# Donald Trump's 2016 General Election Campaign **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 4, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901 "2016-05-04T02:37:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 140
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2783 "2016-07-20T21:04:34Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Those are the words he recanted. He’s a nut, but if you think being a nut who sometimes disagrees with Zionism and once said something antisemitic that he then recanted is comparable to leading the KKK, then I think your criteria is way out of whack. Right, such a recantation, correcting “Jews” to “Zionists,” even tho you’re aware that for anti-Semites, the terms are so easily interchangeable. Fact is Duke and Wright both preach hateful and un-American messages and spread such sentiment. Both hate certain ethnic/racial groups, and both lie about American history and character to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2784 "2016-07-20T21:09:50Z")
[Respected and admired black buisnesswoman, Omarosa Manigault, named director of Trump’s African-American Outreach program.](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/omarosa-trump-team-225717) Her eloquence and diplomatic acumen will have the black community flocking over to the Republicans to vote for Donald. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2785 "2016-07-20T21:17:09Z")
> [@DerekMichaels00](#): > > Right, such a recantation, correcting “Jews” to “Zionists,” even tho you’re aware that for anti-Semites, the terms are so easily interchangeable. > > Fact is Duke and Wright both preach hateful and un-American messages and spread such sentiment. Both hate certain ethnic/racial groups, and both lie about American history and character to do so. KKK is not comparable to nutty black churches with no history of violence. Very different histories. One has killed and brutalized, one has not. And one recanted. Not comparable in the least. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2786 "2016-07-20T22:11:08Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > KKK is not comparable to nutty black churches with no history of violence. Very different histories. One has killed and brutalized, one has not. You know Republicans are allergic to context. And that isn’t even what pisses me off. What pisses me off is the fact they _keep trying_ even _after_ they must know that we’re not falling for it. My dad does that sometimes: He’ll try to bullshit us, which on its own isn’t a bad thing and can even be laudable, but he’ll _keep going on his line_ even after we’ve called him on it so conclusively that he has to know we’re not going to fall for it or play along. I mean, if nothing else, try a new angle. It just devolves into pointlessness, a magician playing for an audience who can see through all the gaffs and never falls for the misdirection. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2787 "2016-07-20T22:24:01Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > [Respected and admired black buisnesswoman, Omarosa Manigault, named director of Trump’s African-American Outreach program.](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/omarosa-trump-team-225717) Her eloquence and diplomatic acumen will have the black community flocking over to the Republicans to vote for Donald. Anyone who’s become a running joke on _The Soup_ should be disqualified from serious political work. And in the Damning With Faint Praise Department: > [@](#): > > “I just spent an amazing weekend with African Americans for Trump, about 300 of them,” I’m surprised they could find that many, and I’m sure The Donald is working tirelessly to rectify the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2788 "2016-07-20T22:29:12Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Anyone who’s become a running joke on _The Soup_ should be disqualified from serious political work. > > And in the Damning With Faint Praise Department:I’m surprised they could find that many, and I’m sure The Donald is working tirelessly to rectify the problem. In fairness, in the Trump world 300 means between 0 and 13. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2789 "2016-07-20T22:38:22Z")
Any bets on how long before the meme inverts to “Michelle Obama plagiarized Melania Trump’s speech”? I Googled to see if it was already too late to start the contest. No hits yet, but [BreitBart.Com](http://BreitBart.Com) accuses Michelle of plagiarizing: “…the world as it should be” was stolen from a Saul Alinsky speech. Googling further I see that Alinsky himelf stole the phrase. There are books and website with that very name, and 1982 article in a medical journal is entititled :“Not the world as it is . . . the world as it should be” Why there needs to be kids on the block." But another source tells us that Melania’s plagiarism was sabotage by The Jews [QUOTE=[http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/david-duke-jews-plagiarized-michelle-obamas-speech-shamed-melania-trump/2016/07/20/](http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/david-duke-jews-plagiarized-michelle-obamas-speech-shamed-melania-trump/2016/07/20/)] “This is a con job, sabotage, political character assassination plan from the get go!” declared the former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke regarding the embarrassing Monday night GOP convention speech of Donald Trump’s wife Melania, which lifted several key segments from a 2008 speech in a similar setting by then Democratic candidate Barak Obama. “Did a Jewish Neocon Speechwriter Sabotage Melania Trump’s Big Speech?” he wondered. “I would bet a gefilte fish that this was sabotage,” Duke continued, “I would also bet a bagel it was orchestrated by an Israel Firster who wanted to damage the American Firster.” Thank God, he didn’t bet a matzo or a Hamantash on anything… According to the NY Times, two sources inside the Trump campaigned actually confirmed it was a Jew — Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who commissioned a draft of Ms. Trump’s speech from Matthew Scully and John McConnell, two former speechwriters for George W. Bush. The two writers were told that the timing of Melania’s speech had been shortened, and that she worked with a person inside the Trump organization to make substantial revisions. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2790 "2016-07-20T22:41:56Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Anyone who’s become a running joke on _The Soup_ should be disqualified from serious political work. > > And in the Damning With Faint Praise Department:I’m surprised they could find that many, and I’m sure The Donald is working tirelessly to rectify the problem. But they’re the _best_ African Americans. The best. Trust me. Much better than Hillary’s African Americans. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2791 "2016-07-20T22:44:15Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > But they’re the _best_ African Americans. The best. Trust me. Much better than Hillary’s African Americans. But… aren’t they still members of one of the [subgroups](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/18/rep-steve-king-wonders-what-sub-groups-besides-whites-made-contributions-to-civilization/)? The Trump campaign only needs the Best White People to win. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2792 "2016-07-20T22:45:08Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > But they’re the _best_ African Americans. The best. Trust me. Much better than Hillary’s African Americans. “And they’re _mine_. All _mine_”. ---
**Author:** ![computergeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@computergeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/computergeek)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2793 "2016-07-20T22:53:57Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > [Report: Trump camp told Kasich he could run foreign and domestic policy as VP | Vox](http://www.vox.com/2016/7/20/12235380/trump-kasich-most-powerful-vp) > > So, if this is true, Trump wants the glory, but doesn’t actually want to do the work. I wonder if he offered the same deal to Pence. I surmised something similar in the VP thread, but I was just fantasizing. However, this CNN article [http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/20/politics/john-kasich-donald-trump-vice-president/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/20/politics/john-kasich-donald-trump-vice-president/index.html) reminded me that campaign manager Manafort said something similar to the Huffington Post back in May. How this isn’t a huge scandal right now or reported more widely is beyond me Letting Pence and the far right control things would be just as bad as Trump running things, except they would be adults and House Republicans would probably gladly work with them. But every woman and minority should be afraid of what legislation they will get passed. I was giving his kids a pass in helping their dad because I figured they just didn’t want to see the business implode, but the NYT article suggests they are deeply complicit in his craziness ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2794 "2016-07-20T23:05:10Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > But they’re the _best_ African Americans. The best. Trust me. Much better than Hillary’s African Americans. You my friend win the Internet. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2795 "2016-07-20T23:16:08Z")
> [@computergeek](#): > > I surmised something similar in the VP thread, but I was just fantasizing. However, this CNN article [http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/20/politics/john-kasich-donald-trump-vice-president/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/20/politics/john-kasich-donald-trump-vice-president/index.html) reminded me that campaign manager Manafort said something similar to the Huffington Post back in May. How this isn’t a huge scandal right now or reported more widely is beyond me It only just now dawned on me that this puts a new angle on Trump suddenly calling people at midnight with second thoughts about maybe choosing a different VP. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2796 "2016-07-20T23:18:37Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > But they’re the _best_ African Americans. The best. Trust me. Much better than Hillary’s African Americans. Yeah, Hillary has hers out doing field work, while Trump is pleased to keep his inside. You need quality African-Americans to be trusted to work in the house. McCain picking Palin was seen as an out-of-touch attempt to pander. This is an outright insult. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2797 "2016-07-20T23:48:08Z")
A Trump adviser is standing by his comments that Hillary Clinton should be [shot by a firing squad for treason.](http://www.nbcnews.com/card/trump-adviser-stands-call-clinton-face-firing-squad-n613436) > [@](#): > > New Hampshire state Sen. Al Baldasaro, a Marine veteran who advises Trump on veterans’ issues and has campaigned with him in New Hampshire, said in an interview with NBC News that Clinton’s use of a private server should be considered treason and “as far as I’m concerned, the laws of the land on treason could be a firing squad if she’s found guilty.” ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2798 "2016-07-21T00:51:56Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > A Trump adviser is standing by his comments that Hillary Clinton should be [shot by a firing squad for treason.](http://www.nbcnews.com/card/trump-adviser-stands-call-clinton-face-firing-squad-n613436) Aren’t there laws against hate speech? What kind of an idiot would actually let himself be quoted saying something like that? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2799 "2016-07-21T01:15:32Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Aren’t there laws against hate speech? What kind of an idiot would actually let himself be quoted saying something like that? > Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk There are no laws against hate speech, and rightly so, but threats are another category, as is incitement to violence. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2800 "2016-07-21T01:16:05Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Aren’t there laws against hate speech? No. There is no such thing as “hate speech” under American law. The concept does not exist. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2801 "2016-07-21T01:30:32Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > No. There is no such thing as “hate speech” under American law. The concept does not exist. Pity. Here in Canada we do have such laws, though the terminology may be different. There is just so much hatred associated with this particular election, I am concerned for what comes next no matter who is elected. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2802 "2016-07-21T01:33:42Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Pity. Hate speech laws are too ripe for abuse. The solution to bad speech is more speech, not less, and certainly not legally-enforced silence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=139) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=141)