Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Donald Trump Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 05, 2016 25 Comments
Marco Rubio spoke at CPAC this morning. Based on the video, it looked like a full house and enthusiastic crowd. The Washington Times reports:
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida on Saturday told the conservative grassroots that the country’s young people won’t have a chance if Democrats keep control of the White House — or if the conservative movement is “hijacked” by someone who’s not a conservative. “Being a conservative can never be about simply an attitude. Being a conservative cannot simply be about how long you’re willing to scream, how angry you’re willing to be, or how many names you’re willing to call people,” Mr. Rubio said at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), to sustained applause. “I think there’s a growing amount of confusion about what conservatism is,” he said. “And it is time for us to understand that conservatism is not built on personalities. Conservatism is not simply built on how angry you might seem from time to time.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 05, 2016 31 Comments
As mentioned the other day with regard to a surge in "Move to Canada" Google Searches, there will be a collective freak out in certain places if Trump wins. The freak out has already started. The Washington Post reports Psychologists and massage therapists are reporting ‘Trump anxiety’ among clients
If there is an unofficial capital of psychotherapy, it’s New York’s Upper West Side, where it’s easier to find a therapist than a parking space. Judith Schweiger Levy, a psychologist in the neighborhood, has noticed a recent uptick in Trump references among her patients, including a middle-aged businesswoman who blurted out this week that her sister is supporting the billionaire.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on March 04, 2016 59 Comments
While Marco Rubio won his first state (Minnesota) and surged late in Virginia and Ted Cruz won his home state of Texas, Oklahoma, and Alaska for a total of four state wins, Donald Trump did very well in the Super Tuesday primaries.  So well, in fact, that conservatives are beginning to search in earnest for a means to win the GOP nomination with a conservative candidate. One such idea is being touted as the "Unity" ticket of Cruz and Rubio (or Rubio and Cruz, though this seems less likely). Writing at The Resurgent, Erick Erickson argues for this in stark terms: "Unite or Die."
To truly beat Trump and keep his supporters from completely fleeing, Trump must be beaten in the primaries, not on the floor of the convention. And it is still mathematically possible, but it requires Cruz to win Florida, not Rubio. All of this talk by Rubio voters about later states, closed primaries, and favorability ignores voter psychology and, frankly, ignores the fact that Marco Rubio’s Gang of Eight position has poisoned the well too much for too many Republican voters. It will, in fact, go down as one of the worse political miscalculations in the last quarter century. All of this talk by Rubio voters ignores that Rubio and Cruz together can win Florida and Ohio, but divided cannot and only increase the odds of either a Trump nomination or the delegitimization of the process by which the GOP will pick its nominee.

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:
Accessibility by WAH