Tag: Donald Trump

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Campaign Ad Highlights Donald Trump’s Outsourcing To 12 Other Countries

This new campaign spot from Hillary Clinton underscores one of the points I’ve made throughout the past year.

If Donald Trump is so pro-USA, why didn’t he have his products made in the USA? Why outsource to 12 other countries?

And we’re supposed to believe that now he’s a candidate for president his outlook is different? SRSLY.

Text of the spot:

“This factory has been here since 1883. We have over 60 people here making shirts labeled ‘Made in America,’ but Donald Trump’s brand of shirts come from China, his suits from Mexico, his coats from India. Trump’s products have been made in 12 other countries because he says there’s no place in America that he can make them. Well there is. You know Donald Trump says he’ll make America great again while he’s taking the shirts right off our backs.”

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Donald Trump On Immigration Policy: “There Could Certainly Be A Softening”

Well, here comes that “general election pivot” we’ve all been told was coming from Republican Donald Trump.

I can’t see how “softening” his approach to immigration will make his core supporters happy.

From CBS News:

Donald Trump indicated he could be on his way to one of the most surprising policy shifts of his presidential campaign: that he might be open to letting at least some undocumented immigrants in the United States remain. This came after days of confusion about his stance on large-scale deportations and after an immigration speech planned for Thursday in Colorado was scrapped.

“There could certainly be a softening because we’re not looking to hurt people,” Trump said to Fox News commentator Sean Hannity in a town hall that aired on Tuesday night on “Hannity.” “We have some great people in this country. We have some great, great people in this country but we’re going to follow the laws of this country and what people don’t realize–we have very, very strong laws.”

His answer was in response to a question from Hannity about whether Trump would be willing to change laws to accommodate undocumented immigrants who had committed no crimes, apart from their immigration violation.

It could be a significant shift in both policy and tone for the GOP nominee, given that Trump has spent almost the entirety of his candidacy supporting a mass deportation policy that would allow those that hadn’t committed crimes to return legally after deportation. He has also routinely linked illegal immigrants to crime.

For months, Trump even touted the President Dwight D. Eisenhower-era “Operation Wetback,” a controversial operation in which the United States government rounded up and forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of undocumented Mexican immigrants, some of whom died in the process.

Political reporters have noted that Trump and his surrogates on the campaign trail have avoided the word “deportation” like the plague these past two weeks.

It’s interesting that Trump has mentioned that both Presidents Obama and Bush deported large numbers of undocumented immigrants during their administrations, and takes time to say we have “very, very strong laws.”

When you add that all up, you have to wonder what it is that Trump’s opposing then. He seems to be saying Obama and Bush did their jobs. And THAT makes for an odd pivot in my mind.

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Trump Campaign Says Polling Skewed Because It’s Trendy To Oppose Trump

The Trump campaign is now telling folks, like the UK’s Channel 4, that presidential polling showing Donald Trump trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton isn’t accurate because it’s become gauche to be a professed Trump supporter these days.

Via Mediaite:

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told the UK’s Channel 4 that Donald Trump is actually winning the election, but every poll is wrong because Trump voters are undercover.

Conway denied on the Channel 4 special “President Trump: Can He Really Win?” that Trump was losing and denounced the polls that showed him down to Hillary Clinton as “cherry-picked polling numbers that are put out there by media outlets that are also bent on his destruction.”

“Donald Trump performs consistently better in online polling where a human being is not talking to another human being about what he or she may do in the election,” she argued. “It’s because it’s become socially desirable, if you’re a college educated person in the United States of America, to say that you’re against Donald Trump.”

“The hidden Trump vote in this country is a very significant proposition,” she insisted.

“Have you been able to put a number on that?” asked the Channel 4 interviewer.

“Yes,” Conway responded confidently.

“What do you think that is?”

“I can’t discuss it,” she said. “It’s a project we’re doing internally. I call it the undercover Trump voter, but it’s real.”

Very interesting spin. I find it very hard to believe that, given the “out and proud” Trump crazies, that there are enough “undercover Trump voters” to really skew every major poll in the country for a month.

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Reuters/Ipsos Poll: Hillary Clinton Opens Up 12 Lead Over Donald Trump

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Democrat Hillary Clinton with a strong 12 point lead over Republican Donald Trump.

Even as Trump relentlessly hammers Clinton over an “everything but the kitchen sink” range of issues, likely voters favor Clinton over Trump 45% versus 33%.

Even in a four-way poll that Clinton holds a decisive 8 point lead over Trump, still well outside the 3 point margin of error.

The four man race broke down as Clinton getting 41%, Trump 33%, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson 7% and Green Party candidate 2%.

From Reuters:

Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state, has led Trump, a New York businessman, throughout most of the 2016 campaign. But her latest lead represents a stronger level of support than polls indicated over the past few weeks. Earlier in August, Clinton’s lead over Trump ranged from 3 to 9 percentage points in the poll.

The poll also found that about 22 percent of likely voters would not pick either candidate. That lack of support is high compared with how people responded to the poll during the 2012 presidential election between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.

“Those who are wavering right now are just as likely to be thinking about supporting a third-party candidate instead, and not between Clinton and Trump,” said Tom Smith, who directs the Center for the Study of Politics and Society at the University of Chicago.

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Trump Campaign Manager: Trump Does “Hurl Insults” But It’s The Victim’s Fault

Donald Trump’s new campaign manager (is this version 3.0?) Kellyanne Conway sat down with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly to chat on several Trumpian topics, including his penchant for insulting folks he doesn’t like via the campaign stump and Twitter.

