This is a modified and updated repost from an early January ’16 outline which collected data from all of the various Donald Trump interviews, position papers, and historical outlines. Candidate Trump has been speaking about broad U.S. economic issues for decades. Trump approaches the challenges by focusing on “Main Street”, not Wall Street.
For the sake of brevity, I’m going to accept that most readers here are familiar with who is funding and directing Jeb Bush, and in larger, more consequential measures, the DC apparatchik in charge of U.S. Policy, ie. Wall street.
During the January 2016 South Carolina debate, and in response to Trump pointing out a necessary shift in trade position (a shift to put American interests first – a shift to stop the dependency on cheap import goods – a shift to use China’s dependency on access to our market to OUR advantage), Jeb Bush came back with an example of Boeing manufacturing.
Donald Trump, responding to Jeb’s Boeing example, and pointed out China is forcing Boeing to open a manufacturing plant in China.  As would be typical from a candidate who is unfamiliar and unbriefed on the issue, Jeb looked back incredulously and said:

“C’mon man”…

There you have it. (more…)

Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Fort Wayne Indiana earlier today, 20,000 supporters showed up.

FORT WAYNE, Indiana – Donald Trump did something unusual Sunday.
The Republican presidential frontrunner, a master of hype and salesmanship, urged his audience here to ignore new numbers that show him headed for victory in the Indiana primary.
“We got great polls today,” Trump said at a rally in front of thousands packed inside the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. “Don’t listen to them. Forget it. Pretend we’re losing – we’re not; we’re winning big. But pretend we’re losing, because we have to win big. (more…)

Originally posted six months ago, reposted due to timely relevance.
Regardless of who you supported in the 2016 Presidential primary race, most will admit there’s one strategic advantage held by Donald Trump over all other candidates – Trump’s willingness to “own the downside“.

All policies and proposals have a “downside“, there’s no such thing as a policy proposal with benefit to all and harm to none.
This empirical truth is toxic to professional politicians – therefore they spend an inordinate amount of time using pretzel logic to avoid it.  As a direct consequence of avoidance, the media love to use the downside as a weapon.
For the first time in recent political memory Donald Trump represents a candidacy who is unafraid of their spear; and as a consequence, immune to the damage. (more…)

Today Donald Trump’s convention manager, Paul Manafort, made an appearance on Face The Nation.  Manafort discusses the state of the race, the shifts and nudges as the convention framework is shaped, and the ongoing Trump perspective toward Washington DC.

For those who are interested – the discussion behind the discussion. One of the reasons Dickerson keeps bringing up the “lobbyist” issues, is because Dickerson is conducting this interview from the FtN base of operations in Washington DC.
John Dickerson spends all his time surrounded by the business end of politics.  The lobbying business is an industry, a massive industry; a billion dollar per year industry. Dickerson’s questions stem from him being hounded by those within the industry trying to understand what is going to happen to their interests, their jobs, their finances.
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NBC/WSJ has released a new poll (full pdf below) of Indiana republicans.  Donald Trump holds a significant 15 point lead over Senator Ted Cruz, and a 36 point lead over Ohio Governor John Kasich.
When Kasich is removed from the polled equation, to allow for a head-to-head comparison, Donald Trump beats Ted Cruz 53 / 42.

[…] “In Indiana, Trump is positioned to corral all the [state’s 57] delegates, which will be a big prize toward winning the nomination outright,” says Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “Clinton and Sanders are more likely to divide the delegate pool, which will do little to change the narrative on the Democratic side.” (link)

Via NBC – […] The NBC/WSJ/Marist poll was conducted April 26-28 — so mostly after Trump’s six-consecutive primary victories in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, as well as after Cruz and Kasich announced an alliance/truce, whereby Kasich wouldn’t campaign in Indiana to help Cruz (in exchange for Cruz not campaigning in Oregon and New Mexico).
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The second Trump rally of the day is taking place in Fort Wayne, IN at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. The event is scheduled to begin at 4:00pm Eastern time.
Live Stream Link – Alternate Live Stream #1 – Alternate Live Stream #2

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Donald Trump is holding two campaign rallies today in Indiana.  The first is in Terre Haute, IN at the Indiana Theater.  The event is to begin at 1:00pm Eastern:
Live Stream Link – Alternate Live Stream #1 – Alternate Live Stream #2

(more…)

CNN has the strongest surge in ratings in the past 14 years and now beats Fox News in the all important category of 25-54 year old viewership.  That age category drives the ad revenue determinations for the industry.
Fox News can’t say they were not warned this would be an outcome of their insufferable decision to continue promoting a media narrative in opposition to Donald Trump. The same thing happened to Macys Department Store after they dropped Trump.

(Via CNN) CNN ranked #1 in cable news in prime time in April. CNN beat Fox News for the fifth time in the last eight months in M-Su prime time (four of the past eight in M-F prime) among adults 25-54.  The last time CNN had this many prime time wins in an eight-month period versus Fox News was over 14 years ago (Nov. 2001). (more…)

…and it appears they have good reason to be concerned.  Reminder of the election results. Arizona Primary Election:

• Donald Trump 286,743 votes

• Ted Cruz 172,294 votes

Arizona – Upset that Donald Trump received just a handful of statewide delegates during an electronic vote, his Arizona campaign manager is threatening to sue the Arizona Republican Party.

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In 2009 the popular conservative opinion was to declare the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision a win for “our side”.   Of course, the decision ultimately opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate spending in elections via the new Super-PAC approach.
In 2016 90% of all American’s polled believe there is too much special interest money in politics, and both political parties no longer need the financial support of the electorate.  Corporate lobbyists were always problematic, but now in a post CU world they control almost every aspect of electoral politics – including who wins elections.  Citizens United wasn’t a win, its consequence was a major fail.

Within that reality you find one of the synergies between candidate Donald Trump and candidate Bernie Sanders.  The popular insurgencies supporting each candidate rail against the corrupting corporate financial influence. Party leadership? Meh, not-so-much.
Of course it would only take RNC and DNC rules changes, ie. self-regulation, to stop the problem of unlimited corporate funding; but when the political party leadership has that much access to money, well, they have no interest in regulating it away.  Ergo, legislation becomes the only option and the legislators would be writing law against their own financial interests…. Yeah, FUBAR.
To wit, one of the shifts amid the “common sense” electorate is the general perception that Citizens United is no longer viewed as a win.  However, with all the discussions on bad Trade Deals there’s also another shift coming into focus, the Import/Export bank.
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