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Donald Trump Tag

I lived and worked in Mexico at the beginning of my career. Loved the country, the people, the culture. Was offered a permanent position. Tempting, but couldn't do it for one key reason: the absolutely endemic corruption. From the "policeman" on the corner shaking you down for an illusory infraction right up to the president, corruption and deceit were ingrained. A person would have to be dangerously naive to take as gospel the word of the Mexican president. Enter Hillary Clinton. Morning Joe today aired her latest ad in which she claims that Donald Trump was caught "lying" when he said he didn't discuss payment for the wall during his meeting with Mexican President Peña Nieto. Hillary's proof? A subsequent statement by the Mex prez that he was "clear and emphatic" that Mexico won't pay for the wall. What other statements by what other Third World leaders will Hillary—naively and uncritically—take at face value?

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has a reputation of leveraging legal force against anyone who speaks detrimentally of himself or his family. The Daily Mail posted an article about Melania Trump's racy photoshoots, visa issues, and posited her scantily clad photo spreads might have a bearing on the upcoming November election. In response, Melania Trump filed a hefty $150 million defamation suit against The Daily Mail and threatened suit against Maryland-based blog, Tarply for allegedly suggesting she was once employed by an escort service.

UPDATE: Looks like Scarborough was parroting a Clinton campaign talking point. John Podesta, chair of the Hillary for America PAC, had put out a press release entitled "Trump Choked," and repeating that c-word a couple of times in the release. Maybe Morning Joe can cut out the middleman, dispense with hosts, and just run a looping feed of Clinton campaign press releases. Like Bulgarian and Ukrainian Olympic judges back in Soviet Union days who gave American ice skaters a crummy score after a strong performance, on today's Morning Joe Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough totally trashed Donald Trump on his visit with the Mexican president. For not raising the issue of who would pay for the wall, Scarborough screamed "he choked! I can't stand people that choke under pressure!" Brzezinski was reluctant to discuss the trip at all, dismissing Trump as a "fringe, alt-right Republican candidate . . . let's not pretend this is some sort of foreign policy discussion."

Donald Trump is expected to deliver his much anticipated immigration speech at 9:00 EST tonight from Phoenix, Arizona. To watch his speech live, see the feed at the bottom of the post. Trump spent the majority of the day in Mexico, meeting with President Enrique Peña Nieto. According to the New York Times, Mexicans accused President Peña Nieto of committing a 'historic error' by inviting Trump on their home turf.
Instead, the predominant feeling here in the Mexican capital is one of betrayal. “It’s a historic error,” said Enrique Krauze, a well-known historian. “You confront tyrants, you don’t appease them.”

What was your reaction upon waking to the news of Trump's planned trip to visit the President of Mexico? This Insurrectionist saw it as a bold move that might help him appeal to various voting groups. Morning Joe has been on an anti-Trump riff of late, but even so one anticipated that at least someone on the panel would applaud Trump's gambit. Wrong. Across the board, the Morning Joe gang ripped and ridiculed Trump's trip. Joe Scarborough set the tone, mockingly pointing out that Trump and the Mexican president will be "very excited" since their combined approval ratings will reach 50%. Mika Brzezinski, after emotionally declaring "I'm absolutely done with being emotional about this" said "it's almost silly to spend too much time analyzing his moves because they're nonsensical." Mike Barnicle couldn't see "what difference this trip makes." Willie Geist said Trump might be walking into a "trap" in which the Mexican president will seize the occasion to tear Trump down in front of the Mexican people. Donny Deutsch outdid the others, psychoanalyzing Trump: "megalomania, sociopath, detached from reality." Thank you, Dr. Donny.

One week ago, a Twitter war erupted between Donald Trump and the hosts of Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Whereas the pair had been among the first in the media to take Trump's chances seriously, in recent times they had become very critical of the Republican candidate. On August 22nd, Trump tweeted that Mika was a "neurotic and not very bright mess!" He also threatened to some day tell the "real story" of Joe and Mika, whom he described as Scarborough's "long-time girlfriend." Scarborough responded with tweets telling Trump to "look in the mirror" if looking for someone who's "neurotic and not very bright." Scarborough added that the show was enjoying its best ratings ever "thanks to obsessed fans like you!"

Obama's former campaign manager David Plouffe appeared on Meet the Press and while commenting on Donald Trump, described him as a psychopath. Even Chuck Todd, who's not known as a right leaning pundit felt that was a little much. Politico reports:
Plouffe: 'We have a psychopath running for president' President Barack Obama's former campaign manager on Sunday called Donald Trump "a psychopath."

The British Brexit leader Nigel Farage recently spoke at a Donald Trump rally and offered some words of encouragement for attendees. Real Clear Politics reported:
Former leader of the UK Independent Party Nigel Farage, credited for Brexit, addressed the audience at a Trump campaign rally in Jackson, Mississippi on Wednesday night. Farage left the UKIP after the United Kingdom voted to 'leave' the European Union.

Thursday, Hillary Clinton's campaign unveiled a nasty new ad. The ad shows various white nationalists and members of the alt-right voicing support for Trump, who they believe represents their values. Also featured is Breitbart News' Steve Bannon, who recently joined Trump's presidential campaign.