After Conway told the media this past Sunday that Trump “doesn’t hurl personal insults,” Megyn Kelly had to call Conway out.

From Talking Points Memo:

After Trump took to Twitter to slam Mika Brzezinski as “neurotic” and call her the “very insecure long-time girlfriend” of co-host Joe Scarborough, Fox News host Megyn Kelly recounted how Conway had argued Trump doesn’t employ personal attacks.

“Now, you know that’s not true,” Kelly said on her show.

Conway replied that Trump “doesn’t do it without being attacked first,” a well-worn defense Trump himself has used since his campaign’s infancy.

“But does that excuse it? Just today he called Mika Brzezinski neurotic, which is another term, basically, for mentally ill,” the Fox News host responded. “He’s called other female news personalities things like crazy. The man does hurl personal insults.”

“But not unprompted,” Conway said.

It’s always interesting the language games these surrogates play. Note how Kellyanne won’t say that Trump will “deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants.” She’s clearly dodging a word or phrase that she doesn’t want uttered on record. And while she gets away with it, the viewer sees that she’s dodging. And that throws up a flag.

The questions about insults starts at the 6:50 mark, but I think the full interview is worth watching.

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Trump Cancels Campaign Events With No Explanation

Donald Trump’s Communication’s guy, Jason Miller, shares the news that Sean Hannity’s show has, basically, become an unofficial arm of the Trump campaign.

“Today, Mr. Trump is in Texas for two large fundraisers and then he will be taping an important town hall on border security and crimes committed by illegal aliens that will air nationally over two nights on Fox News’ Hannity.”

“Over two nights on Fox News’ Hannity???”

Meanwhile, the Trumpster has cancelled other events scheduled for this week with no explanation.

#ManyPeopleAreSaying there’s a health issue involved. Not me, of course, but many people.

Many people…

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Donald Trump’s Staffers Love To Post Racist/Anti-Muslim Content To Social Media

A look into the social media accounts of 50 present and former Donald Trump staffers by the Associated Press reveals numerous racist and anti-Muslim posts including Muslims being unfit to be U.S. citizens, mocking Mexican accents, black on white violence and more inflammatory content.

The AP examined the social media feeds of more than 50 current and former campaign employees who helped propel Trump through the primary elections. The campaign has employed a mix of veteran political operatives and outsiders. Most come across as dedicated, enthusiastic partisans, but at least seven expressed views that were overtly racially charged, supportive of violent actions or broadly hostile to Muslims.

A graphic designer for Trump’s advance team approvingly posted video of a black man eating fried chicken and criticizing fellow blacks for ignorance, irresponsibility and having too many children. A Trump field organizer in Virginia declared that Muslims were seeking to impose Sharia law in America and that “those who understand Islam for what it is are gearing up for the fight.”

The AP’s findings come at a time when Trump is showing new interest in appealing to minority voters, insisting he will be fair in dealing with the 11 million people in the U.S. illegally and explicitly pitching himself to African-Americans, saying “what do you have to lose?”

The AP also reviewed the public social media accounts of more than three dozen employees of Hillary Clinton’s far larger campaign staff and found nothing as inflammatory. One staffer said Trump’s style of speaking reminded him of a roommate who had taken too many hallucinogenic mushrooms. AP also reviewed images attached to more than 19,000 stolen internal emails from the Democratic National Committee for racially or religiously inflammatory memes, finding nothing of note.

While the AP has sent several requests for comment on the social media posts over the past month, no response has been forthcoming.

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Trump Could Win Florida, Pennsylvania & Ohio And Still Lose

NPR’s Domenico Montanaro tweeted this completely plausible electoral college map showing Republican winning Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and still losing to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

In reality, I think Hillary will probably win those three states, but this example shows how far back Trump is in the electoral college count.

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Trump Campaign Manager: I’m White And I Was Moved By Trump’s Outreach To Black Voters

Earlier this week, GOP White House hopeful Donald Trump raised eyebrows with his appeal to African-American voters.

The outreach was based on the notion that black voters “can’t do any worse” than they have with Democrats – an odd way to ask for votes.

It was also interesting that he made the statement in a Michigan town that is 94% white. There were practically no faces of color in the audience.

This morning on ABC News’ This Week, George Stephanopoulos told new Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway that a great number of voters were offended by Trump’s wide generalization of poverty in the African-American community. In a strange response,  Conway explained that she lives in a white community and she was “moved” by his comments.

STEPHANOPOULOS: As you know — you were just talking about that. But many in the African American community saw that as insulting because they say most African Americans don’t live in poverty and that Mr. Trump was making those comments in communities that are more than 90 percent white.

CONWAY: Those comments are for all Americans. And I live in a white community. I’m white. I was very moved by his comment. In other words, he is trying to tell Americans that we can do better. And the thing that he said that I think got a great deal of resonance is that maybe Hillary Clinton looks at you as voters as your — takes you for granted. I look at you as people.

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Liberal Redneck: Trump’s Campaign Is A ‘S–tshow’

Clip description: Hillbilly-in-Chief Trae Crowder doesn’t want to talk about Donald Trump all the damn time, but the son of a b—h is making it way too hard to talk about anything else.

“I took a week off from Trump to talk about the Olympics and in the intervening time he has heavily implied someone should shoot Hillary Clinton.

“He explicitly stated multiple times that Obama founded ISIS.

“He went after freedom of the press again saying it should be illegal for the media just be able to publish anything they want about him, especially when it’s false.

“Can you imagine if they were saying some truly outrageous shit, like accusing of him, like, I don’t know, of not being an American citizen or, like, being a secret Muslim, or something like that?”