Thursday Reads: Trump’s Meltdown Continues as Clinton Rises
Posted: August 4, 2016 Filed under: morning reads, Republican politics, U.S. Politics | Tags: 2016 presidential election campaign, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton 41 Comments
Good Morning!!
I hardly know where to begin this morning. Yesterday was one of the strangest days I’ve experienced in my 56 years of following politics. The day began with multiple reports that the Trump campaign was melting down, that campaign staffers are “suicidal,” that campaign manager Paul Manafort has given up and is “mailing it in” because Trump doesn’t listen to advice from anyone. RNC Chair Reince Priebus was reported to be “apoplectic” over Trump’s attacks on the Kahn family and especially his refusal to support GOP Candidates Paul Ryan, John McCain, and Kelly Ayotte.
On the Morning Joe show, Joe Scarborough revealed that in a meeting with a potential national security adviser, Trump asked three times why the U.S. can’t use nuclear weapons. Yahoo News:
“I’ll have to be very careful here,” Scarborough said slowly. “Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on international level went to advise Donald Trump, and three times he asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times he asked, at one point, ‘If we have them, why can’t we use them?’ That’s one of the reasons why he just doesn’t have foreign policy experts around him.”
Scarborough, previously a Republican congressman from Florida, clearly startled his colleagues with this story. “Trump,” asked a nonplussed Mike Barnicle. “Trump asked three times?” “Three times, in an hour briefing,” confirmed Scarborough. “Why can’t we use nuclear weapons?”
On the same program General Michael Hayden, former director of both the CIA and NSA, explained why he can’t vote for Trump. Think Progress:
Hayden also expressed concern about “how erratic” Trump is.
“I can argue about this position or that position — I do that with the current president,” Hayden said. “But he’s inconsistent. And when you’re the head of a global super power, inconsistency, unpredictability, those are dangerous things. They frighten your friends and they tempt your enemies. And so, I would be very concerned.”
Asked which people in the national security community are advising Trump, Hayden said, “No one.” And in response to a question about what steps might stand in the way of Trump using nukes if he’s elected president, Hayden said, “The system is designed for speed and decisiveness. It’s not designed to debate the decision.”
During the course of the day yesterday, news outlets reported that an effort was under way to stage an “intervention” to convince Trump that he has been damaging his campaign with his attacks on a gold star family and on fellow Republicans and that he needs to focus on Hillary Clinton as well as broadening his appeal to voters outside his crazy base. The “intervention” team was supposed to consist of Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, and Reince Pribus.
This morning Giuliani is denying the reports and blaming them on Gingrich. Politico:
Donald Trump is not having any sort of “intervention” with the likes of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus or former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Giuliani said Thursday, pointing to Gingrich as the source of the term.
“So first of all I find the word intervention completely out of line,” Giuliani said during a discussion on Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria.”
Giuliani then singled out Gingrich specifically.
“That word, I think, honestly I love him dearly, but I think that word was used by Newt in a memo that got around,” Giuliani said. ” What a ridiculous word. An intervention is for a drug addict and it’s for someone who’s an alcoholic and I’ve had to do them with people at times. There’s nothing wrong with them, if that’s the case. Donald Trump doesn’t drink or smoke, by the way. We don’t have that problem.”
NBC News first reported Wednesday that the trio close to Trump were hoping to push the GOP nominee into a reset of his campaign after a calamitous week that led to a subsequent drop in the polls and high-profile Republicans defecting to Hillary Clinton.
All of this is happening just a little over two weeks after Trump accepted the GOP nomination! And on Tuesday, much of the public discussion was about Trump’s mental health, capped off by a discussion with clinical psychologist George Simon on MSNBC’s The Last Word, in which it was decided that Trump probably has a personality disorder. Simon calls it “character disturbance.” Whatever is wrong with Trump, many more people in the media and public office are beginning to notice and express concern.
Republican donors are “panicking,” according Buzzfeed.
Republican donors weren’t expecting a traditional campaign from Donald Trump, but they weren’t expecting the level of this week’s implosion either.
“I don’t know what he’s doing — trying to commit suicide?” said Stan Hubbard, a Minnesota-based top donor to a pro-Trump super PAC. Hubbard has been trying to get other Republican donors, including Charles and David Koch, on board with Donald Trump for months.
But he said Trump’s recent comments, in particular those about the parents of a Muslim American soldier who died in the Iraq War, were “just nonsense,” adding that he sent Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus a note pleading with him to do something. “The whole world is laughing at that. It’s just very frustrating.”
Although Trump’s campaign and the RNC announced raising $80 million in July, the candidate’s rolling implosion has been felt. He’s continued to engage in attacks on the Khan family, refused to endorse Paul Ryan and John McCain, and suggested Russia should hack Hillary Clinton’s email. A high-profile Republican — Meg Whitman — has said she will not only donate to Clinton, but encourage friends to do so as well.
Prospective donors are now having second thoughts about getting involved, while those who convinced themselves to get behind Trump, like Hubbard, are at their wits’ end over the presidential nominee’s behavior.
Reports on other concerned Republican donors at the link.
And Trump himself? He thinks he’s doing just fine! David Catanese at US News: Donald Trump, Party of 1. Furious with his top campaign command, Trump’s response is to go it alone.
Amid a pileup of self-made political disruptions, mounting Republican defections and internal staff exasperation, Donald Trump is proving himself to be a candidate running a presidential race all by his lonesome.
With little regard for the GOP’s future, he continues to antagonize its most prominent elected officials. With an uncontrollable proclivity for tumbling into a tangent on any given target – no matter the time, relevance or risk – he regularly relinquishes control of a media message. Having no capacity to absorb even the slightest political attack, he is constantly lured into petty fights that place him on the wrong side of public opinion. And with little reverence for seasoned political advice, he alienates even those who want to see him recover and succeed.
Trump is a party of one – a candidate embarking on his quixotic and increasingly improbable quest for the presidency without a compass or a map, without a front-line defense shield or significant reinforcements, and always and forever without any regrets.
Even the Lone Ranger rode a horse named Silver; Trump seems quite content to traipse ahead on his own two feet.
And check this out:
When Trump landed in Ashburn, Virginia, on Tuesday – a state in which he has yet to open a campaign office – he huddled backstage with Will Estrada, chairman of the Loudoun County Republican Committee, for advice on how to carry the crucial area.
“George, these people here in Virginia know what we need to do to win Virginia,” Trump told his advance aide, George Gigicos, according to Estrada’s recollection posted on his personal Facebook page.
But Trump also unleashed another line that reverberated with those in the setting, U.S. News has learned: “Don’t listen to New York.”
The message conveyed was that going forward, Trump wanted local leadership to make the decisions on where to hold events and how to stage them – not the suits at high command in Trump Tower.
According to Catanese the only people Trump might listen to are his children and his son-in-law Jared Kushner; but it’s not clear he’ll listen to them if they try to interfere with his own ego-driven decisions.
Meanwhile Trump’s polls are collapsing and Hillary’s are rising. Kevin Drum: Hillary Clinton Is Now Way Ahead of Donald Trump.
I showed great self-restraint yesterday by not posting the latest poll numbers, but today is Wednesday, which is officially the middle of the week. So here’s the latest from Pollster, based entirely on post-convention polls:
Hillary Clinton’s convention bounce will almost certainly fade a bit by next week, but even if it does she’ll remain 4 to 5 points ahead of Trump. This is roughly the same as her lead before the conventions, which suggests that this year’s four-day infomercials probably had no net effect at all.
From Chuck Todd and Carrie Dann this morning: First Read: The Clinton Bounce Is Real.
A spate of new polling shows that the initial evidence of a significant post-convention bounce for Hillary Clinton is looking like it COULD become a sturdy lead for the Democratic nominee. A new Franklin and Marshall College poll of Pennsylvania shows Clinton with an 11 point lead over Trump, 49 percent to 38 percent. A Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll of Michigan voters finds a nine point lead for the former secretary of state, 41 percent to 32 percent. And a freshWBUR/MassINC poll this morning shows Clinton opening up a 15 point lead over the GOP nominee in New Hampshire, 47 percent to 32 percent. Add that to national polls this week from NBC News|SurveyMonkey (Clinton +8), CNN/ORC(Clinton +9) and FOX News (Clinton +10). Bottom line: Trump couldn’t have picked a worse week to have a DISASTROUS week. Clinton was already in the midst of a convention bump, and Trump exacerbated it with his series of unforced errors and unnecessary fights. The next question: How does the Trump campaign react in the next week, when even more national and state polls are likely to show a similar gap between the two candidates?
