Donald Trump Apparently Had To Pay For Crowd Enthusiasm At Campaign Launch

According to the Hollywood Reporter, some of the folks in the “enthusiastic crowd” at Donald Trump’s presidential campaign launch were paid to wear the t-shirts and hold the “home-made” looking signs to gin up the crowd factor.

New York-based Extra Mile Casting sent an email last Friday to its client list of background actors, seeking extras to beef up attendance at Trump’s event.

“We are looking to cast people for the event to wear t-shirts and carry signs and help cheer him in support of his announcement,” reads the June 12 email, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “We understand this is not a traditional ‘background job,’ but we believe acting comes in all forms and this is inclusive of that school of thought.” (Read the full email at the bottom of the post.)

The pay was listed as $50 for less than three hours of work. According to the email, Extra Mile was reaching out to potential extras in partnership with Gotham Government Relations and Communications, a New York-Based political consulting group that has worked with Trump in the past. Gotham GR had no comment.

Questions as to whether the Trump campaign had hired extras were first raised Wednesday by anti-Trump activist Angelo Carusone, who came across an Instagram photo showing a man he recognized as a background actor posing at the Trump event. Carusone screengrabbed the photo of the actor, Domenico Del Giacco, and published it in a blog post. The photo shows Del Giacco with a woman, identified in the now-deleted Instagram post as actress Courtney Klotz. (Del Giacco has since deleted his entire Instagram account.)

Neil Young To Donald Trump: Don’t Rock In My Free World

Among the many miscalculations made by Donald Trump during his presidential announcement (insulting Mexican immigrants, taking “Staircase One” for his entrance, wondering when the US ever beat Japan at “anything”), his choice of entrance music was seriously off-key.

And Neil Young, who wrote the classic “Rockin’ In The Free World” is not having it.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Since “Rockin’ in the Free World” was written as a critique of the Republican George H. W. Bush administration and how it did not care about America’s poor, you can see why Young wouldn’t be very excited about the conservative multi-billionaire appropriating his tune and misrepresenting its message.

“Donald Trump was not authorized to use ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ in his presidential candidacy announcement,” said an official statement from Young’s camp.

“Neil Young, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for president of the United States of America.” It’s far from the first time Young’s iconic song has seen appropriation. After it came out in 1989, it became an anthem for the collapse of communism.

Donald Trump Announces Run For 2016 GOP Nomination For President

And news directors, political pundits and bloggers rejoice!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

This should be fun. Popcorn, feet up, go!

I will add that in a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 74% of Republicans said they could not see themselves voting for Donald Trump; that’s more than any other candidate mentioned in the poll.

The Democratic National Committee released this brilliant bit of snark:

“Today, Donald Trump became the second major Republican candidate to announce for president in two days. He adds some much-need seriousness that has been previously lacking from the GOP field and we look forward to hearing more of his ideas for the nation.”

Watch the Donald’s announcement below.

Donald Trump Isn’t Sure Ted Cruz Can Be President

Donald Trump, who famously questioned President Obama’s eligibility to be president, now voices his concerns over whether Sen. Ted Cruz has proper standing to run for the high office.

In a phone interview with My Fox New York, Trump expressed his doubts, “It’s a hurdle. Somebody could certainly look at it very seriously.”

“He was born in Canada,” complained Trump. “If you know, when we all studied our history lessons, you are supposed to be born in this country, so I just don’t know how the courts will rule on this.”

And again, last night with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly he continued, saying it’s “another layer” of concern.

Trump continues to tease with the threat that he himself may run for the 2016 GOP nomination.

Donald Trump now has a problem with how President Obama walks

Oh, the turmoil President Obama puts Donald Trump through. It’s really terrible.

There’s always something the grump Trump dislikes about the President. President Obama, in Trump’s eyes, continues to act “unpresidential.”

What could it be now?

He walked off a plane.

Oh, the pain…

Donald Trump declares President Carter dead at CPAC 2014

Donald Trump, speaking to the kids at the conservative cheerleader camp CPAC likened President Obama to former President Jimmy Carter.

Except “The Donald” seem to think Carter is dead for some reason…

The Zombie Twitter account for Jimmy Carter is not amused.  But his Tweets are quite wicked: