# 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:** 19
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/361 "2016-05-13T14:47:23Z")
I have no problem with his having had a false persona or so for dealing with phone calls. My dad ran a small business and had several phone personas too … the salesman, the plant manager … so on. Different voices for each. It’s his knee-jerk go-to of lying about it when it is brought up today that is so pathetic. This after all is not a new item and he has [previously admitted](http://www.vice.com/read/remembering-john-barron-donald-trumps-spokesman-alter-ego-116) to having used the fake names (both John Miller and John Barron having been used). > [@](#): > > So, after years of secretly hiding behind the pseudonym, Trump finally had to explain himself. He admitted to the court that yes, he and one of his assistants had used the name “John Barron” in business matters. “Lots of people use pen names,” he later told a reporter outside of courtroom. “Ernest Hemingway used one.” > > John Barron died that day. And once Trump settled down with Maples, his second wife, John Miller followed … That said I am ashamed of myself for finding this amusing. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/362 "2016-05-13T14:57:51Z")
It’s hilarious. And it’s not he’s really sock puppeteering in the sense that he’s pretending to be some unconnected guy who just happens to love Trump. He pretends to be his own spokesman! “Hi Mr Trump, I have some questions for you” “Oh I’m not Trump but I am authorized to speak on his behalf. I know him really well” And he doesn’t even disguise his voice. Andy Kaufman would be impressed. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/363 "2016-05-13T16:12:12Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > How? How did we do it? America is basically a conservative, center-right country (which is a true fact that everybody knows, and nobody has to prove it because everybody knows it…) and yet the leftie/liberal juggernaut just rolled right on ahead, crushing them beneath its treads… > > How? Criminal coddling judges wouldn’t get elected, nor would they get appointed by conservative governors and Presidents, and yet…there they were! Coddling like a motherfuck! Was it Eisenhower, who installed the hidden and invisible gears that make it seem like Kennedy won a close election, rather than the truth, which is that he was totally crushed by Nixon? > > Don’t ask me, I don’t friggin’ know! Been a member of the lefty dirty fucking hippy movement for years and years, and not _one_ damn memo! Must have been a plan, a damned _good_ plan, to accomplish all of this against a solid majority of conservative Americans. > > So what was it? Psst! You take every fourth letter of the Port Huron Statement and then shift each one three letters down in the alphabet! Thought the whole Movement knew that! Jeez! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/364 "2016-05-13T16:15:13Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Why is it that to criticize things that are bad today which wouldn’t be bad if certain good values from pre-counterculture America which were the baby thrown out with the bath water . . . Because that’s all nonsense. Especially: > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Back in the day when people were taught coping skills instead of having been convinced of their own victimhood . . . :rolleyes: ---
**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:** [May 13, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/365 "2016-05-13T16:53:10Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > It’s even funnier when you hear him testily denying it to the hosts of the Today show this morning. What’s so jarring about this to me is, imagine it’d been an SNL skit this weekend. I’m no fan of Trump’s, but I’d have said _I don’t get it; all the things you could go after him on, and this is what you invented? He doesn’t openly do his own publicity, or hire a publicist – because that’s the silly quirk you think people associate with Trump? What, he doesn’t hire people who talk him up, and doesn’t want to publicly talk himself up? What the hell were you going for? The joke makes no sense! It’s the one idea where I have to say “Trump’s a laughingstock, but not that type of laughingstock!”_ But, insanely, the thing he denied on live national television is the thing he admitted to under oath is that – he didn’t want to look like a self-promoter, and he didn’t want a fawning sycophant on the payroll? That was the one thing I was ready to stick up for him on! The whole world’s gone topsy-turvy! ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/366 "2016-05-13T17:26:03Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > But no, we can’t encourage coping skills because racism. :rolleyes: It’s ridiculous. “Shut up and deal with it, them’s the breaks, keep your head down” was the extent of “coping skills” for a whole damn lot of people in the Bad Old Days. Why should you “cope” with injustice? If these days I have to spend time trying to figure out who among those raising their voice have a valid beef or a real need and who are being snowflakey, that just means I live in a world where we care to see if we can help, rather than one where we can dismiss them all and tell them to suck on it. I prefer how it turned out in this reality. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/367 "2016-05-13T20:29:01Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > How? How did we do it? America is basically a conservative, center-right country (which is a true fact that everybody knows, and nobody has to prove it because everybody knows it…) and yet the leftie/liberal juggernaut just rolled right on ahead, crushing them beneath its treads… > > How? Criminal coddling judges wouldn’t get elected, nor would they get appointed by conservative governors and Presidents, and yet…there they were! Coddling like a motherfuck! Was it Eisenhower, who installed the hidden and invisible gears that make it seem like Kennedy won a close election, rather than the truth, which is that he was totally crushed by Nixon? > > Don’t ask me, I don’t friggin’ know! Been a member of the lefty dirty fucking hippy movement for years and years, and not _one_ damn memo! Must have been a plan, a damned _good_ plan, to accomplish all of this against a solid majority of conservative Americans. > > So what was it? Squeaky wheels. The left are the country’s squeaky wheels. And oddly enough, the more they get their way, the more they squeak. > [@JRDelerious](#): > > “Shut up and deal with it, them’s the breaks, keep your head down” was the extent of “coping skills” for a whole damn lot of people in the Bad Old Days. Nah, it was the good old days with some bad aspects. Today, with the death, crime and misery from drugs, people being robbed, raped and murdered by 28-year-old violent criminals who’ve been turned loose over and over again, SJWs attacking everyone in sight, etc., etc., it’s the bad old days with a few good aspects. (And apparently you haven’t noticed but some kids today still get yelled at by their parents just like some kids got yelled at in that little diatribe of yours.) > [@JRDelerious](#): > > Why should you “cope” with injustice? Define injustice. We’ve gone from working on major injustices like racism and sexual inequality to whinging about the need for “safe spaces” and to be on the lookout for “micro-aggressions” on college campus. People are jumped on for not being quick enough to adopt PC pronouns for transexuals when even the person (in this case Caitlin Jenner) has said she doesn’t care. Kermit the fucking frog found himself in hot water with the PC/SJW crowd for being given a younger and prettier girlfriend than his ex, Miss Piggy. And oh yeah, bullying has become anything someone does that someone else doesn’t like. Why just the other day Rumor Willis was whinging about Vanity Fair “bullying” her because she found out the magazine had Photoshopped her jawline. So as you can see, the problem is that there’s no end to the things some people will claim are injustice, so there’s no end to the things people will get attacked for and become defensive about, and therefore no end to the social turmoil it causes. Pushback against all this crap is playing a very large part in Donald Trump’s success and may very well put him in office, and believe me, coping skills will come in very handy if that happens. Another aspect of so-called social justice is that it fuels helplessness and victimhood. People who feel they’re victims have unhappy lives. Look at the tears and whingebaggery displayed by the poor little snowflakes at Emory University, in tears and in need of protection because they’ve suddenly and incredibly learned there were people on campus who actually supported Donald Trump and it scared them. Far better to be able to look at the chalk and think “Meh, what idiots!” than having to go running off to find someone in authority to protect them and take action to allay their fears and dry their tears. Major injustices like racism and sexual inequality need to be corrected, but most of the rest of this stuff is both ridiculous and harmful and there’s no end in sight. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/368 "2016-05-13T20:48:38Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > …The left are the country’s squeaky wheels… Well, that’s how they roll. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/369 "2016-05-13T21:07:08Z")
Yep. Loud, shrill and irritating. ---
**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:** [May 13, 2016, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/370 "2016-05-13T21:49:35Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > [Death Rates for Suicide, 1950-2010](http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0779940.html) > > Male, all ages, suicide rate per 100K: 1950: 21.2 1960: 20.0 1970: 19.8 … 2010: 19.8 > > Female, all ages, suicide rate per 100K: 1950: 5.6 1960: 5.6 1970: 7.4 … 2010: 5.0 What’s up with that female spike in 1970? Sylvia Plath style feminist despair? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/371 "2016-05-13T22:47:12Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Squeaky wheels. The left are the country’s squeaky wheels. > > And oddly enough, the more they get their way, the more they squeak. > > Nah, it was the good old days with some bad aspects. Today, with the death, crime and misery from drugs, people being robbed, raped and murdered by 28-year-old violent criminals who’ve been turned loose over and over again, SJWs attacking everyone in sight, etc., etc., it’s the bad old days with a few good aspects. (And apparently you haven’t noticed but some kids today still get yelled at by their parents just like some kids got yelled at in that little diatribe of yours.) > > Define injustice. We’ve gone from working on major injustices like racism and sexual inequality to whinging about the need for “safe spaces” and to be on the lookout for “micro-aggressions” on college campus. People are jumped on for not being quick enough to adopt PC pronouns for transexuals when even the person (in this case Caitlin Jenner) has said she doesn’t care. Kermit the fucking frog found himself in hot water with the PC/SJW crowd for being given a younger and prettier girlfriend than his ex, Miss Piggy. And oh yeah, bullying has become anything someone does that someone else doesn’t like. Why just the other day Rumor Willis was whinging about Vanity Fair “bullying” her because she found out the magazine had Photoshopped her jawline. > > So as you can see, the problem is that there’s no end to the things some people will claim are injustice, so there’s no end to the things people will get attacked for and become defensive about, and therefore no end to the social turmoil it causes. Pushback against all this crap is playing a very large part in Donald Trump’s success and may very well put him in office, and believe me, coping skills will come in very handy if that happens. > > Another aspect of so-called social justice is that it fuels helplessness and victimhood. People who feel they’re victims have unhappy lives. Look at the tears and whingebaggery displayed by the poor little snowflakes at Emory University, in tears and in need of protection because they’ve suddenly and incredibly learned there were people on campus who actually supported Donald Trump and it scared them. Far better to be able to look at the chalk and think “Meh, what idiots!” than having to go running off to find someone in authority to protect them and take action to allay their fears and dry their tears. Major injustices like racism and sexual inequality need to be corrected, but most of the rest of this stuff is both ridiculous and harmful and there’s no end in sight. Did I miss your response to my refutation, or is it not there? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/372 "2016-05-13T22:48:22Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > What’s up with that female spike in 1970? Sylvia Plath style feminist despair? I don’t know for certain, obviously, and I don’t have any cites for this, but I have read the contention that feminism leading to more women entering the workplace was the primary cause. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/373 "2016-05-13T23:14:49Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > Hahaha Trump’s full of it (again, as usual). That is _totally_ his voice on the tape. Can’t they simply compare waveforms between the tape and a current speech? Or even one closer to the time the conversation occurred? Meanwhile Kayleigh Mc-inane-y tries to deflect attention away from Trump to Hillary… > [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > It’s even funnier when you hear him testily denying it to the hosts of the Today show this morning. Trump admitted to People Magazine that John Miller was a ruse back in 1991. Twitter link with my commentary: I use a vulgar expression. [x.com](https://twitter.com/MeasureMeasure/status/731252958554292224) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/374 "2016-05-13T23:17:11Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > So as you can see, the problem is that there’s no end to the things some people will claim are injustice, so there’s no end to the things people will get attacked for and become defensive about, and therefore no end to the social turmoil it causes. I see that you glossed over the next paragraph in my last answer, where I say that I do not mind having to evaluate who is really in need or pain and who is just being a precious snowflake… which means I DO make a judgment as to who is really hurt or in need of justice and who is just being whiny. I’d be a \*&^% pain to have in your faculty as a tenured professor because both the Young Tea Partiers for God’s America \*\*and \*\*Adult Children of Recovering Victims would be picketing over me. Too bad if other liberals are too scared. And BTW your post-Apocalyptic dystopian Hell-on-Earth description of American society in our times doesn’t get any more convincing the more you repeat it. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/375 "2016-05-13T23:24:10Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Trump admitted to People Magazine that John Miller was a ruse back in 1991. Twitter link with my commentary: I use a vulgar expression. [x.com](https://twitter.com/MeasureMeasure/status/731252958554292224) Jeet Heer speculates on motive: [QUOTE=Jeet Heer] I think one reason for the “John Miller” mask was that Trump couldn’t get publicists to openly lie for him. [/QUOTE] He quotes Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: “It bears repeating, re: “John Miller’s” comments, that Carla Bruni has said that she never actually dated Donald Trump.” > > > Amy Davidson Sorkin @tnyCloseRead ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/376 "2016-05-13T23:48:00Z")
I would put forth that Jeet Heer is an idiot if he thinks a millionaire couldn’t find a publicist who would lie for him. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/377 "2016-05-14T00:07:11Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > I would put forth that Jeet Heer is an idiot if he thinks a millionaire couldn’t find a publicist who would lie for him. I tend to think that a publicist wouldn’t lie to Trump’s exacting specifications. The John Miller tape is available on the internet and it’s fairly amusing. I would bet that the gossip reporter knew who she was talking to and Trump knew that she knew (she stated to the “publicist” that she had spoken to Donald before). It’s fun to hear them pretend otherwise. That Trump would initiate such a conversation when he was dating Maples reflects poorly on him. If you’re going to be a player (or rather pretend to be one), you should be discrete or at least a little subtle about it. “John Miller” should have bragged about Trump dating Maples and turning down others. “But she’s still too good for me!”, John Miller could quote Trump as saying. Hm. Maybe not. I guess I’m an amateur at this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/378 "2016-05-14T01:08:52Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Yep. Loud, shrill and irritating. You know, I’m all for you beating the ‘liberals ruined everything’ drum incessantly, because it’s frankly a (rather low form of) entertainment, but could you maybe start another thread to do it? This one happens to be about Donald Trump’s 2016 General Election Campaign. Says so right at the top. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/379 "2016-05-14T01:18:35Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > I would put forth that Jeet Heer is an idiot if he thinks a millionaire couldn’t find a publicist who would lie for him. As a former public relations counselor I resent that. If I lied to media it was MY reputation that took the hit, not my client’s. A publicist who lies quickly loses any influence with the media – which is what we’re supposed to bring to the table. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/380 "2016-05-14T01:38:53Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > As a former public relations counselor I resent that. If I lied to media it was MY reputation that took the hit, not my client’s. A publicist who lies quickly loses any influence with the media – which is what we’re supposed to bring to the table. Seriously? You want to defend every single member of your former profession? That I slur your honour by suggesting a millionaire could find a “public relations counselor” in New York willing to peddle some bullshit? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=20)