# 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:** 146
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2903 "2016-07-23T03:44:09Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Really? has the Democratic base become pro-free trade yet? Or are they still afraid of Asian competition? Democratic voters are solidly (though not overwhelmingly) pro-free-trade, more so than Republicans: > **[Free Trade Agreements Seen as Good for U.S., But Concerns Persist](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2015/05/27/free-trade-agreements-seen-as-good-for-u-s-but-concerns-persist/)** > > As Congress considers a major new trade pact with Asia, there is broad public agreement that international free trade agreements are good for the United States. But fewer Americans express positive views of the impact of trade deals on their personal... > **[Majority in U.S. Still See Opportunity in Foreign Trade](https://news.gallup.com/poll/181886/majority-opportunity-foreign-trade.aspx?utm_source=Economy&utm_medium=newsfeed&utm_campaign=tiles)** > > A majority of Americans (58%) continue to view foreign trade as an opportunity for the U.S. economy, while 33% see it as a threat. Younger Democrats are particularly supportive (which is ironic given Bernie, but hey). ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2904 "2016-07-23T03:51:08Z")
Good to see things suddenly got better although I’d be interested in theories on why Democrats suddenly turned. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2905 "2016-07-23T03:57:40Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Good to see things suddenly got better although I’d be interested in theories on why Democrats suddenly turned. My sense is that this is particularly caused by young and urban/professional Dems (often one and the same). They are into the new, dynamic, global order. Which, again, shows that Bernie is an imperfect tribune for that group. I could picture a young Silicon Valley type progressive who would really get them going. This of course is at odds with the traditional, white blue collar Rust Belt type Democrats, but they have been declining in importance within the party for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2906 "2016-07-23T04:00:49Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Comic books don’t count. Bush was and is an avid reader, especially of biography. I know that doesn’t fit into the conveniently simple storyline, but it’s true. Obama is also an avid reader; Reagan and Eisenhower were not. But certainly no President has ever simply not read books at all, as is apparently the case with Trump. ---
**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 23, 2016, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2907 "2016-07-23T04:14:44Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Really? has the Democratic base become pro-free trade yet? Or are they still afraid of Asian competition? Compared to the wall, and xenophobia, and the new nationalism, and Islamophobia, and flirting with white supremacism, that’s nothing. ---
**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 23, 2016, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2908 "2016-07-23T05:09:01Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Ted Cruz could be standing on a stage announcing free chocolate ice cream sodas for everyone and he would still get booed. It’s just something about that face. I think it was the tonsil stone that did it for me. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/DzPtahniOwU/maxresdefault.jpg "What did Ted Cruz eat off his lip? - @OpieRadio") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzPtahniOwU) 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 23, 2016, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2909 "2016-07-23T06:10:42Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Comic books don’t count. Neither do novels, if we’re playing that game. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2910 "2016-07-23T14:10:57Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [The Washington Post runs a full page editorial on the dangers of a Trump presidency.](http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/07/22/washington-post-runs-unprecedented-full-page-editorial-on-the-dangers-of-a-trump-presidency/) Seeing the volume of pro-Trump comments at the end of that article, I’m getting that skin-crawling sensation again. Liquor cabinet, it may be an early day today! ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2911 "2016-07-23T14:43:55Z")
I’ve just had a conversation with my brother about Trump. Unlike me, he’s actually been to America. He’s very concerned about Trump becoming president and thinks Clinton might well lose. He says that there’s a fundamental disconnect between the proles and the elites. Regardless of the facts she can state, because she’s an insider Clinton could be seen as part of the problem, that she and her ilk caused the current situation so they’ve nothing to lose by voting for Trump. Further, the haves are seen to have so much more than the have-nots. ‘If we cannot have it, you cannot have it either.’ Consider Russia in 1917, Eastern Europe in 1989, and France in 1789. The proles have simply lost trust in the elites, the establishment, and much of the press (being cast as the voice of the elites). And then there’s immigration. The poor see their jobs being taken by immigrants. They know that internationalism is a good thing long-term, but they have the here-and-now problems of not having jobs, and see the internationalism as strictly one-way. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2912 "2016-07-23T17:38:16Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Look what he has to work with. He has to work with people who haven’t gotten the word “Don’t work for Trump; he’ll stiff you.”, e.g." > [@](#): > > [Judge orders Trump to pay nearly $300,000 in attorney’s fees in Doral painter’s lawsuit](http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jose-lambiet/article91353232.html) > > While developer Donald Trump was busy getting the Republican Party’s presidential nomination this week, he was losing big in a Miami-Dade County courtroom. > > Circuit Court Judge Jorge Cueto, presiding over a lawsuit related to unpaid bills brought by a local paint store against the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort, ordered the billionaire politician’s company to pay the Doral-based mom-and-pop shop nearly $300,000 in attorney’s fees. > > All because, according to the lawsuit, Trump allegedly tried to stiff The Paint Spot on its last payment of $34,863 on a $200,000 contract for paint used in the renovation of the home of golf’s famed Blue Monster two years ago… ---
**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 23, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2913 "2016-07-23T17:44:29Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > He has to work with people who haven’t gotten the word “Don’t work for Trump; he’ll stiff you.”, e.g." Circuit Court Judge _Jorge Cueto_. I’m surprised we haven’t heard about this conspiracy to get all of Trump’s cases heard by very biased, unfair, horrible Mexican judges. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2914 "2016-07-23T18:00:11Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Circuit Court Judge _Jorge Cueto_. > I’m surprised we haven’t heard about this conspiracy to get all of Trump’s cases heard by very biased, unfair, horrible Mexican judges. > > 😃 [This brief interview](http://www.npr.org/2016/07/20/486709645/republicans-focus-day-2-of-their-convention-on-jobs) of a Mexican immigrant Trump supporter left me utterly disturbed. > [@](#): > > We met some Arizona delegates, including Gabby Saucedo Mercer. She’s an immigrant from Mexico, now a U.S. citizen and a supporter of Donald Trump, including his views on immigration. She says she came here legally and is concerned about those who did not. > > GABBY SAUCEDO MERCER: The bottom line, to me, when you come to this country illegally you become, in an essence, a slave because you are living in the shadows. You cannot get a good job. So that’s not living. > > INSKEEP: And what do you think of some of the remarks that Mr. Trump has made saying that Mexico’s not sending their best people, saying that Mexicans are rapists, saying that a Mexican-American judge is Mexican, (unintelligible) as biased (unintelligible) Mexican? > > MERCER: Well, if you’re - let me say about the judge (laughter). He was right. I mean, the guy - he could not be unbiased. I’m sorry? > > INSKEEP: Because you’re Mexican-American, could you be unbiased? > > MERCER: I’m not a Mexican-American. I am an American by choice. I have renounced my Mexican citizenship. > > INSKEEP: But do you think you could be unbiased in that situation? > > MERCER: No - well, you - nobody - a Mexican could not be unbiased because of the things that he said and… > > INSKEEP: And she agrees with many other Trump statements. > > MERCER: I know he made a blanket statement. And not all Mexicans are rapists. Not all Mexicans are drug dealers. Not all Mexicans are lazy, but a lot of them are. > > INSKEEP: She says that description just does not fit her. See, she’s not Mexican American, she’s just American, even though she was born in Mexico. But a man born in the US is a Mexican, and there’s no way he could be unbiased. And not all Mexicans are lazy, rapist, drug dealers. Not all! A lot, but not all! ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2915 "2016-07-23T18:33:42Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > He has to work with people who haven’t gotten the word “Don’t work for Trump; he’ll stiff you.”, e.g." And/or people who \*have \*gotten word, but are sufficiently dazzled by celebrity - a low-key, anonymous businessman who followed Trump’s practices would indeed find that eventually nobody would be willing to work for him. I can’t find it, but someone in a recent SDMB thread told a story of his father having tried the tactics in _The Art of the Deal_ when hiring contractors to work on his house (low-balling, reducing the amount after the deal had been struck, refusing to pay, etc). Years later, when the son had to take over his father’s affairs, he couldn’t get anyone to do repairs on the house, because every contractor in town remembered what the old man had done. Trump’s old nemesis _Spy_ magazine claimed that Martha Stewart once stiffed a caterer for $X, advising, “You tell people that you worked for Martha Stewart - that’s worth \*way \*more than $X”. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2916 "2016-07-23T18:38:47Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Good to see things suddenly got better although I’d be interested in theories on why Democrats suddenly turned. Got any cites that show this is something that happened suddenly? first, I guess, what do you consider “suddenly”? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2917 "2016-07-23T18:46:24Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I’ve just had a conversation with my brother about Trump. Unlike me, he’s actually been to America. He’s very concerned about Trump becoming president and thinks Clinton might well lose. He says that there’s a fundamental disconnect between the proles and the elites. Regardless of the facts she can state, because she’s an insider Clinton could be seen as part of the problem, that she and her ilk caused the current situation so they’ve nothing to lose by voting for Trump. Further, the haves are seen to have so much more than the have-nots. ‘If we cannot have it, you cannot have it either.’ Consider Russia in 1917, Eastern Europe in 1989, and France in 1789. **The proles have simply lost trust in the elites** , the establishment, and much of the press (being cast as the voice of the elites). And then there’s immigration. The poor see their jobs being taken by immigrants. They know that internationalism is a good thing long-term, but they have the here-and-now problems of not having jobs, and see the internationalism as strictly one-way. (bolding mine) Your brother understands the political climate in America better than most Americans do, **Quartz**. The bolded part is the most important part, but the rest of what you wrote isn’t wrong either; I’ve been saying those things for months now. Many people are unable yet to accurately gauge the level of discontent but I’ll bet that on 9 November they will have some personal perspective to draw on. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2918 "2016-07-23T23:32:25Z")
Pretty clever of Trump, then, to manage to make himself to NOT seem like an “elite” and a “have,” when he’s both. A musing inspired by elsewhere: like Pence, there are a few Republican governors out there who aren’t very popular. Would it be fruitful for the local Democrats to run ads tying Trump to those governors via the party? ---
**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 24, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2919 "2016-07-24T02:04:24Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > A musing inspired by elsewhere: like Pence, there are a few Republican governors out there who aren’t very popular. Would it be fruitful for the local Democrats to run ads tying Trump to those governors via the party? In Pence’s speech at the RNC, he proclaimed that any time conservative principles were applied in a state, the result was overwhelmingly positive. Except in Kansas, where Gov. Sam Brownback ruined the state budget with tax cuts that ballooned the deficit. Someone should highlight that. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2920 "2016-07-24T02:38:48Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > In Pence’s speech at the RNC, he proclaimed that any time conservative principles were applied in a state, the result was overwhelmingly positive. Except in Kansas, where Gov. Sam Brownback ruined the state budget with tax cuts that ballooned the deficit. Someone should highlight that. Pfft. Like “facts” matter. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2921 "2016-07-24T02:48:39Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Neither do novels, if we’re playing that game. _Don Quixote, Bleak House, Ulysses,_ and _The Master and Margarita_ ain’t meaty enough reads for ya, Brainiac? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/2922 "2016-07-24T02:58:08Z")
Bloomberg apparently has an article (no link right now, sorry) quoting a “source” that Trump is thinking of spending $20 million of his own money on super PACs to ruin Cruz and Kasich for the last week, with his results in November being irrelevant. There’s no confirmation that I know of, but as both liberals and conservatives have observed, is it really that hard to imagine him doing so? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=145) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=147)