This would be funny if it weren't so ironically hypocritical. There was reporter Jeremy Peters, of the New York Times—appearing on MSNBC—piously condemning "Sean Hannity's incredibly inappropriate role as an adviser to Donald Trump who is essentially giving him tens of millions of dollars of free advertising." Just what does Peters think the MSM is: from his own New York Times to MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ABC, the Washington Post, etc., if not one huge monolith devoted to electing Hillary Clinton and other Dems while destroying Donald Trump? If Hannity is giving Trump "tens of millions" in free advertising, what is the combined value of free advertising that the MSM is giving to Hillary Clinton? Peters spoke after a clip ran of Hannity's show in which Trump asked people at a rally to show their support for different policy options on immigration.

The current polling gives little rational reason to think Donald Trump will win in November. No matter how you slice it -- national 4-way, national head-to-head, battleground states, electoral college, unfavorability -- Trump is deeply underwater, as this polling average chart at Real Clear Politics today shows: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ The trends are not any better for Trump than the averages. The two weeks after the Republican Convention were a complete disaster for Trump, from which he has not yet recovered:

If you've been paying attention, you already know the media coverage of Trump is a daily drum beat of negativity and undue scrutiny unlike anything we've ever seen. The media may not be crazy about Hillary Clinton, but they're on a special mission to make sure Donald Trump never sees the inside of the Oval Office. The New York Post's Michael Goodwin made this the subject of his most recent column:
American journalism is collapsing before our eyes Donald Trump may or may not fix his campaign, and Hillary Clinton may or may not become the first female president. But something else happening before our eyes is almost as important: the complete collapse of American journalism as we know it.

I've been keeping an eye on the tough Congress elections headed into November, especially since the GOP could easily loses its majority in the Senate. North Carolina could lose one of its GOP senators while New Hampshire could lose its only GOP senator in Kelly Ayotte. The tough reelection has led her to distance herself from GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. Ayotte said she would vote for Trump, but stopped before giving him her full endorsement. This has frustrated the independent voters she needs to win. She didn't even attend a rally attended by Vice President candidate Mike Pence where he told the crowd they need her "back in the U.S. Senate." As The Washington Post described it, she "is stuck between Donald Trump and a hard place."

In recent days, Donald Trump has made a concerted effort to moderate the tone, and some would say the substance, of his campaign. So how does a notable member of the MSM reward him? By analogizing him in explicit terms to a Nazi. On Monday evening's Hardball, Matthews asked if Trump is "in the bunker?" Making the Nazi analogy clear, Matthews said that "somebody compared him to Downfall, the movie about the end of the Third Reich." Matthews admitted: "it's never fair to do that," but that of course didn't stop him, as he suggested that "he's in the bunker but doesn't know what's going on outside. "

Will Hillary Clinton's latest ad, which attempts to scare people about Donald Trump when it comes to national security, actually wind up winning him votes? Today's Morning Joe opened by playing the ad, which features clips of Trump making various bellicose statements, e.g., "I would bomb the s--- out of them." Mika Brzezinski found the ad "very strong: it tweaks on every level." Better than twerking on every level, we suppose. "It's scary," said Mika as, in a bit of unintentional humor, she imitated the "whoosh" sound of the fighter jet at the end of the ad. But query: could the ad wind up winning more votes than it loses him? After eight years of "leading from behind," of foreign policy disasters from Russia to Syria to Libya to Iran, could America be ready for a blunt-talking president? Remind me: who was the president who, speaking of the Cold War, said "we win, they lose?"

A week before the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in September, the Clinton Global Initiative is holding an event which will be attended by many of Hillary's favorite one percenters. Democrats are concerned because the optics of this will play right into Trump's narrative about Hillary being an entrenched DC insider and influence peddler. Politico reports:
Democrats fret over timing of Clintons’ charity fete Hundreds of corporate executives, foreign dignitaries and celebrities will pile into a Manhattan ballroom to hobnob with Bill and Chelsea Clinton next month at their charity’s keynote annual event — just days before Hillary Clinton defends herself against pay-to-play accusations from Donald Trump in their first debate.

I reported that the rains that hit Louisiana last week produced a "500 year flood" of epic proportions. This week, the southern part of the state is still reeling from the storm's devastating impact.
Approximately 280,000 people live in the areas that flooded, according to an analysis released Friday by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber. In those flood-affected areas are 110,000 homes worth a combined $20.7 billion and more than 7,000 businesses — about one in every five businesses in the region — that together employ more than 73,000 people.
Now, after giving an inspiring and presidential campaign speech in North Carlonia, GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump flew to the state to offer support, meet with officials, and hand-out supplies.

A few weeks ago, my colleague Mary reported that an Australian artist removed his mural of Hillary Clinton after a local council vote. His first rendition put her in a very revealing swimsuit; the second featured a burqa after the council first told him to paint over it. In the US, an "anonymous art collective" has focused its questionable creative efforts on Donald Trump.
It's Donald Trump like he's never been seen before. Life-size naked statues of the Republican presidential nominee greeted passers-by in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Cleveland on Thursday. They are the brainchild of an activist collective called INDECLINE, which has spoken out against Trump before. In a statement, the collective said the hope is that Trump "is never installed in the most powerful political and military position in the world."