Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Donald Trump Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 04, 2016 180 Comments
One has to wonder if the increasing conservative attacks are the reason why Donald Trump dropped out of his CPAC appearance at the last minute. At least the Twitter chatter I've seen the past day from people at the conference was pretty hostile. And let's face it, Ted Cruz took him to the cleaners last night at the debate on conservative issues.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 03, 2016 139 Comments
Mitt Romney already has gone after Donald Trump, suggesting there might be a "bombshell" in the tax returns Trump now refuses to make public. Romney is stepping it up a notch, giving a speech today starting at 11:30 a.m. Eastern, in which he lashes out at Donald Trump:
Mitt Romney will call Donald J. Trump “a phony” and “a fraud” in a speech on Thursday in which he will urge Republicans to rally around one of Mr. Trump’s presidential rivals, according to excerpts from his remarks. The hastily organized speech, to be delivered in Utah, represents a last-ditch effort among leaders in the Republican Party to blunt Mr. Trump’s momentum before he runs away with the presidential nomination. Mr. Romney has been criticizing Mr. Trump on social media in recent weeks, calling on him to release his tax returns and arguing that slowness to denounce the Ku Klux Klan was disqualifying for a presidential candidate.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 02, 2016 43 Comments
Professor Jacobson notes that socialism-embracing Sen. Bernie Sanders is enjoying a lot of "other people's money" in the form of donations. He suggested that Sanders is poised solidify his position as the designated nominee should Hillary "fall". I wanted to add another perspective on the current state of the Democratic Party's race. While some Republicans are initiating a #NeverTrump movement, there is a very robust and dynamic #NeverHillary faction among progressives. I would like to highlight some of their sentiments, as these opinions are likely to go under-reported by our elite media.

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 02, 2016 17 Comments
In recent years, whenever a violent tragedy has occurred, the left has been quick to blame the NRA, Republicans, the Tea Party, and conservatives. Then they stand on a soap box and lecture everyone about civility and demand a new tone in our politics. It'll be interesting to see if anyone on the left condemns Comedy Central host Larry Wilmore for suggesting he'd like to murder Donald Trump with Supreme Court Justice Scalia's pillow.

Posted by Jonathan Levin on March 01, 2016 211 Comments
For months now, Donald Trump has spouted the same line on immigration, promising to build a border wall and deport people here illegally.  Last night, he admitted he would not deport the 11 million people in the United States illegally.  It was posturing. Trump appeared on Sean Hannity's show on Fox News.  Here's the video:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 29, 2016 38 Comments
On the eve of Super Tuesday, Sen. Ben Sasse is imploring voters to chose anyone but Trump. Sen. Sasse joined Chuck Todd to discuss Trump's candidacy Monday: "Fundamentally, this party needs to return to its principles of believing in equality under the law and believing in the greatness of the potential of the American people. We believe in limited government, we don't believe in a bigger Washington," said Sen. Sasse. Todd asked Sasse whether broad support for Trump was indicative of a new Republican party.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 29, 2016 98 Comments
Donald Trump launched his campaign popularity with a hard line on immigration, not limited to The Wall. It struck a chord with the electorate, as I noted in a guest column at National Review on July 13, 2015, Trump’s Lesson: Voters Are Furious about Illegal Immigration:
.... something happened on the way to the denunciations and purges [of Trump]. Kate Steinle was murdered in San Francisco, a sanctuary city. Steinle was killed in broad daylight on a popular pedestrian pier in a business and tourist district, by an illegal immigrant with a long criminal record who had been deported five times and recently was released from custody…. In the wake of the murder of Kate Steinle, many Republican candidates have denounced the sanctuary-cities agenda. There is talk of withholding funding from cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. But who among the Republican candidates has stood side by side with the families who have lost loved ones to illegal-immigrant criminals? Trump did….”
Since then, immigration has continued to be the rocket fuel in Trump's campaign.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 28, 2016 89 Comments
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions endorsed Donald Trump at a rally today. The endorsement is viewed as a blow to Ted Cruz, who often cites Sessions to bolster Cruz's immigration bona fides. The Washington Post reports:
"Politicians have promised for 30 years to fix illegal immigration. Have they done it? Donald Trump will do it," Sessions said at the Madison City Schools Stadium, where thousands gathered to hear Trump speak. “I’ve told Donald Trump this isn’t a campaign, this is a movement.” The endorsement represents a major blow to Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), one of Trump's two chief rivals for the Republican nomination. Cruz has touted his strict positions on border security and deportation, leaning on his strident commitment to conservative ideology as a key rationale for his candidacy. In the run-up to the March 1 Super Tuesday primary elections, Cruz has tried to undermine Trump's conservative bona fides on immigration reform, characterizing his plan as “amnesty.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 28, 2016 170 Comments
Chris Christie's endorsement of Donald Trump on Friday, February 26, 2016, served the primary purpose of deflecting for a news cycle or two the media momentum gained by Marco Rubio and to a lesser extent Ted Cruz coming out of the Thursday night CNN Debate. Whether it changed a single vote is doubtful, but it was a good PR move by the Trump campaign. The endorsement was considered by prior media fans of Chrisie to be a betrayal of everything Christie supposedly stood for. Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post wrote, Chris Christie’s despicable endorsement of Trump:

Posted by New Neo on February 27, 2016 61 Comments
On Wednesday Mitt Romney said some interesting things about Donald Trump and his tax returns, and they got picked up by a lot of news outlets and pundits, including Legal Insurrection. This is the way his remarks were generally reported:
He also called on the entire GOP field to release their tax returns. “I think there’s something there,” Romney said of Trump’s returns, “Either he’s not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasn’t been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay,” Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on “Your World.”
Trump supporters felt that this was a low blow, and unsubstantiated as well. Also, coming from Romney---the guy many judge as having been insufficiently hard on Obama in 2012---it seemed uncharacteristic. As usual, though, it's always instructive to look at the transcript, and then to do a little digging into the background. In the full transcript Romney went into more detail than that. He went on to say:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 26, 2016 45 Comments
Like both Ted Cruz (who campaigned for his Senate seat on the building of the border wall in 2012) and Marco Rubio, Donald Trump has stated that the wall that has already been approved by Congress will be built during his presidency should he be elected. Trump, however, takes his stance to another level in declaring that Mexico will pay for the wall. Earlier this month, former Mexican president Felipe Calderón said that Mexico would "not pay one cent" toward the wall. Just yesterday, a second former Mexican president, Vicente Fox, stated, in very explicit terms, that Mexico will not pay for "that "f*'ing wall."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 26, 2016 68 Comments
After a good ol' fashioned whoppin' in last night's Republican debate. Donald Trump found a new attack dog, former presidential candidate and New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie. I would guess Attorney General is a possibility, too.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 26, 2016 37 Comments
I noted last night that Marco Rubio had done to Donald Trump what Trump successfully did to Jeb Bush:
.... Marco Rubio was the first person in any of the debates to successfully take on Trump on a range of issues. Rubio mocked and belittled Trump in the humorous, mocking and highly effective manner that Trump used to make Jeb look small.
Mockery can be a very effective tactic against bullies, because it takes their strength and turns it into their weakness. Rubio is on the stump today continuing the mockery, suggesting that Trump was panicking and may even have been worried he wet his pants, via Politico:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 25, 2016 101 Comments
The biggest take away from the CNN Republican Debate is that contrary to prior promises, Donald Trump says he will not release his income tax returns because he is being audited. There is no law, that I'm aware of, prohibiting such release. It sounded like a massive dodge, since IRS audits can go on for years. Trump even said his last 4-5 years of returns are being audited. Trump was his usual, petty self, gratuitously insulting Hugh Hewitt for supposedly having low ratings, even when Hewitt hadn't asked hostile question at the time, but reminded Trump of the prior promise to release the returns. I guess Trump supporters will see such conduct as "tough" and being a "fighter," but it was childish. Perhaps more important, Marco Rubio was the first person in any of the debates to successfully take on Trump on a range of issues.  Rubio mocked and belittled Trump in the humorous, mocking and highly effective manner that Trump used to make Jeb look small.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 24, 2016 111 Comments
In an interview with Fox News today, Mitt Romney suggested there was reason to believe there is a bombshell in the tax returns Donald Trump has not yet released:
There might be a “bombshell” revelation to be discovered in Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s tax returns, 2012 party nominee Mitt Romney said Wednesday. He also called on the entire GOP field to release their tax returns. “I think there’s something there," Romney said of Trump's returns, "Either he’s not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasn’t been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay,” Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on “Your World.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 24, 2016 51 Comments
Hillary Clinton is not the only presidential contender muddling through legal battles this election season. An upcoming trial scheduled for May 6 could pull Donald Trump off the campaign trail. Listed as a witness by both sides of the bench, Trump will likely be required to testify in a trial over the now defunct Trump University which has been accused of fraud. Yahoo News reported:
Here’s a part of the political calendar that nobody in the Republican Party seems to have noticed: This spring, just as the GOP nomination battle enters its final phase, frontrunner Donald Trump could be forced to take time out for some unwanted personal business: He’s due to take the witness stand in a federal courtroom in San Diego, where he is being accused of running a financial fraud.
Accessibility by WAH