# 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:** 81
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1601 "2016-06-20T18:01:50Z")
> [@ShadowFacts](#): > > I can only view this as bad news (for anyone but Trump supporters). Lewandowski appeared to be a proponent of “Let Trump be Trump,” which worked in the primary but of course has resulted in an endless stream of bullshit that the wider electorate doesn’t (seem to) like. I’d prefer them to keep doing what they’re doing than actually try to change course to a more professional operation. Let’s hope that the newly-empowered Manafort is unable to contain Cheeto Jesus. I agree. Lewandowski was the guy who pushed for Trump to act out and get attention. Manafort was brought in to quiet Trump down and make him appear respectable. The two have been fighting over how Trump should present himself. If Manafort has won the power struggle, we can probably expect Trump to start developing a new facade. He’ll still be crazy but he’ll start acting sane in public. This could make Trump a lot more dangerous. ---
**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:** [June 20, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1602 "2016-06-20T18:19:48Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > If Manafort has won the power struggle, we can probably expect Trump to start developing a new facade. He’ll still be crazy but he’ll start acting sane in public. This could make Trump a lot more dangerous. I don’t think the power struggle was between Lewandowski and Manafort, it was between Trump and anyone on his staff. No one lets Trump be Trump; Trump will \*be \*Trump, and damn anyone who gets in his way. I foresee no letup in the over-the-top rhetoric. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1603 "2016-06-20T18:25:21Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I agree. Lewandowski was the guy who pushed for Trump to act out and get attention. Manafort was brought in to quiet Trump down and make him appear respectable. The two have been fighting over how Trump should present himself. > > If Manafort has won the power struggle, we can probably expect Trump to start developing a new facade. He’ll still be crazy but he’ll start acting sane in public. This could make Trump a lot more dangerous. I think you’re right. But I was just thinking of the Spock quote from “Mirror, Mirror”: “It was far easier for you as civilized men to act as barbarians, than for them as barbarians to act like civilized men.” I’m not sure how well an unstable bigot can successfully pretend to be anything else. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1604 "2016-06-20T18:34:10Z")
First off, Trump appears to be utterly addicted to the rally. Where he can bask in the attention and approval he needs so badly. That is why he wastes valuable time and resource in states that he probably already has in the bag, he is the atom bomb of attention whores. We’ve all seen outakes of his speeches, his “punch lines” that thrill/outrage the crowd. Any of you listen to any all the way through? He doesn’t give speeches, he gives improv. He meanders about, looking for something that gets that _zing!_ from the audience. (If you’ve ever been involved in theatrics, if you’ve ever been onstage, even for the smallest part, you know the feeling: when the attention of the audience is focused on you, you can feel it from scalp to toenail. _Juice!_ Some folks fear it, some folks like it, and some others cannot live without it.) A real political pro can pull off a pre-written speech, where every line and nuance is carefully put together. It sounds as though the speaker is speaking, talking, rather than vocalizing a pre-recorded message. Trump is an amateur, he doesn’t know how to read a speech like a politician. You’ve probably seen it, where a pro gets to a line where a response is expected, and there isn’t one, or the audience responds to the line just _before_ the punch line, upsetting the rhythm. A pro can recover, Trump is not a pro. He does not lead his audience, he probes his audience for energy, and follows it. Improv politics. I think Trump sincerely and mistakenly believes that rallies are an effective campaign tool, that preaching to the choir over and over will expand the size of the choir. It works great to fire up the people who are already fired up, it has no useful purpose in bringing around the people who are looking for intelligence. If he is to “turn around” his campaign, he will have to change his style, he will have to give up all that sweet, sweet ego juice for solid political practice. I don’t think he can. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1605 "2016-06-20T19:08:11Z")
One measure of whether he is just talking stupid or really is stupid is his spending in California. If he spends good money here, which he has no chance of winning, then he really believes his crap about being competitive. Donors don’t like to throw good money after bad, and lots got burned by Karl Rove’s PAC four years ago. That no one is donating to Trump sends a signal to lots of donors that smart money is sitting this one out and concentrating on downticket races. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1606 "2016-06-20T19:19:22Z")
I think **elucidator** and **Bayard** are right. At the same time, as I’ve said before, the race can’t continue as it has; Trump is already about to go into his convention a walking dead man, and eventually the signs are going to be too noticeable for even him to ignore. He’s going to have to attempt some kind of pivot. I think what Manafort is going to do is replicate George W. Bush’s campaign strategy: tightly managed public appearances packed with hand-picked supporters to cheer and wave placards, heavy on heroic staging and with few press conferences and no questions taken from sources thought to be the least bit unfriendly. Trump will begin to deliver a standard stump speech and get passably better at it. (He’s lucky in that his opponent is no great orator herself.) The occasional peevish tweet will slip out, but the tweet-barrages of insults will end. His campaign will issue policy statements; they will be vague, rambling and contradictory, but they’ll be enough to give his candidacy a veneer of legitimacy. You may have noticed the media is having fun right now feasting on the shambles that is Trump’s current campaign operation. Trump’s pivot will give them the opportunity to revive the horserace and tout a “new” Trump, determined to look and sound the part of President. Going into the debates, Trump will benefit from the same diminished expectations that helped Bush: as long as he doesn’t call for mass deportations or refer to Mexicans as rapists onstage, he’ll be declared “surprisingly presidential.” He will come across as stiff and fake for much of this, but a few moderates will likely come back on board and that, combined with the natural tightening of the polls as Election Day draws near, will make the race appear more competitive than it is today. But the rot has already set in. Trump is a year behind where he should be in terms of his campaign operation; he doesn’t have time to build the state-level organizations he needs to drive up his voter numbers. Trump’s team will attempt to mend fences with the GOP donor class, but they will never have confidence in him, and he will remain at a permanent fundraising disadvantage behind Clinton. Minorities — hell, most people in general — are repelled by him and are going to remain so, no matter how many canned speeches he makes or how statesmanlike he tries to appear. And that’s assuming he doesn’t slip back off the leash and offend another constituency, once again giving the Clinton team a new stick to beat him with. In short, filing the rough edges off of Trump’s temper (assuming it can be done) may give him a boost and act as a shot in the arm to his campaign. But it doesn’t fix the underlying problems that may have already doomed him. ---
**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1607 "2016-06-20T19:51:21Z")
Would even a pivot work at this point? you can’t unsay all the things this guy has said… and would giving a dozen or so speeches without being a racist egomaniac change all that? really? I just can’t draw a line between folks who are republican but anti Trump to some pivot that would make them pro-Trump. I refuse to believe it…refuse! ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1608 "2016-06-20T20:02:30Z")
> [@Dob](#): > > Would even a pivot work at this point? you can’t unsay all the things this guy has said… and would giving a dozen or so speeches without being a racist egomaniac change all that? really? Trump could be Lincoln + Gandhi reincarnated at this point, but his debates and rallies and tweets have given Clinton enough material to go negative for 6 campaigns. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1609 "2016-06-20T20:13:26Z")
> [@Dob](#): > > Would even a pivot work at this point? you can’t unsay all the things this guy has said… and would giving a dozen or so speeches without being a racist egomaniac change all that? really? > > I just can’t draw a line between folks who are republican but anti Trump to some pivot that would make them pro-Trump. I refuse to believe it…refuse! I don’t think so. If he was just big on being anti immigration like some candidates before, he could pivot and sound more presidential. But after saying that the worst is sent here, and continually insulting Hispanics, you can’t go back to sounding presidential from that. People won’t forget those insults. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1610 "2016-06-20T20:22:59Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Judging by his Twitter account, _somebody_ has been keeping a tight rein on Trump over the past few days. Like his lie about how he never said the people at Pulse nightclub should have been armed? ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1611 "2016-06-20T20:53:22Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Trump could be Lincoln + Gandhi reincarnated at this point, but his debates and rallies and tweets have given Clinton enough material to go negative for 6 campaigns. She doesn’t actually have to go negative. She just has to quote him. ---
**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:** [June 20, 2016, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1612 "2016-06-20T22:29:35Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Like his lie about how he never said the people at Pulse nightclub should have been armed? Well, you can only work with the tools you’ve been given, yes. 😃 Regardless, the amount of bombast, Twitter-wise, has considerably dropped since last Thurs - mostly tweets about “Thank you, \”. Before the 16th of June, lots of long-winded (for Twitter) rants with the word “I” sprinkled liberally throughout. Recently, we get short updates about his rally/fund raiser, never using “I” (I’m not including “join me in my rally…” quotes) for four whole days… until last night, of course, when Trump obviously wrested control of his cell phone from Ivanka for a few crucial hours. (Since Trump doesn’t differentiate between his tweets and campaign tweets, I pretty much assume any tweet that doesn’t use the word “I” or doesn’t have [blatant hashtag fails](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/743765281898536960), to be campaign tweets. They just _read_ differently.) ---
**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:** [June 20, 2016, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1613 "2016-06-20T22:36:34Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Like his lie about how he never said the people at Pulse nightclub should have been armed? I’m surprised he hasn’t lost weight with all the walking back he’s done. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1614 "2016-06-20T22:39:19Z")
Like I said before, what a flapdoodler frail fingered fiddle-sticker flip flopper Trump is. ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1615 "2016-06-20T23:01:49Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Judging by his Twitter account, _somebody_ has been keeping a tight rein on Trump over the past few days. Don’t worry, Deep Drumpf is picking up the slack. [QUOTE=Deep Drumpf] I always was with guns, but I still hate to see what’s happening. Now we have to protect with different things. Fully nuclear weapons. [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > We’re going to do a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding. I’ll do it. When I am President is a very dark moment. > [@](#): > > I’m not going anywhere. I will bring the poorly educated back bigger and better. It’s an incredible movement. If Trump gets any lazier about his campaign, perhaps he’ll just start retweeting Deep Drumpf. NPR has an interesting [article](http://www.npr.org/2016/06/19/482516936/how-donald-trump-may-have-wasted-a-monthlong-advantage-over-hillary-clinton) detailing just how thoroughly Trump has wasted the month head start he had on Clinton. What little he’s doing to carry his campaign forward is being wasted in states that should be safe, or are likely a lost cause. Manafort has his work cut out for him. ---
**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:** [June 20, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1616 "2016-06-20T23:50:32Z")
[Michael Sandford charged over attempt to kill Donald Trump at Las Vegas rally](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-21/us-man-charged-for-trying-to-steal-officers-gun-to-attack-trump/7528184) Tries to grab police officer’s gun. > [@](#): > > A 19-year-old man has been charged over an incident in which he tried to grab a police officer’s gun at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas so he could kill the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. > > Mr Sandford had a British driver’s license and claimed to have been in the United States for a year and a half, the documents showed. > > They did not specify his nationality but said he had lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, after coming to the United States. So, are we going to block all immigration from the U.K. until we can figure out what the hell is going on? ---
**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:** [June 21, 2016, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1617 "2016-06-21T00:02:43Z")
It seems to me that profiling and monitoring all those under 30 is just “common sense.” Note the Orlando shooter was also under 30 and most of those engaging in violent protests are too. Heck _most_ shootings in this country involve people under 30 … Seriously, I hope that security for all candidates is even better than usual this time around. This election season has brought out all the nutjobs on all sides. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1618 "2016-06-21T00:57:49Z")
> [@Lok](#): > > She doesn’t actually have to go negative. She just has to quote him. I forget if this was posted - Dem PAC ad showing Trump mocking the disabled reporter. It’s kind of talky but repeated video of Trump doing his mime act is revolting. It works on fast forward, too, since you end up wondering what Trump is doing. [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/07/us/politics/super-pac-highlights-donald-trumps-mockery-of-disabled-journalist.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/07/us/politics/super-pac-highlights-donald-trumps-mockery-of-disabled-journalist.html) Link with video. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1619 "2016-06-21T01:45:55Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > I forget if this was posted - Dem PAC ad showing Trump mocking the disabled reporter. It’s kind of talky but repeated video of Trump doing his mime act is revolting. It works on fast forward, too, since you end up wondering what Trump is doing. > > [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/07/us/politics/super-pac-highlights-donald-trumps-mockery-of-disabled-journalist.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/07/us/politics/super-pac-highlights-donald-trumps-mockery-of-disabled-journalist.html) > > Link with video. > [@](#): > > Takeaway > > Many of Mr. Trump’s Republican primary opponents, including Jeb Bush, used Mr. Trump’s mockery of the reporter in negative advertisements, seemingly to no avail. But as Priorities USA showed with its first ad, which mirrored a similar effort by a “Stop Trump” PAC, it is not viewing the primary advertising efforts as indicative of what will work with a general election audience. I get the impression that the NYT has no clue yet about the concept that what was not much appalling in the Republican sandbox was at the same time noticed by most in the whole playground as being crass indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/1620 "2016-06-21T02:02:15Z")
[A guy who claims to be a Trump supporter and ex-cop is calling for “patriots” to come to Cleveland to kill black people.](http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/06/20/breaking-donald-trump-supporter-caught-planning-terror-attacks-at-gop-convention-video/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=80) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=82)