Category: Unpresidential

Trump Institute Fired Veteran For ‘Absences’ After He Was Deployed To Afghanistan

Trump University logo

Huffington Post – Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has been vocal about the need to take care of U.S. veterans. He’s said that if elected, he’ll “put our service men and women on a path to success as they leave active duty.”

But that’s not what the Trump Institute, a get-rich-quick real estate seminar, did for Richard Wright, a senior master sergeant in the Air Force reserves who worked for the company in 2006 and 2007. Wright was deployed to Afghanistan in the spring of 2007. When he came home to his job, the Trump Institute fired him. “All of your absences,” Wright’s boss at the Trump Institute told him, had forced the company to “reevaluate your position with the Trump Institute.” It is a violation of federal law to penalize an employee for absences caused by military service.

When Wright accepted a job at the Trump Institute in December 2006, he thought he’d be working directly with Trump.

“Having a chance to work with him was a dream come true,” Wright, now 48, said of Trump in an email to The Huffington Post.

Dozens of former customers of the Trump Institute and Trump University, a real estate instruction program, have also described being told that Donald Trump was personally overseeing the programs that bore his name, and that instructors were “hand-picked by Mr. Trump.” Judging from the information on the Trump Institute’s (now defunct) website, it’s easy to see why:

It was only after Wright started the job that he realized Trump had little to do with the day-to-day operations of the Trump Institute.

Trump provided his name, along with his image, his reputation, his video endorsements and his promises to help the Trump Institute lure potential customers and employees. But like many of the hundreds of businesses and real estate projects that have borne Trump’s name, the Trump Institute was actually a joint venture between Trump and an outside company — in this case, a Florida-based business called National Grants Conferences. Trump was paid franchise fees, but the details of his profits from the schools are a well-guarded secret.

Michael and Irene Milin, NGC’s founders, spent decades in the get-rich-quick business before linking up with Trump. NGC promised to teach its clients how to access millions of dollars in “free money” from the government. In reality, NGC seminars were little more than elaborate sales pitches for yet more NGC events, and the company, which has since been dissolved, had a long history of legal troubles and fraud investigations that spanned multiple states.

NGC’s free-money seminars provided the framework for the Trump Institute’s signature offering, the Donald Trump Way to Wealth Seminar. Trump Institute clients paid as much as $35,000 to learn the “Donald Trump Way To Wealth,” and to receive coaching from mentors like Wright.

In the clip below, from an infomercial that appears to date to 2006, Trump tells potential customers how important it is that they enroll in the Trump Institute. He also hits on the woman interviewing him.

That same year, the Trump Institute hired Wright as a tele-consultant (or “mentor,” in Trump parlance). His job was to speak on the phone with clients who had purchased “memberships” in the Trump Institute, and give them advice about investing in real estate.

On paper, Wright and his fellow mentors were technically employed by Xylophone, LLC, a foreign limited liability company controlled by Irene Milin. But to the outside world, they were working for the Trump Institute.

Two months into the job, Wright was called up for active duty, and in early February 2007, he wrote to his boss, Jay Shavin, to say he would be deployed to Afghanistan starting around March 1.

In Afghanistan, Wright was assigned to the 451st Air Expeditionary Group at Kandahar Airfield, near the country’s southern border with Pakistan. Wright was awarded three different medals for outstanding service in the six weeks he was overseas.

Wright arrived home to Florida on Monday, April 16, 2007. He asked his boss to approve two personal days for him to get his bearings, do laundry and so on.

Before Wright left for Afghanistan, he had approximately 40 different clients whom he was advising on how to buy real estate “the Trump Way.” Like the other Trump Institute mentors, Wright was promised commissions on his clients’ deals — $250 each time a client bought property and rented it out “using Trump methods,” and $750 each time a client bought and then sold a property, a process known as “flipping.”

In his first week back home, Wright emailed some of his clients to let them know he was “back safe and sound,” according to court documents.

On Monday, April 23, Wright got this note from Shavin:

I specifically told you NOT to contact your old clients. Jeff was in the office when we had the discussion. I also emphatically stated that you were not to contact your old clients. You are so concerned about your closings that do not exist, that your employment is in jeopardy. I told you that I put your former client into a deal that has not closed and would give it to you.

It is apparent that you do not listen to instructions. You are to report to my office tomorrow before you do anything. You have been here less than three months (deducting your time off for the Air Force Reserve). I find it insulting that you would make a request to be paid for time you did not work and/or personal time you did not earn.

You are still on probation. With all of your absences and inability to adhere to specific instructions, you force me to reevaluate your position with the Trump Institute.

Wright replied, in part: “I don’t think your previous comments were called for or appropriate. I am a good mentor & have always been a team player & do not appreciate being spoken to that way.”

“You needn’t be offended by my remarks,” Shavin wrote back. “Your employment is hereby terminated.”

In subsequent emails, Shavin denied that Wright was fired because of his time in Afghanistan. He also said that any further emails from Wright would be considered “harassment.”

A year later, Wright sued the Trump Institute and its parent company, Xylophone, for wrongful termination under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. That law, passed in 1972, requires that military service members called up to active duty from civilian jobs “be restored to the job and benefits you would have attained if you had not been absent due to military service.” Under the law, the burden falls on the employer to prove that it did not fire a service member for absences related to his or her military service.

The Trump Institute ultimately reached a settlement with Wright that forbids him from talking about the case. Shavin died in 2014. Lyn Miller, another former Trump Institute employee, said Shavin was “a knowledgeable and awesome guy.”

Alan Garten, executive vice president and general counsel of the Trump Organization, provided a statement to HuffPost when asked about Wright’s experience.

“The Trump Institute was a licensee of Trump University and was not owned or controlled by Mr. Trump or any of his companies,” Garten said. “As such, Mr. Trump had nothing whatsoever to do with the employment of any of the Trump Institute’s employees or mentors, had no involvement in the development or enforcement of any of the Trump Institute’s employment policies and has no knowledge of this matter. Mr. Trump has always been a great supporter of the men and women who have served in this country’s armed forces and has devoted much of his campaign to improving the lives of veterans.”

Trump’s attempts to distance himself from the companies that paid him money and bore his name haven’t shielded him from lawsuits over their conduct.

In 2013, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued Trump and Trump University for civil fraud. Included in his case filings were scores of complaints from Trump Institute clients. In California and New York, Trump University is facing allegations of fraud, and in the California case, the company faces a class action lawsuit with more than 5,000 plaintiffs.

HuffPost attempted to contact the Milins multiple times at the number listed for their charitable organization, the Milin Family Foundation, but there was never any answer.

Wright doesn’t blame Trump for his firing, even though the Trump Institute bore Trump’s name, benefited from Trump’s endorsement and paid money to Trump in franchise and licensing fees.

“He was really just the name on the box & had nothing to do with the inner workings of the company,” Wright said in an email to HuffPost. “At the time I really needed a job & I loved what I was doing.”

This fall, Wright, who still invests in real estate, hopes to vote for Donald Trump for president.

“I am a HUGE Trump fan and supporter and think he would make an excellent leader,” he said. Trump “is saying all the things that politicians have been afraid to say over the years. That is why they are nervous and siding against him. He threatens what they have worked so hard to build. As a veteran, I LOVE that he is wanting to make America great again.”

(h/t Huffington Post)

Reality

It is a violation of federal law to penalize an employee for absences caused by military service.

Some may argue that since Senior Master Sargent Wright himself does not put any direct blame on Donald Trump then therefor the buck should stop with the owners and operators of the Trump Institute. This, however, is not how the business world works. For example, in 1996 it was discovered that a clothing line by talk show host Kathy Lee Gifford was being manufactured by children as young as 12 in Honduran sweatshops. Even though Wal-Mart was responsible for producing the Kathie Lee Gifford clothing line the court of public opinion turned harshly against her. It was a business decision by Kathie Lee to place her name, her image, and her reputation on the line unchecked. (No pun intended.)

Donald Trump is running for the Republican candidacy for the President of the United States of America on qualifications that he is a “great businessman” so it is entirely fair to challenge him on his record. Donald Trump put his name and support behind companies, such as Trump University and the Trump Institute, which engaged in fraudulent and illegal activities. A great businessman would have either been more careful with where they invested or had more control in a company that they stamped their name on.

Trump Rally Veers Toward Chaos in Harrisburg

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a rally at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center in Harrisburg, Pa., on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News/TNS)

With a crowd of thousands still piling into the stands and onto the dirt floor, the PA system at the Farm Show Complex’s large arena crackled to life with an unusual announcement, one it had likely never made before.

“If you see a protester, do not harm them. This is a peaceful event,” said the man’s voice on the other end.

It was an unusual public appeal, not only for the venue, but also given the context.

This was a presidential campaign stop by a presidential front runner.

But Donald Trump’s campaign has been unusual in almost every-way. Unusual in its nose-thumbing at political leaders. Unusual in its imperviousness. Unusual in its polarizing effect.

