Will Trump pay this supporters legal fees?

He's a self-smearer. If he'd kept his mouth shut (yeah, right), no one would have come up with stuff half as outrageous as he's said for himself. In streetball parlance, "self check."

 

Trump is dumb like a fox. You can't buy the type of media coverage he's gotten for free.

 

I'm certainly not saying he's dumb. I agree with the above statement completely. Except....

It won't matter when the time comes for adding up delegates. Fox News doesn't get a vote. He's not dumb, but he's extremely ignorant of party politics, the only kind we've had since John Adams was President. This likely stems from (a) not having any elected experience behind him and (b) hiring a bunch of people who didn't, either.

So much for hiring great people and letting them figure it out (his approach to every presidential hypothetical posed). And so much for the "Art of the Deal." Where was that deal-making experience in Colorado? Or in all the other places where he won dedicated delegates, only to find the actual delegates selected will support other candidates as soon as they're free to do so?

And the money doesn't matter. So he gets free coverage, what of it? These days, any viable candidate with the proper backing can buy all the coverage he/she wants. It doesn't mean anything if it doesn't translate into votes. And Trump has yet to win even one state by a majority...of Republicans!

You can win a lot of political offices without this kind of knowledge, team-building, and experience. The Presidency sure isn't one of them.

 

Trump not breaking the 50% barrier is a non-starter, because neither has anyone else in the Republican field. But he's certainly come the closest, hasn't he?

The fact that Trump is causing panic among both Democrats and the RINO Good Old Boys is almost a mirror image of what Reagan did in 1980, because the establishment certainly didn't want him as the candidate.

He did pretty well in the end, wouldn't you say?

 

I'm not clear on where the Democrats are "panicked." The GOP is, obviously, since they're trying to subvert the front-runner at every turn. Public statements by Democrats indicate a strong desire to run against the Orange Crush. Won't happen, of course, since the GOP isn't going to let him have it. No way.

 

If that scenario plays out (the RINO's sabotage the nomination), then the Republican Party will be finished. I think the party leaders will eventually come around and realize that, the way they did with Reagan in 1980.

 

Donald Trump is no Reagan. Reagan was saner. The biggest difference between the two is that Reagan was for amnesty, but that's not the reason why this election will turn out differently. Reagan was a serious candidate, Trump is not.

 

You either weren't around in 1980, or have a short memory. Reagan wasn't considered a serious candidate by the establishment, who wanted GHW Bush, and then briefly hoped for a brokered convention to draft Gerald Ford. Then, Reagan started piling up the primary victories, to the point that he couldn't be ignored or marginalized any longer.

Sound familiar?

The big difference is that the Republican leadership in 1980 were Republicans, not Democrat-Lights, and put the good of the country and the party before their own selfish personal interests. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the "leadership" today.

 

I wasn't born in 1980, but I know that Reagan wasn't as ridiculous as Donald Trump. I'm not talking about whether or not the Republicans considered him to be a serious candidate; I'm talking about Reagan considering himself to be a serious candidate. Donald Trump is a troll. And, if anyone is close to being a Democrat-Light, it's Donald Trump. But, he's too far out there to be in line with any serious political party.

 

But this isn't true. Reagan almost took the GOP nomination from an incumbent President (Ford) in 1976, losing by a handful of votes. His concession speech teed up his bid in 1980. Yes, GHWB gave him a run for it, but you can't say Reagan, the front-runner in 1980 (winning 60% of the delegates during the primary and more than twice the votes garnered by Bush) and a very close candidate in 1976 (plus a 2-term governor of California) wasn't considered a "serious candidate." That just doesn't comport with the facts.

I'm no fan of Reagan, but by 1980 he was an inevitable juggernaut. Trump, with his plurality support, isn't even in the same conversation.

 

Lewandowski may be a jerk but I'm not sure he deserves to take the fall for Donald's dropping poll numbers. Donald might have something to do with that himself.

Donald Trump's Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski Is Off The Campaign : NPR

 

"I wouldn't change one second of my time with Mr. Trump other than to say thank you, it's been an honor," the usually brash Lewandowski told MSNBC in brief comments.

I may have disagreed with Mr. Lewandowski's approach to things, but he exited gracefully and with honor. You got to respect that.

 

IF he exited. I'm sure Trump can afford to keep paying Lewandowski...and keep him quiet.

 

Saw on the news last night that Trump only has 30 campaign staffers nationwide. I'm not sure that Trump will keep him on the payroll because it's not clear he has the money.

 

Oh, he has the money, it just hasn't been necessary to use it.

Whatever you think of Trump, he's played the media masterfully. He goes on just about any media venue that will have him, from the big cable news shows to local talk radio (he was just on the Howie Carr Show on 680-AM in Boston last week), which is millions in free publicity. Compare that to Hillary, whose only media appearances are carefully scripted, with softball questions. How many months has it been since she's taken a single question from the press?

 

He self-financed his way through the primary, which technically just ended last week. His war chest will explode for the general election.

As I said, Trump has played the media for all it's worth, and has received millions and millions of dollars worth of free advertising. Even the news outlets that hate him (which would be most) can't resist having him on, because the attention he garners boosts ratings.