? A new survey of likely voters might at least raise momentary dyspepsia for Democrats since it suggests why it wouldn't be a cakewalk. The survey by Washington-based Mercury Analytics is a combination online questionnaire and "dial-test" of Trump's first big campaign ad among 916 self-proclaimed "likely voters" (this video shows the ad and the dial test results). It took place primarily Wednesday and Thursday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

As we discussed last weekend, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' is wooing supporters of Republican presidential contender, Donald Trump. Not uncommon in a general election, reaching across party lines to glad-hand during primary season should be bizarre. But in this particular election cycle, both Trump and Sanders' strongest support comes from two strikingly similar groups of disenchanted Americans. Back to last weekend's post exploring this phenomenon:
Sound impossible? Data suggests otherwise. Though Trump has successfully syphoned off some traditional Republican supporters, the majority of his support base is comprised of a very particular kind of Democrat.

Using Twitter, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced Friday that fugitive Drug Lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was captured and in federal custody again.

In the wake of Donald Trump's call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., the UK saw a huge response to a petition that calls for Trump to be banned from the UK.   While there is a petition against banning Trump, it has, so far, only 39,537 signatures. With 560,000 signatures on the petition for a ban, the UK parliament has tempered its initial stance and is now set to debate the Trump ban after all. The Guardian reports:
MPs are to debate calls for the US presidential candidate Donald Trump to be banned from the UK following his controversial comments about Muslims, after more than half a million people signed a petition.

Donald Trump has attracted a somewhat unorthodox foe -- Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders. Because the 2016 election cycle hasn't been bizarre enough, we now have a self-professed Democratic-socialist candidate actively attempting to woo supporters away from the Republican frontrunner during primary season.

Everyone knows Donald Trump is very active on Twitter but now it's official. Out of everyone running for president, Trump pretty much killed it on social media. Hadas Gold reported at Politico:
Trump dominated rivals on social media in 2015 In 2015, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump dominated his rivals on social media, causing news cycles to pivot on the click of a Tweet button — or even a Retweet button. That’s the consensus of nearly every social-media analytics firm and expert. What it may mean as the campaign unfolds into 2016 is less of a unanimous vote. One reason Trump seemed to run the board on social media: Unlike other candidates, whose feeds were carefully curated and run by staff, Trump tweeted, Facebooked and Instagrammed directly to followers, often seemingly off the top of his head.

I've been ill the past couple of day with a bad stomach flu, so I had a chance to vegitate in front of the TV. At least on Fox News in Scottsdale, where I am now, it's been nearly non-stop Jeb attack ads on Trump. Not technically Jeb, but the SuperPAC supporting Jeb: This ad epitomizes the inability of Jeb or his supporters to deal with Trump. The overwhelming image in my mind from the ad is of Trump mocking Jeb. See the featured image.

Donald Trump has a knack for finding the weakest spot in other candidates. Trump has eviscerated Jeb with the "low energy" line. It worked because it both fit Jeb's persona (if not reality) and also was something a lot of people were thinking but not saying. It was a weak spot for Jeb no one knew was coming. So too, Trump's zeroing in on Bill Clinton's serial abuse of women hits a weak spot for Hillary even more so than "low energy" hurt Jeb. Hillary is going all "War On Women" in her campaign. Yet her husband was the actual War on Women before Democrats reinvented the term. How do we know it's a sensitive spot for Hillary? Look at how the media is reacting. No one is saying Trump is wrong, but we get word games such as Clinton "allegedly" having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a young intern under the control of the most powerful man in the United States: