Indiana Governor, Mike Pence has been reported as Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick, according to multiple media outlets. Gov. Pence is a former House GOP leader who served in the chamber from 2001 to 2013.
Pence had been on a final shortlist for the spot along with former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, according to Trump. He was also the overwhelming favorite of GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
This is getting serious folks. Trump steps up his game – again.
Governor Pence Will Bring Credibility To The Republican’s Campaign.
More importantly, Governor Pence fills Trump’s need for someone who could work with Congress from the executive branch, and he would also do much to shore up Trump’s relationships with social conservatives and GOP officials. According to Harper Neidig’s article in The Hill today:
“What he needs is someone who is credible who can help him govern if he is successful,” Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) told The Hill earlier this week. “There’s nobody with more interesting ideas in Washington than Newt Gingrich, but that’s a different issue than actually governing day-to-day. I don’t see that as his strong suit.” [01]
Read updates on Donald Trump’s run for presidency under United States in the News section. You can also sign-up for email alerts and we will let you know when a new article is posted.
We welcome comments and conversation. Scroll down page to use the comment box.
The swagger. The glib pronouncements. The ego. The wealth. The hair. Despite the ubiquity of his surname, to many he’s simply known as “The Donald.” Love him or hate him, Donald Trump is a true American phenomenon.
So where did he come from? What drives him? And what kind of leader might he make?
His friend and security consultant Bo Dietl takes us inside the bubble of Trump’s world-view.
This HISTORY special delves into The Donald’s past, filling in the details and digging up the truth behind his legendary rise, fall and comeback. This is the story of an American icon; His family, his business, his ambition and what makes him tick. We unveil rarely-seen footage – from Donald’s interviews with Phil Donahue, to his comments about politics from the floor of the 1988 Republican convention.
Error
This video doesn’t exist
We’ll also hear from celebrities, politicians and those close to The Donald. NY Senator Al D’Amato talks about Trump’s ability to navigate the sharks in New York City’s political waters. Gossip columnist Liz Smith weighs in on Donald’s marriages. Former Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson describes Trump as a manager and friend. Former “Apprentice” contestant Omarosa takes us backstage at Donald’s reality show. Friend and advertising exec Donny Deutsch explains the “Trump” brand.
Others close to “The Donald” provide a rare glimpse into his life story. Former Atlantic City Mayor Jim Whelan talks about Trump’s uneasy first forays into building casinos. His friend and security consultant Bo Dietl takes us inside the bubble of Trump’s world-view.
Take a journey into the deals and the loves behind one of the most fascinating public figures of our time.
My search began at Trump’s Twitter where I hoped to find a lead.
As it turns out his Twitter timeline, and those 66 LIKES – are all of himself.
What I did find there, was enough people, places and things that Donald doesn’t like to write a novel.
So next I searched the internet for Trump’s triumphs and interests.
As it turns out, Donald is the singular, most boring person I have researched, ever.
Here is the condensed mess that is Donald Trump’s accomplishments and important state opinions – a combination which – according to voters – makes him fit to manage the country’s economy and international relations, while representing the Christian morals Americans’ boast to hold dear to their nation’s foundation.
I will let Donald take the lead by telling us exactly what he thinks of his proud country, United States of America.
Not wanting to make this article a criticism of his private life, I decided to exclude his two failed marriages and plastic doll hair. It seemed like that would just be over-kill.
And there you have it – how I spent my afternoon.
Oh yes, and Donald Trump is a first-class bullshitter.
Please, don’t get me wrong. I’m enjoying the circus Donald is creating as much as the next person. He is causing an uproar in the Republican Party and they deserve it. The Republican Party is a party of traitorous scumbags, but so is the Democratic Party. I’ll say it again, I’m not excited about ANY of these candidates in either party.
Maryanne Trump Barry (born April 5, 1937) is a Senior United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She is the daughter of real estate developer Fred Trump and Mary MacLeod Trump and the older sister of real estate/entertainment magnate Donald Trump… appointed by none other than… BILL CLINTON.(Photo/credit: The Daily Sheeple).
So, having said that, I just happen to find Donald the most entertaining and when he says something so true about the problems of illegal immigration, then I’m going to laugh and pass that on. HOWEVER, Donald Trump is likely as phony as a three dollar bill. He is a con artist extraordinaire, a showman, an ACTOR.
Here is a great article every Trump supporter needs to read. Before reading this I was not aware of Mr. Trump’s deep ties to the Clintons. Read it and decide for yourself before you put up any signs for him. Also, much of Trump’s politics is unknown and some of what is known is patently unconstitutional.
If you ask me, “David, who do you trust to lead this nation among the candidates?” I’d say, “NO ONE.”
“”It’s been pretty shocking that people are actually walking around talking about how Donald Trump is going to “Save America”. If you ever needed a sign that the country is lost, that’s gotta be it.But worse is the fact that Trump is so obviously a Clinton plant and people just ignore the facts because right now he’s “telling it like it is”.
“More like he’s tell you what you want to hear at a time when people are desperate to hear any truth coming out of the American political-industrial complex.First of all, if anyone ever had half a chance in Hell of changing anything in this country, rest assured The Powers That Shouldn’t Be would not let that person anywhere near the Oval Office. The last time this country had a president that tried to change things, that person got his brains blown out in front of the entire country.
“But here’s what actually going on. Hillary Clinton’s private email server woes are not going away, just like the Clinton camp surely had an inkling they wouldn’t. Back in mid-March, The New York Post reported that Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s senior adviser, purposefully leaked details regarding Hillary Clinton’s private email to the press through people outside the White House in order so that the leak couldn’t be directly traced back to the administration.The scandal bomb, as I reported then, was perfectly timed just before Hillary’s announcement to run as president. Everyone knew by that point that Hillary could announce her run at any time. And she did, just weeks later, officially announce her bid for president on April 12, 2015.
So how does this all connect to Trump?
Knowing the email scandal wouldn’t go away, the Clinton camp needed a big distraction. So what did they do?
They phoned a friend. In late May, Bill Clinton had a private conversation with his good friend, Donald Trump just before Trump decided to run himself.
Now why would a good friend of the Clintons pose himself as opposition like that?
And I do mean good friend. Here are the Clintons at his wedding in 2005:
Pretty cozy group, huh?
Trump has also donated to the Clinton Foundation, a point that hasn’t gone unnoticed by people like Senator Rand Paul. Yeah, about that:
“I gave to many people before this,” Trump said at the debate today. “When they call, I give. And you know what, when I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me.”
(And surely, vice versa… I’ll pat your back, you pat mine. Let’s continue:)
His comments came in response to an attack from rival Sen. Rand Paul.
“You’ve donated to several Democratic candidates. You explained away those donations saying you did that to get business-related affairs,” Paul said. “And you said recently, quote, ‘when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.’”
But Trump now claims that he just invited the Clintons to his wedding — where they sat in the front row — and they only came and took those schmoozy pictures together simply because he donated. Uh huh. Sure.
Is that why, in 2008, Trump was quoted as saying,“I’m a big fan of Hillary. She’s a terrific woman. She’s a friend of mine. I think she was treated very poorly and I think it’s hurt Barack Obama quite badly. She’s a terrific woman.”
So she’s not just a terrific woman, but he’s a big fan and she’s a friend of his… and again, because he repeated it, she’s a terrific woman.
In fact, Trump went on to say the only reason he endorsed McCain in 2008 is because Obama did not choose Hillary as his Vice President.
Trump and Clinton went golfing together in 2008.(Photo: The Daily Sheeple).
Later, on a CNN appearance, he expanded on his opinion of Hillary and Bill: “Hillary’s a great friend of mine. Her husband is a great friend of mine. They’re fantastic people. I mean, they’re — you know, the thing, they get a bad knock. She’s a very nice woman. People think, tough, tough. And I guess she’s tough, but she’s a very nice woman. And he’s a very nice guy. We know all about the smarts and how smart they are, and all, but they are good people.”
Let’s see… Bill’s a “great” friend, Hillary is a “great” friend, terrific (x2), they’re fantastic people, she’s very nice, they are smart and “good” people. Wow. Gee, what a glowing review.
But again, we’re supposed to believe they are just loose, casual acquaintances and the only reason he invited Hillary and Bill to his wedding was because he donated to their foundation? (An accusation that he later went on TV and backpeddled on after it came out Hillary’s feelings were hurt? He later said he was just joking about paying her foundation so she’d come to his wedding, saying it was “very nice” that the Clintons went.)
The Clinton and Trump daughters are reportedly close friends. Here they are attending the 2014 Glamour Women of the Year Awards. (Photo: The Daily Sheeple).
.So I guess it’s also just a lark that Trump has changed parties five times since the 80s and donated over half a million to Democrats, including to the likes of Rahm Emmanuel and Senator Harry Reid.
This is all about having big friends in high places. Trump didn’t become a billionaire without making friends like that. That’s how the American oligarchy works.
On top of that, if you look at Trump’s politics — what he has supported on the record until now when he’s in the GOP spotlight, he doesn’t even seem like much of a Republican.
Now he’s talking about things like the 14th Amendment is unconstitutional and if he becomes president he will build a wall that spans the entire Southern border and force the Mexican government to pay for it. But that’s not what he was saying just a few years ago on Bill O’Reilly’s show:
Donald Trump: The biggest problem is that you have some great, wonderful people coming in from Mexico that are working the crops, they’re working cutting lawns, they’re doing a lot of jobs that I’m not sure that a lot of Americans are going to take those jobs. And that’s the dichotomy. That’s the big problem because you have a lot of great people coming in doing a lot of work, and I’m not so sure that a lot of other people are going to be doing that work. So, it is a very tough problem, but I do say this, you have a law, or at least you have to establish a law, and I guess we’re sort of a country and other people aren’t supposed to be coming into our country illegally.
Bill O’Reilly: Now, the 15 million illegal aliens already in the United States, what do you do with them?
Donald Trump: I think right now you’re going to have to do something. It’s hard to generalize, but you’re going to have to look at the individual people, see how they’ve done, see how productive they’ve been, see what their references are, and then make a decision.
Bill O’Reilly: All right, on a case-by-case—going to take a long time and a lot of people.
Donald Trump: A long time, but you know, you have some great, productive people that came. You have to give them a path. You have 20 million, 30 million, nobody knows what it is. It used to be 11 million. Now, today I hear it’s 11, but I don’t think it’s 11. I actually heard you probably have 30 million. You have to give them a path, and you have to make it possible for them to succeed. You have to do that. (source)
Trump is also a big fan of eminent domain:
Donald Trump: Everybody coming into Atlantic City sees that property, and it’s not fair to Atlantic City and the people. They’re staring at this terrible house instead of staring at beautiful fountains and beautiful other things that would be good.
John Stossel:Basic to freedom is that if you own something, it’s yours, that the government doesn’t just come and take it away from you.
Donald Trump: Do you want to live in the city where you can’t build schools? Do you want to live in the city where you can’t build roads or highways or have access to hospitals? Condemnation is a necessary evil.
John Stossel: But you’re not talking about a hospital. You’re talking about a building a rich guy finds ugly.
Ooh, smells like freedom from big government, doesn’t it?
Back on the Clintons, did I forget to mention that Trump is also pro socialized medicine? At least, that’s what he told Larry King years ago:
“So I’m very liberal when it comes to health care. I believe in universal health care. I believe in whatever it takes to make people well and better.”
Here’s Trump specifically praising Hillary’s plans for health care in 2007:
“I think it was very good. I think she came out with an idea. It’s a very, very complex set of things going on right now in terms of healthcare. But she came out with an idea, it sounds like a pretty good idea, and a lot of people like it and embraced it. And she learned a lot from her previous encounter,” Trump said.
So that whole Obamacare thing… yeah, about that. He can promise all day now that he’d do away with it, but if Trump actually got anywhere near the White House, would that law really be going anywhere any time soon?
This list could go on and on and on. People are only hearing what they want to hear.
Again… Trump fans, are you listening??? He is literally telling people only what they want to hear.
Be willfully blind if you want to, but that “hope and change” thing hasn’t worked out so good in the past. At the very least, the guy is a total flip flopper, but worse, if you look into Trump’s actual political history, he’s looking more and more like a Clinton operative all the time.
And considering the Clintons are really just an extension of the Bush camp anyway and vice versa, two arms of the same beast, you know, what with Bill Clinton saying that George H. W. was like a surrogate father and George W. like a “brother from another mother,” that would make all kinds of sense why in July, Bill reassured Jeb, “a lot of this Trump thing will be taken care of during your debates, if not sooner.”
The only reason he isn’t gone yet since the first debate is that Hillary’s server situation has gotten worse. The distraction continues…
Bill knows that when Hillary gets out of the hot water over this server mess and Trump’s duty is done, Trump will fade back out of the spotlight, having stolen (and wasted) a bunch of the country’s time. And Bill can say that with near certainty. Why?
Bill’s phone call to Trump back in May arranged this whole dog and pony show in the first place.
There were only ever going to be two actual choices in this election, as we’ve been reporting for a long time now. You get a Bush or a Clinton. Period. These are your dynasty families, America.
The country was bought and sold a long time ago. It’s gone. Sorry if the truth hurts, but Donald Trump can’t save you from that.””
Donald Trump, the 69-year-old New York real estate mogul and unrepentant bigot, is still dominating the Republican presidential primary polls. Trump’s sudden ascendance, accelerated by his willingness to insult virtually any ostensible ally within the conservative movement, has left GOP leaders dumbfounded.
I am not sure which end is which, does it really matter?
How did this caricature of a Republican politician, who has never held elected office, and whose personal ideology is remarkably fluid, usurp more experienced, more conservative, and better-funded candidates like Jeb Bush and Scott Walker?
Within this vacuum of understanding, an almost-believable conspiracy theory has obtained currency: Donald Trump is in fact a false flag candidate whose actual mission is electing Hillary Clinton as President.
To understand the contours of this theory, it’s helpful to understand where it came from. A Google search suggests the first person to remark upon Trump’s indirect assistance to Clinton was the anti-war activist and “conservative-paleo-libertarian” Justin Raimondo. In a long blog post dated July 13—just a few days after Trump stole Jeb Bush’s lead—Raimondo argued that the timing of Trump’s entry into the presidential race, which the candidate had long hinted at but until this year never followed through on, could only be explained by a hidden “Democratic wrecking operation” designed to assist Clinton’s parallel campaign:
[Trump’s] ties to the Clintons, his past pronouncements which are in such blatant contradiction to his current fulminations, and the cries of joy from the Clintonian gallery and the media (or do I repeat myself) all point to a single conclusion: the Trump campaign is a Democratic wrecking operation aimed straight at the GOP’s base.
Donald Trump is a false-flag candidate. It’s all an act, one that benefits his good friend Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party that, until recently, counted the reality show star among its adherents. Indeed, Trump’s pronouncements—the open racism, the demagogic appeals, the faux-populist rhetoric—sound like something out of a Democratic political consultant’s imagination, a caricature of conservatism as performed by a master actor.
Newlyweds Donald Trump Sr. and Melania Trump with Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Clinton at their reception held at The Mar-a-Lago Club in January 22, 2005 in Palm Beach, Fla.(Maring Photography/Getty Images/Contour by Getty Images)
The idea that Trump is running an elaborate interference campaign on behalf of Hillary Clinton may sound absurd. But there is enough truth to Raimondo’s theory—it makes just enough sense—that it’s already begun to infiltrate, and inform the mainstream voices of, the mainstream Republican Party.
On July 23, for example, the popular conservative writer Allen Ginzburg distilled Raimondo’s argument into a vexing thought experiment: Ginzburg’s tweet has since been retweeted over 400 times (including, earlier this week, by Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto, who serves on the paper’s influential editorial board).
It would, of course, be incredible—and virtually unprecedented in modern American politics—if a major party’s top candidate were to run a campaign for the purpose of electing that party’s most imposing political opponent. So what exactly supports the theory that Trump is such a candidate? Though he has recently rebranded himself as the only Republican brave enough to speak the truth about undocumented immigrants, his past associations and political positions suggest the theory is, if not entirely believable, not exactly implausible, either.
There are three main lines of argument supporting the assertion that Donald Trump is running a false flag campaign:
Trump cannot possibly be considered either a Republican or a conservative, once you account for his apparent political beliefs (many of which are remarkably liberal) and concrete policy proposals (or lack thereof).
Trump has close ties to both Hillary and Bill Clinton, and has in fact donated to her and other Democrats’ campaigns in the past.
Trump’s apparent intent to run on an independent ticket—should he lose the Republican nomination—indicates he cares more about splitting the Republican vote (essentially insuring the election of a Democratic president) than he does about actually electing Republicans. He also lacks the wherewithal and/or long-term funding to mount a legitimate presidential campaign were he to become the actual Republican nominee.
This article arguably continues as J.K. Trotter discusses his supporting arguments, which I enjoyed immensely, click on the link below for the full article on Black Bag.
On Monday, real estate mogul turned presidential candidate, Donald Trump set people’s heads spinning when he proposed to ban all Muslims, (including tourists) from entering the United States, “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
In case you missed it, Donald Trump graced the Fox News Channel on Monday, appearing ‘On the Record’.
The highlight of the show had to be when Trump stated that he is in favour of shutting down any Muslims from entering the US, and he proceeded to criticize President Obama’s speech from the previous evening, calling it “one of the most ridiculous speeches I’ve ever seen.”
When asked about Muslim members of the US military who are overseas, Trump replied, “They’ll come home and we have to be vigilant, and we have take care of the Muslims that are living here, but we have to be vigilant. We had two of them living here, and they had guns, and everybody that – they had tremendous, they had bombs. They had ammunition. everybody knew that something bad was going to happen, and for the sake of political correctness, or anything you want to call it, they refused – people that knew what was going on, refused to report these people, and many people died. So, we can’t allow this to happen.”
Of course Trump is attempting to backtrack and explain what he meant is not what he said, or what he said is not what he meant. I find it difficult to follow the Trump thought process. Either way, Trump made his way back to Fox News last night to explain “why” he wants to ban all Muslims from entering the USA.
In the Breitbart London, journalist Joel Pollak said, “Ben Rhodes, a failed creative writer who managed to become a White House deputy national security adviser despite having no national security credentials whatsoever (I want to know what happened in that vetting process), told Wolf Blitzer on CNN that Trump’s idea would violate the Bill of Rights.”
Unfortunately it would not, because Trump’s proposed policy would apply to Muslim immigration, and visitors, not existing citizens, according to the statement his campaign manager made in the Associated Press. The US already shamelessly subjects refugees to a ‘religious test‘. Perhaps a gold star is not that far-fetched.
So, has Donald Trump jumped the proverbial shark? I just checked the latest CNN polls, and apparently – not yet. Trump is still leader of the pack.
Trump tells Barbara Walters, ‘I’m the worst thing that’s ever happened to ISIS‘.
Trump: ‘I’m the worst thing that’s ever happened to ISIS’ (Photo: Getty)
Donald Trump said he’s clearly shown that he’s got what it takes to be commander in chief, declaring on Tuesday, “I’m the worst thing that’s ever happened to ISIS.”
In an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters that aired Tuesday night, Trump refused to back down from his controversial proposal to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the U.S., despite intense blow-back from the White House and many of his GOP rivals.
“We have to do the right thing; somebody in this country has to say what’s right,” Trump said in defending his stance. And when asked by Walters whether he’s a bigot, Trump firmly said he’s not, “probably the least of anybody you’ve ever met.” [01]
And having typed that last paragraph, I now drop the mic, and exit stage left.
Please do not re-blog this report without consent from Alistair Reign. Send inquiries and requests to Alistair.Reign@Gmail.com, thank you.
So-called “free market” or “unregulated capitalism” is really nothing more than the cancer-stage of capitalism. And that uninhibited cancerous growth has spread, so that now even our political system is infected with the cancer of corporatism.
Donald Trump’s candidacy is an example of how our political system is being eaten alive by the cancer-stage of capitalism.
But to really get what that means, we need to step back and look at the nature of cancer itself. A new study published in “Philosophical Transactions B” titled “Cancer across the tree of life: cooperation and cheating in multicellularity” flushes out how cancer exists across every multicellular organism.
The abstract of the research begins: “Multicellularity is characterized by cooperation among cells...” But cancer, of course, is the opposite of cooperation. It’s when a cell decides it’s going to suck up all the energy and resources of the organism for itself. And it grows continuously until it kills its host.
It’s not a stretch to look at a society – as well as the economic market and the political system that make up society – as a multicellular organism that could easily become infected with an economic or political cancer.
At the base of a society are individuals. Those individuals divide the labor and form specialized groups, because people working together get more done than people working alone.
George Johnson at the New York Times paraphrased Darwin’s proposal of life beginning in “some warm little pond.” He writes: “a few simple chemicals sloshed together and formed complex molecules […] as the primordial cells mutated and evolved, ruthlessly competing for nutrients, some stumbled upon a different course. They cooperated instead, sharing resources and responsibilities and so giving rise to multicellular creatures – plants, animals and eventually us.”
Societies, economies, and governments could be described as the equivalent of humanity ‘evolving’ from single-cell behavior to multicellular behavior. But, just as researchers found that cancer sometimes pops up in every multicellular organism on Earth, our economy has now spawned its own cancer. And Donald Trump’s candidacy is what happens when our economic cancer spreads to our political system.
GOP Republican lineup ready for the debate to begin. 8/6/2015
Johnson writes in the Times:“In a healthy organism a cell replicates only as frequently as needed to maintain the population and allow for modest growth. Cancer cells begin reproducing wildly, consuming more than their share of resources and spewing poisons that degrade the environment and reshape it to their own advantage.”
THAT sounds like corporatism. We can see it in how corporations consume subsidies and take profits while shirking any of the costs of upkeep for the health of the environment or the health of communities.
The same thing happens in a colony of bacteria according to Johnson: “taking advantage of the sustenance and shelter provided by the biofilm, some bacteria will squander resources and thrive at the expense of the others – a microscopic tragedy of the commons.”
Corporations are protected and nurtured by governments and societies: but their singular profit motive encourages them to “thrive at the expense of others.”
“No wonder cancer has become a metaphor for human excess,” Johnson writes, “overpopulation and consumption – environmental pollution – the concentration of resources among a hyperacquisitive 1%”
That’s basically a summary of how unregulated corporatism thrives on consuming more and more in order to produce more and more – not for society’s well being – but their own. At the expense of everything else in a society.
And what happens when the cancer of corporatism realizes that it can only grow as large as our planet’s governments will let them? It spreads to the political system to destroy regulations and taxes that might ensure that corporations and billionaires don’t consume more than their fair share of the society’s resources.
Ever since we opened the flood gates with the rulings in Buckley v. Valeo and Citizens United, the cancer of unchecked greed that first infected capitalism has spread to every level of our political system in the form of anonymous and unregulated campaign donations from corporations like Exxon and billionaires like the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson.
So what about Donald Trump? He is a perfect example of the cancer of greed in our society: taking the profits and resources that he concentrated as a result of his growth within a largely unregulated economy, and he’s using those resources to take over the political system.
So how do we heal from a political cancer? We start out by repealing Citizens United with a constitutional amendment that says that corporations aren’t people and billionaires can’t spend their money to buy politicians or political office.
And then we need to re-instate real financial regulations, like Glass-Stegal and the corporate death penalty, to force corporations to once again serve society rather than just suck up all the money and resources like an economic and political cancer.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump clarified a comment he made about Fox News debate moderator Megyn Kelly that led him to be disinvited from a gathering of conservatives in Atlanta today.
Donald Trump Pushes Back After Being Disinvited From RedState Gathering in Atlanta
Trump said he was referring to Kelly’s nose when he told CNN Friday that “there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” while speaking about questions she asked him during the first GOP debate Thursday. The comment led RedState’s Erick Erickson to withdraw Trump’s invitation from the event, which several other candidates were slated to attend.
“If you haven’t heard, I disinvited Donald Trump,” Erickson said as the second day of the event opened.
Comparing Trump’s Past Statements to GOP Debate
Donald Trump Taking a ‘Very Serious Look‘ at Megyn Kelly Questions After GOP Debate
Republican Presidential Debate: Winners and Losers of the First GOP Showdown
Erickson said when he heard about Trump’s comment, he asked his campaign if Trump meant what was implied and whether he planned to clarify or apologize.
“It’s disrespectful to Megyn Kelly. It’s disrespectful to female journalists,” he said. “I don’t want my daughter in the room with Donald Trump.”
Jeb Bush, the man who would be front-runner, was as surprised as anybody when Donald Trump jumped into the 2016 presidential race in June. His instinctive first reaction was to hold his tongue, and his advisers agreed the best option was to keep his distance from an interloper who wanted to drag him into a reality-show shouting match.
Bush stayed strategically silent even when Trump delivered his infamous crack that some Mexican immigrants were “rapists.” It wasn’t easy, considering Bush speaks nearly flawless Spanish, backs comprehensive immigration reform and is married to the former Columba Garnica de Gallo of Leon, Mexico.
Like everyone else, Bush soon found Trump impossible to ignore. When Trump reposted a nasty tweet a couple of weeks after his contentious announcement speech— “Bush has to like Mexican illegals because of his wife”—the former Florida governor was forced to respond. “You can love your Mexican-American wife,” he told one interviewer before telling another that Trump was “preying on people’s fears.”
The half-dozen conservative senators and governors who had planned to run before Bush brought out his shock-and-awe fundraising campaign, had to laugh: They viewed Bush himself as an intruder, a political semi-retiree who sat on the sidelines for eight years while they fought Barack Obama. Now it was Bush’s turn to rage at an outsider.
“Seriously, what’s this guy’s problem?” he asked one party donor he ran into recently, according to accounts provided by several sources close to Bush—and he went on to describe the publicity-seeking real estate developer now surging in public polls far ahead of Bush and all the 15 others in the Republican field as “a buffoon,” “clown” and “asshole.”
Whatever Bush wants to call Trump, the most accurate appellation heading into Thursday night’s first big Republican debate of the chaotic 2016 contest in Cleveland is the label that should have been Bush’s: “frontrunner.”
As much as anything, this is the story of 2016 so far. The proliferation of 17 candidates—a mob so big it needed to be subdivided into two separate debates—is a symptom of a deeper dynamic—the absence of a true frontrunner capable of uniting the party.
“The plan isn’t working,” conservative writer James Tobin wrote in Commentary magazine of Bush’s de facto entrance into the race in January. “[O]ther Republicans appear to be insufficiently shocked and awed.”
Trump is besting Bush so far, but it’s hardly a lock that this is anything more than summer fling.
So far, The Donald has been immune from the backlash that typically kills mouth-driven campaigns—which is a good thing given his flip-flopping, amateur-hour staffing decisions, and relentless you’re-a-loser negativity, and the bad hair hidden under worse hats. But he shares a characteristic with all those lesser-known candidates who have also flooded into the 2016 race: He sees a vacuum at the top.
To read the rest of this article click on the link below.
Alistair Reign News Blog 