Clinton is now far ahead of Trump in Michigan, according to The Detroit News.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has widened her lead over Republican Donald Trump in Michigan as 3-in-5 likely voters say the New York businessman is not qualified to be president, according to a new poll conducted for The Detroit News and WDIV-TV.
Clinton led Trump 41 percent to 32 percent in the statewide survey of 600 likely voters conducted Saturday through Monday following Clinton’s formal nomination at last week’s Democratic National Convention.
The poll contains many troubling signs for Trump’s White House campaign, including a “shocking” lead for Clinton in the Republican strongholds of west and southwest Michigan, pollster Richard Czuba said.
Sixty-one percent of likely general election voters said Trump is ill-prepared to be the nation’s commander-in-chief. The figure grows to 67 percent among women, a group with whom Trump performs poorly. Clinton has a commanding 21-percentage-point lead among female voters.
In New Hampshire, where Hillary is now leading Trump by 15 points, GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte has fallen 10 points behind Democrat Maggie Hassan! That is huge. Obviously, we can’t get overconfident, but I really don’t believe Trump is capable of suddenly becoming a sane, reasonable candidate who can at least fake acting presidential.
What else is happening? Please post your thoughts and links in the comment thread and have a tremendous Thursday!
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Yes, yesterday was the craziest day in politics in my lifetime. Today, the Republican surrogates are out in force trying to convince us that “it’s all good” while the pundits are speculating that Trump really knows what he’s doing and he’s “playing” us. Yeah, right. In the meantime Hillary is putting together her transition team headed up by Podesta.
Hillary gets shit done.
Meanwhile, Trump throws tantrums.
Yeah, she hit the ground running. And all he has is his daughters, sons, and son in law. They all went out on a big HUNT in Canada or something.
Psot form the New York times.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/04/media/new-york-times-trump-rally-video/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom
Interesting but it i snot like we did not know who Trumps base is.
I think we all knew who Trump’s voters were for the most part. They need to be ground into the dustbin of history along with him.
I wonder if Trump’s insanity over the past few days had anything to do with distracting the media from the nude pics of Melania featured in the NY Post. There’s also a story in Politico which raises questions about Melania’s immigration to the U.S. and whether or not she complied with the restrictions of her visa.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/melania-trump-immigration-donald-226648
I doubt it. I don’t think Trump cares much about anyone but himself.
I’ll bet Trump probably liked it.
I found this story fascinating. Yesterday, Trump gave a speech in Miami in which he claimed to have watched a very professional video of pallets of cash being unloaded in Iran. No one could find such a video that was publicly available. Trump has begun getting security briefings–HuffPo asked if he had already revealed something that he wasn’t supposed to talk about?
Later HuffPo updated the story:
We still don’t know for sure. Honestly, this man is a maniac. He’s insane.
Here is the explanation for $400 million that was shipped to Iran.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dames_%26_Moore_v._Regan
Lucky for Trump that Fox happened to show that video in time to provide him with plausible deniability. 😉
Trump also saw the video of hundreds of Jersey City Muslims dancing in the streets on 9/11.
Sure enough, he did.
Hillary leads Donald by 11 points in Pennsylvania.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/290356-pennsylvania-poll-clinton-has-double-digit-lead-over
I watch all this in horrid fascination … Trump is a textbook example of someone with a personality disorder causing havoc to anyone and anything he’s involved with, while being mindless of consequences to himself and others.
I’ve been watching and constantly switching between being horrified and laughing out loud.
Occasionally I marvel that the GOP base was so insane it wouldn’t nominate a normal candidate like John Kasich.
Kasich is as far right a conservative as all the other Republican candidates. He just manages to put a veneer on who he is politically.
This article about Kasich and women’s reproductive rights shows exactly why he’s the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/wolf-sheeps-clothing-gov-kasichs-reproductive-rights-record
Roz in NJ/NYC
I have to agree. There is absolutely nothing normal about Kasich. He is cringeworthy stupid. He is ultra conservative and he is a crazy lunatic like the rest of them.
As a liberal living in Ohio, I can attest to that.
Kasich is a pouty faced creep who’s taken crucial funding away from our public schools, and has signed dozens of radical anti choice bills since taking office.
The difference is that Kasich knows how to act like a normal aw-shucks politician. The kind of wolves in sheep’s clothing the Repubs have been running since forever. The boggling part about voters for Trump is that they don’t need even a nod to normality. Voting for straight-out-and-proud bigotry against everybody is a new low.
Agree that Kasich is ultra and crazy and all the rest. But some of us (me) thought the veneer of normal was required.
Thank you. I’m always troubled when people think of Kasich as moderate. He is more anti-women and anti-reproductive rights than Trump. We can’t fall for the media trying to tell us that the likes of Kasich and now Paul Ryan are moderates. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I’m continually amazed at this campaign. We’re less than a full week into the GE and Trump appears to be disintegrating. I love it but it seems too good to be true.
Taking a look at the right, people like Erick Erickson and this piece he wrote on Trump v Nato may actually further diminish Trump’s support.
HaHaHa: Donald Trump Can Go to Hell and If You Defend His Statement, So Can You.
Wow.
Freudian slip or is the ransom for the kidnapped party being arranged?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3723689/Paul-Manafort-says-ll-supporting-Paul-Ryan-president-gaffe-admitting-s-conflict-Trump-campaign.html#ixzz4GNoNlYfa
Manafort is such a huge douchebag!
Trump should not be simply beaten. He should be destroyed along with his insane ideas.
NYT: Democrats, Looking Past Mere Victory, Hope to End the Trump Movement
The only way to shut Trump up is to suture his mouth closed or get him off the Stage. He has no filter between his pea brain and his mouth. He is intellectually an 8 year old boy with no discipline and no restraints. He is an ignorant man with no character, no courage, no compassion, no empathy, no soul. For months I’ve watched his campaign rallies and commented that he is an unstable person. Maybe he has dementia, maybe some other mental illness, but whatever it is, it’s obvious to most of us.
What I see when I watch Trump is
Love it. Perfect. The other Italian connection is that Trump is the American Berlusconi. And that little adventure worked out so well!
Trump is already doing a lot of damage to the United States standing in the world:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/no-election-necessary-trump-already-doing-damage-abroad
Whether he wins or not just the fact he was able to mobilize such a large contingent of nutcases here to vote for him makes us unreliable in the future.
So I agree – he either needs to bow out NOW or we need to defeat him in a landslide, which seems imminent, thank goodness.
Ever heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect?
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/a-neuroscientist-explains-what-may-be-wrong-with-trump-supporters-brains/
omgosh this:
“Essentially, they’re not smart enough to realize they’re dumb.”
I have been praying my crazy-a$$ brother has woken up already but I’m afraid to ask.He also believes the next financial disaster/crash/apocalypse is just around the corner so fits right in with the article’s description.
Now is the perfect time to get the information about the Safire article out. Pointing out the fact that so many of the ‘facts’ that were in the original Safire article were things he just made up and when investigated were proven to be his lies, having nothing to do with actual Hillary activities.
Then there’s Trump’s penchant for micromanaging. He’s driving his campaign’s demise. The higher Hillz’ poll ratings rise the more involved he will become.
Obama just demolished Trump’s ridiculous claims about the $400,000 payment to Iran and skewered the media at the same time. These “reporters” never even bother to do any research anymore–even to look up articles that were printed in their own publications not so long ago.
I don’t know if you watched Chuck Todd following the presser, but fucking Chuck Todd was rolling his eyes and being a total ass implying that Obama was lying. He was asking Jim Miklazsewski about it and Miklazsewski was being totally professional and saying that some people who are inclined not to believe Obama will never believe him but Todd continued to act like Obama was lying. I used to have a modicum of respect for Todd but that’s gone now.
Yeah, I saw that. Sickening.
Great clip of Hillary reacting to animal rights protestors. She’s fantastic!
That was great! I do wonder what that was about, though. I’m all for protecting animals but why disrupt a Clinton rally when Trump’s asshole sons have posed in picture after picture of dead animals they have murdered. Clinton doesn’t hunt. It almost seems like a ratfucking operation, doesn’t it? Why waste time and energy protesting Clinton when there is much lower hanging fruit to harvest?
Maybe they were just looking for press coverage for their cause. Didn’t seem to be any strong connection to HRC.
Didn’t you love that secret service agent? Glad she has such YUUUUUGE protection!
Here is explanation for protest. They just wanted a stronger animal right platform on HRC’s. She was praised for what is on there but they wanted more.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-rally-animal-rights_us_57a3a72fe4b03ba68011cce8
Personhood for non-human animals?
Really? With all the crap going on right now?
We have bigger fish too..,er umm, we have bigger Aqua-persons to fry!