Donald Trump's 2016 General Election Campaign

Snark droppings to the rescue!

Agreed. It can play out how you described it. It just deserved that disclaimer, and I would hope that her campaign could figure out a way to respond similarly.

I presume that there will be nasty campaigning from Trump’s campaign; his supporters expect it. And the people who hate her are going to hate her SO MUCH MORE by the time it’s all done and through.

The question is to what extent will Trump’s negative campaigning fall on deaf ears among undecided voters. To your credit, you pulled one out that I hadn’t heard of before. But I think that a lot of the negative campaigning will be a rehash of things we’ve heard before, and it will fall on deaf ears.

Now, Trump scandals, like his involvement with the mob…that’s some new and interesting stuff for undecideds to chew on!

This must be the CNN Crackpot Hour. The last two guests they’ve had on are Phil Robertson of “Duck Dynasty” fame and a member of “Muslims for Trump,” both talking politics.

OK, two of the three. They also have a Muslim arguing against the Muslims for Trump guy.

I know it’s hard to keep up with Trump’s ongoing Bag of Bullshit Tricks, but I want this read into the record.
Trump and his “University” of get-rich-quick real estate tips is being sued for fraud by students who said they were misled. The case has been ongoing for a few years now and one of courts hearing it is in San Diego.

At a campaign rally in San Diego, Trump took time out to rant about the case, and, in particular, the federal judge hearing the case, Gonzalo Curiel. And he did it in that inimitable Trump way which can only be quoted directly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/05/27/in-san-diego-trump-shames-local-mexican-judge-as-protesters-storm-streets/

There’s video there of Donald’s speech calling the federal judge a hater. That was on Friday.

The main trial is set for November, after the election. At the moment, Trump’s legal team has been arguing that a pile of internal Trump University documents should be sealed. The Washington Post had filed a request to see these internal documents.

On Friday, while Trump was publicly speculating on the judge’s ancestry, Judge Curiel granted the WaPo’s request to see the internal documents on the workings of Trump University. Hizzoner sez that because Donald is one of the main candidates for president, and because Donald had called the integrity of the court into question, it was important to do everything where the public can oversee it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/judge-orders-release-of-internal-trump-university-documents/2016/05/28/2e960e5e-24f9-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html

So, do continue, Donald. Tell us more about how much you hate this judge and how the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump.

Breaking News, Headlines and Stories | National Post to an empty stage where Trump was going to show up.

At the same time, Hilary Clinton was delivering an actual speech about the middle class. But the networks thought the public would be more interested in the empty Trump podium.

He’s counting on free publicity and a ton of PR stunts to get him into office

I agree with the judge granting Trumps implied request for transparency by opening up the documents, and only wish Trump could follow through on his newfound resolve and release his tax records.

: adds WaPo to his newsfeed:

Trump is speaking at Rolling Thunder, an event that honors POW/MIAs. Apparently the cheering crowd forgot the contempt he holds them in.

Trump’s campaign is running on fumes, money-wise, and they are strongly indicating that they do not have the resources to actively campaign against Hillary until after the convention, when the RNC can officially fund the Trump campaign. He has grossly underestimated how much it costs to run for President (even Bernie Sanders has burned through over $200 million since he declared), and Trump, even if he is worth $10 billion, likely didn’t have the free cash flow to fund this campaign to begin with and either didn’t think it would go this far or thought he could do it on the cheap.

Now he’s missing events, paying lawyers for his lawsuits, more… the financial strain on the man must be enormous, and for a reward with so little financial payout, one that he is locked into for 4 years. The Art of the Deal, right?

He still doesn’t have a Communications director. HRC has a number of them, including a Spanish communications team, an African American communications team, etc.

I predict we will see more signs of financial distress in the Trump campaign before the convention, and given that this is a Presidential race, even “going dark” would be a sign of distress.

Elizabeth Warren is Pocahontas. Really?

Yeah, some of his schoolyard-bully “nicknames” have been more successful than others. This one seems unlikely to thrill his fans on a gut level. (A lot of them are probably not all that clear on who Warren is, to begin with.)

But as “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams has pointed out, Trump floats these nicknames and is willing to change them out if they don’t get a big response with his fans–Adams calls them “linguistic kill shots” and, on his blog, frequently discusses Trump’s method of testing them out.

(An example is at http://blog.dilbert.com/post/128029718551/trump-engineers-a-clinton-linguistic-kill-shot )

So the “non-establishment” Trump is now going to have to beg the Republican establishment and donors for money. The same people he’s been crapping on for months.

I hope the decision by the big players is to not throw money into an unknown demagogue, and rather to put the money elsewhere. Looks like the Koch brothers are already going this route.

Apparently part of the problem is that Trump has yet to sanction a PAC to receive money for his campaign - there are 2 separate PAC’s that have received some sort of endorsement, but big money donors are holding off until the Trump campaign can get its act together and set up a proper donation system. So not only does his campaign not have any money, he doesn’t even have a PAC to receive the sort of donations necessary to finance his campaign via other people’s money.

So, to recap:

  1. Trump said he would not take big money donations.
  2. A month ago, Trump said that he is now accepting big money donations.
  3. However, Trump has yet to set up a system in which to receive big money donations. Do note this is one of those things a campaign does first. Trump has 161 days to do what his opponent did years ago. Actually, he has less than that - if he can’t get his act together before Labor Day (97 days), he’ll likely lose any chance to get significant big money donations as his campaign will be a lost cause by then.
  4. Because of this, Trump has now set his sights on the RNC coffers to fund his campaign.

One source remarked that they believe that Trump is floating the “we’re out of cash for two months” story as a means to front-load the dialogue that, should Trump lose, the RNC short-changed his Presidential candidacy, so the loss wasn’t really Trump’s fault.

And since I’m on the subject of his finances, I wonder if his secrecy regarding them is that his debt position is far worse than disclosed. He is a real estate guy, after all, and they live and breathe debt.

Lastly, Forbes magazine has a pretty good webpage dealing with Trump’s finances over the past 30 years:

The system is rigged!

Note to RNC: I don’t care how close the polls look. Do not give Trump any money. Fund those Senate races.

Well, that was a dig at Warren’s claims of her Native American ancestry, or some such nonsense. Maybe still not acceptable in a presidential candidate, but it was not random.

On the off chance that Trump becomes president – which I still don’t believe – I predict it will be Nixon Redux. A total bastard wins hands down, nationwide unrest runs amok, the president gets impeached. It will be the '60s all over again. (I know Nixon was not impeached and didn’t step down until well into the '70s, but I had a History prof who argued the '60s really didn’t end until Nixon resigned, just like they didn’t really begin until the Kennedy assassination in '63.)

I’ve just been reading about Trump’s latest plan: print money. That really worked out well for Zimbabwe and Venezuela, didn’t it?

Still, it should provide Clinton with a clean kill shot.

Trump thought Rolling Thunder was all for him. And that he ranks with MLK.

“I have a nightmare”?

Actual events on the ground have made my nightmares seem quaint and harmless.

What I’m not getting from that article is the context of Trumps remarks of crowd size - it sounds like he expected a much larger crowd, but that’s not made totally clear. Looking elsewhere, Politico mentions that “hundreds” listened to Trumps speech, while The Donald claimed that opponents were preventing 600,000 people from entering the rally. A quick check of the area indicates that it would be pretty damned difficult to keep 600,000 people away from the speech - it wasn’t like they had to pass through the passage at Thermopylae.

Oddly enough, there were no reports of political protest or riots in the nation’s capital, so they must have been the politest 600k mob in the history of mankind. Was this a Canadian biker rally? :wink: