Donald Trump
3,487 pieces tagged “Donald Trump”, newest first.
'Misunderestimating' the American People
As the week began, I planned to write this column about some implications of Barack Obama's Sunday night Oval Office address. I noted that he devoted about one-fifth of this 13-minute speech to pleas that Americans not discriminate against Muslims. "It is the responsibility of all Americans — of every faith — to reject discrimination," he said. "It's our responsibility to reject proposals that Muslim Americans should somehow be treated differently." At one level, this is an anodyne statement. As a general proposition, discrimination by religion is against the best in American tradition and the letter of American law. George W. Bush, you might recall, made similar statements in the days after Sept. 11, 2001.
Donald Trump May Be a Dangerous Buffoon, but He's No Hitler
"Is this what Germany looked like in 1933?" Joe Scarborough asked on "Morning Joe" this week. No. Not at all. Though many in my family were exterminated during the Holocaust — including one of my grandfathers, who died trying to make his way home from Mauthausen after years of forced labor — I'm not completely offended by an occasional gratuitous Nazi analogy. But as much as I hate to intrude on our week of national indignation, Donald Trump's idiotic, undoable and probably unconstitutional immigration proposal (if we can call it that) is not comparable to the genocide of 6 million Jews. Trump is not comparable to Adolf Hitler.
Why Take the Trump Stunt Seriously?
So how exactly does this work, Donald Trump's plan to keep America safe from Islamic terrorism by barring entry to all Muslims? He explained it Tuesday on TV. The immigration official will ask the foreigner if he's a Muslim. "And if they said, 'yes,' they would not be allowed in the country?" Trump: "That's correct." Brilliant. And very economical. That is, if you think that bloodthirsty terrorists...
Trump Disqualified?
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest and most of the left-wing media jumped on Donald Trump [Tuesday], suggesting that the Republican frontrunner was unfit to be president.
No Such Thing as a Trump Republican
"You can't be a Trump Republican and a Ronald Reagan Republican." That's the tweet I sent to Jeb Bush the other day, when virtually the entire planet was united in bashing Donald Trump's call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the USA. I also tweeted another obvious truth, "If the Republican Party doesn't dump Donald Trump, the American people will. Trump's outrageous "Muslims Keep Out" plan — apparently his policy answer to last week's terrorist attack in San Bernadino — is an embarrassment to our country and what it stands for.
Public Discontent Has Fueled the Trump Phenomenon
The more analysts try to figure out Donald Trump's appeal, the more they sound baffled. Pundits cite Trump's verbal sloppiness and ridiculousness as proof that he must soon implode. But Trump sees his daily bombast as an injection of outrage for a constituency now hooked on someone who finally voices their pent-up anger. The more reckless Trump's doses of scattergun outrageousness, the better the fix for his supporters.
Trump Ups the Ante
Billionaire Donald Trump certainly knows how to draw attention. [Monday], in a prepared statement and in follow-up interviews, he called for a moratorium on all Muslim immigration to the United States. He was immediately condemned not only by big media and the political left, but also by many Republicans.
Democrats' Best Weapon: Trump
The dictionary defines "bogeyman" as "an imaginary evil spirit, referred to typically to frighten children." Hello, Donald Trump. It's not clear whether he set out intentionally to elect Hillary Clinton, but there is little question that he could not be fulfilling the role of Republican bogeyman to greater effect. As Commentary's Jonathan Tobin noted, during a week in which the disastrous fecklessness of President Obama and his party in the face of terrorism ought to have been Topic A, we are all talking about Trump instead. Brilliant.
Trumping Immigration Again
A calculated play to gain attention and set the terms of the debate.
Donald Schwarzentrump
Although there is a sense that Donald Trump's unusual and outlandish run for the presidency is the first ever of its kind, this is not entirely true. Californians, such as myself, remember how Arnold Schwarzenegger captured the governorship of California in 2003, in a campaign remarkably similar to Trump's. Obviously, governor of California is not the same as president of the United States, but it is the chief executive of the nation's most populous state. That year, California's incumbent Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, was pulled from office in a recall election. It was a time of disillusionment and cynicism toward the governor and government, amidst a poor economy and rising energy prices.
The Debate Continues
The debate over whether Muslims in America celebrated during the 9/11 attacks continues. The Trump campaign [Tuesday] produced a New York Post column written by Professor Fred Siegel three days after the 9/11 attacks. (How is it that none of the fact checkers and media mavens could find it?)
The Jacksonian Appeal of Donald Trump
After the Paris attack, conventional wisdom held that Republican voters would finally turn away from political outsiders and reward candidates representing sobriety and experience. No one stopped to consider that, actually, voters might be drawn to the guy who memorably said of ISIS that he would "bomb the [expletive] out of them."
Hey, Donald Trump: Wages Aren't Too High!
Outside the massive Milwaukee theater, the venue of last Tuesday's fourth GOP presidential debate, were the noisy protesters marching for a hike in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. They held up signs that read, "Fight for $15." Inside the great hall, Donald Trump, who boasts of having a net worth as high as that of many small nations, is asked by debate moderator Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business Network whether he favors raising the minimum wage. Of course, the only sane answer to that is no.
Oh, So That's What a Real Debate Looks Like
From open to close, this debate was different from the last debacle.
My Trump Problem
Sometimes I like Donald Trump. He makes me laugh when he mocks reporters' stupid questions. Sometimes he's smart. When Maryland's lefty governor said a tax on rich people would "raise revenue," Trump told me why it wouldn't. The taxpayers would just flee: "I know these people! They're international people! Whether they live here or in a place like Switzerland, it doesn't really matter to them!" Perfect TV sound bite. And accurate. Maryland's tax on the rich brought in *less* revenue.
About That Campaign to Censor Trump's Comedy Show
Weeks after NBC granted Hillary Clinton the favor of appearing on "Saturday Night Live," playing a bartender to the actress who impersonates her on the comedy show, the same leftist activists who adored that routine are trying to prevent Donald Trump from hosting the show on Nov. 7. A group called "The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda" has written a letter to NBC objecting to the booking. MoveOn.org has organized a "Dump Donald Trump" petition drive with hundreds of thousands of leftist signatures. Another petition on Change.org also drew a leftist throng through social media, aided by the hashtag RacismIsntFunny.