And so it was no more than five minutes into Trump’s event Thursday, with thousands still in a line snaking around the palatial Complex, that the first protester was spotted.

“Get him out. Get him out,” Trump said with a swipe of his hand.

Minutes later there was a second one, this time chanting “Black Lives Matter.” The man was snatched up by police and rushed through a cattle chute and into the hallways outside.

Halfway into the event, ejections of protesters had become so commonplace that Trump developed a rhythm.

“Aren’t Trump rallies fun,” he said to uproarious applause.

“The protesters are giving up ’cause we like it, we have fun with it,” he added.

And they certainly did.

But for every dissenter inside, there were more out.Donald Trump protesters outside of rally in Harrisburg More than a hundred protesters faced off with Donald Trump supporters outside of Trump’s rally in Harrisburg on April 21, 2016.

Outside the building, hundreds of protesters had gathered, growing from just a handful earlier in the day. After the event, they faced off with Trump supporters as they filed out of the arena and toward their cars.

They traded barbs earlier in the day, which later escalated into verbal threats and taunts.

Inside, Trump got in on it, too.

“Let him go. He’s got no voice. I can’t even hear him,” Trump said of one protester before commending police for the speed of their extraction.

A Capitol Police officer told PennLive that protesters would be told to leave the building and could face arrest if they returned. The officer added that some could be arrested on the spot depending on the severity of the disturbance they created. That did not appear to be the case on Thursday. But there was at least one person taken into police custody outside, before the event ended and the unrest grew.

During his speech, Trump took aim at his detractors, insinuating the protest movement was something other than homegrown.

He said protesters in New York, when pressed by media, expressed ambivalence about their anti-Trump message or favor for the candidate himself. He pointed to signs and placards he said appeared mass-produced, hinting at a third party’s involvement.

But those outside the Harrisburg event said their own convictions led them to protest his appearance here.

One of them, Keith Bentz of Harrisburg, blamed Trump and his campaign for a divisive tone that he feels has the nation “splitting itself down the middle.”

Another man, Michael Betsill of Harrisburg, helped organize Thursday’s protest through social media platforms, and said of Trump, “what other campaign has caused this ever? What other candidate has ever caused so much chaos among a nation and that’s why we’re here.”

He added, “Everybody that’s involved and seems to be supporting [Trump’s campaign] has one vision for what America should be. America is already great, there’s not one person who is gonna make this country great again.”

Across the police barrier, Trump supporters dismissed characterizations of the campaign or Trump’s message as racially incendiary and said the protesters were likely just supporters of a political opponent, such as Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.

Ryan Leonard said Trump’s stance on issues like immigration weren’t about race, but about “what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s legal and illegal.”

Another supporter, Chanse Firestone of Denver, Pa., said it wasn’t about race, but rather the refusal of some in this country to buy into the American Dream.

“Everybody says it’s about race. It’s not about race. It’s about putting America to work.”

Around him, other supporters shouted “get a job,” and “no more handouts,” at members of the opposing group. There was a moment when the sides pushed in toward the middle and a flashpoint seemed inevitable.

But cooler heads prevailed.

Inside the event, meanwhile, Trump was back on the subject of his protesters, saying most were there to disrupt and agitate.

But he assured the rabid crowd of thousands that he was in control.

“Remember what I said, the safest place on earth is a Trump rally.”

(h/t PennLive)

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyvC6ZcxVmU

Video of outside protesters

Video of protester being removed

Trump Team Tells GOP He Has Been ‘Projecting an Image’

The Celebrity Apprentice

Donald Trump’s chief lieutenants told skeptical Republican leaders Thursday that the GOP front-runner has been “projecting an image” so far in the 2016 primary season and “the part that he’s been playing is now evolving” in a way that will improve his standing among general election voters.

The message, delivered behind closed doors in a private briefing, is part of the campaign’s intensifying effort to convince party leaders Trump will moderate his tone in the coming months to help deliver big electoral gains this fall, despite his contentious ways.

Even as his team pressed Trump’s case, he raised fresh concern among some conservatives by speaking against North Carolina’s “bathroom law,” which directs transgender people to use the bathroom that matches the sex on their birth certificates. Trump also came out against the federal government’s plan to replace President Andrew Jackson with the civil-rights figure Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.

The developments came as the GOP’s messy fight for the White House spilled into a seaside resort in south Florida. While candidates in both parties fanned out across the country before important primary contests in the Northeast, Hollywood’s Diplomat Resort & Spa was transformed into a palm-treed political battleground.

Trump’s newly hired senior aide, Paul Manafort, made the case to Republican National Committee members that Trump has two personalities: one in private and one onstage.

“When he’s out on the stage, when he’s talking about the kinds of things he’s talking about on the stump, he’s projecting an image that’s for that purpose,” Manafort said in a private briefing.

“You’ll start to see more depth of the person, the real person. You’ll see a real different way,” he said.

The Associated Press obtained a recording of the closed-door exchange.

“He gets it,” Manafort said of Trump’s need to moderate his personality. “The part that he’s been playing is evolving into the part that now you’ve been expecting, but he wasn’t ready for, because he had first to complete the first phase. The negatives will come down. The image is going to change.”

The message was welcomed by some party officials but criticized by others who suggested it raised doubts about his authenticity.

“He’s trying to moderate. He’s getting better,” said Ben Carson, a Trump ally who was part of the GOP’s front-runner’s RNC outreach team.

While Trump’s top advisers were promising Republican leaders that the GOP front-runner would moderate his message, the candidate was telling voters he wasn’t ready to act presidential.

“I just don’t know if I want to do it yet,” Trump said during a raucous rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Thursday that was frequently interrupted by protesters.

“At some point, I’m going to be so presidential that you people will be so bored,” he said, predicting that the size of his crowds would dwindle if he dialed back his rhetoric.

Ben Carson, on an appearance on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show also made a statement saying the public “reality show” person is different from the real man.

(h/t AP)

Reality

Even if Trump’s public persona should change, and should he win the Republican primary, he’ll have a mountain of evidence to contend with.

Trump: I ‘Helped a Little Bit’ With Clearing Rubble at Ground Zero

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop at the First Niagara Center, Monday, April 18, 2016, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Donald Trump has gotten a lot of attention over the past 12 hours for referring to the Sept. 11 terror attacks as “7/11” during a speech in Buffalo. It’s an awkward, amusing slip-up — but it’s just a slip-up.

More interesting, perhaps, is something he said shortly afterward.

Trump was talking about “New York values” — a means of dismissing Ted Cruz in Trump’s home state. As he did during the debate where Cruz first made the point, Trump was using the attacks as a way of espousing what it is that New Yorkers stand for. Unusually for him, he was reading from a sheet of paper.

Then he offered this aside.

“Everyone who helped clear the rubble — and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit — but I want to tell you: Those people were amazing,” Trump said. “Clearing the rubble. Trying to find additional lives. You didn’t know what was going to come down on all of us — and they handled it.”

(h/t Washington Post)

Reality

In the context of the statement of the Ground Zero cleanup, Trump sounds as if he is lumping himself in with the first responders who worked to physically remove the rubble. “Everyone who helped clear the rubble… and I helped a little bit…”

Despite some wacko conspiracy theorists, Donald Trump unquestionably went to Ground Zero after the attacks. However the assertion that he had lifted a finger himself personally to help is questionable. The taking of video and images at the ground zero cleanup was banned by then-mayor Rudy Giuliani, so the likelihood of photographic evidence either way would be slim.

What is more likely from the available evidence is he paid for workers to join in the cleanup efforts, which itself was commendable. For example this German interview on September, 13, 2001 where the reporter asks, “Will you be involved, will you take any efforts, any steps to reconstruct the area?”

“Well, I have a lot of men down here right now. We have over 100 and we have about 125 coming. So we’ll have a couple of hundred people down here.”

At worst it is a gross misrepresentation of his actual contributions to the Ground Zero cleanup and at best a miscommunication of intent. Pardon us for placing the bar a little higher for a candidate to a major political party for the President of the United States.

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrt9YKrlJAY

 

Trump mixes up ‘9/11’ with ‘7/11’

Donald Trump, who has made his advocacy for New York City after the 9/11 attacks central to his candidacy, accidentally referred to it on Monday as 7/11 — the ubiquitous convenience store.

“I wrote this out, and it’s very close to my heart,” he said at the outset of his remarks on Buffalo on Monday evening. “Because I was down there and I watched our police and our firemen down at 7/11, down at the World Trade Center right after it came down. And I saw the greatest people I’ve ever seen in action.” The businessman did not correct himself.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Compared to the bullying, racist, sexist, misogynist, ignorant, swearing, harassing, petty, and false things Trump has said, even things about 9/11, this flub is relatively minor.

Media

Artist Threatened With Lawsuits If She Sells Nude Donald Trump Painting

Illma Gore's "Make America Great Again"

An infamous nude of Donald Trump has attracted bids of over $100,000 after it went on display at the Maddox Gallery in Mayfair, London, last week, but the artist is being anonymously threatened with legal action if she sells it, due to its resemblance to the Republican presidential hopeful.

The piece by Illma Gore, titled Make America Great Again, depicts Trump with a small penis. It went viral in February after the artist published it on her Facebook page and has since been censored on social media sites and delisted from eBay after the anonymous filing of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice threatening to sue Gore.

The Maddox Gallery in London offered to exhibit the painting after galleries in the US refused to host the piece due to security concerns following threats of violence from Trump’s supporters. Hundreds of visitors have queued to see the work.

Gore said: “The reaction, especially in the UK, has been incredibly supportive. Everywhere apart from America has been great. Who knew it would be such a big deal? I think an artist’s job is to take the times we’re living in and then set the scene. It is a representation of where we are.”

The LA-based artist has received thousands of death threats and travelled to the UK to escape the frenzy, agreeing to allow Mayfair to manage the sale of the controversial painting, now priced at $1 million.

Cordelia de Freitas, Maddox gallery director, said: “It only really got out of hand when Donald Trump referenced it in a debate, which sums up Trump and his ego. From there, everyone wanted to see this image.”

Gore believes her work inspired Marco Rubio’s comments about the size of Trump’s hands at a Virginia rally in late February, where he said: “And you know what they say about men with small hands? You can’t trust them.”

On 3 March, Trump responded: “[Rubio] referred to my hands, if they are small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there is no problem. I guarantee.”

The size of Trump’s hands dominated the Republican primaries that week, and was even discussed at an editorial meeting with the Washington Post, where he defended his comments.

Trump’s sensitivity about his hands is believed to date back to Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter’s description of him as a “short-fingered vulgarian” in the 1980s.

Gore states she will donate her part of the fee for the painting to the charity Safe Place for Youth, a homeless shelter in Los Angeles.

(h/t The Guardian)

Reality

Donald Trump often threatens to sue as a scare tactic but rarely follows through, and when he does he usually loses.

Media

Click here to see the NSFW painting. (You can’t unsee it.)

Pittsburgh Erupts in Protests at Trump Rally

Protesters at Trump rally in Pittsburgh, PA.

Protests erupted between Donald Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters at a Pittsburgh convention center where the Republican front-runner held a campaign rally.

Hundreds of demonstrators awaited Trump backers outside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, dancing and shouting epithets about the presidential hopeful. At the height of the chaos, police shoved and Trump backers lingered for confrontations.

A drum pounded, signs waved and megaphones blared near an exit for the rally, which drew thousands of attendees. Trump backers and protesters shouted at each other in some areas. In others, the demonstration had an almost jubilant flair, with protesters dancing as they chanted: “Hey hey, ho ho, racist bigots have to go,” or “Fuck Donald Trump.”

Inside, the Trump rally had been among the least eventful of his campaign. One protester disrupted Trump’s speech, held just under two weeks before the state’s Republican primary. Several anti-Trump activists stood silently inside the convention hall exit with their fists raised in the air.

Convention staff and police eventually closed the exit near the protest, shuttling away rally attendees and reporters. Officers wearing riot gear walked demonstrators away from the convention center around 40 minutes after Trump’s speech ended. The crowds dispersed as people filtered through the streets of downtown Pittsburgh.

Police were on alert before the event after a group called “Pittsburgh Open Carry Events in Support of Trump” said members would be armed and patrolling outside Trump’s Oakland appearance, according to the Pittsburgh City Paper. Their objective? To stop any attempts of roadblocks much like the one protesters ended up creating Wednesday, according to one user.

Media

Full event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggVfaHKiLaw

Protesters:

Video of protests:

Protesters and supporters meet:

Trump supporter claimed he has video of violence, instead shows video of him talking about violence:

Reporter shoved by police:

Megyn Kelly Meets With Trump in New York

Fox New's Megyn Kelly talks about meeting with Trump to clear the air.

Fox News host Megyn Kelly and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump met in New York City on Wednesday morning.

Kelly requested the meeting with Trump, which was held at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.

Kelly said Wednesday night on “The Kelly File” the two met for about an hour, and had “a chance to clear the air.”

“Mr. Trump and I discussed the possibility of an interview and I hope we will have news to announce on that soon,” she said.

Kelly added that the doormen “appeared a bit stunned” when she walked in the building, but they, too, were “incredibly nice.”

Trump confirmed the meeting with Kelly at a town hall hosted by Fox News’ Sean Hannity in Pittsburgh, Pa., but did not say what was discussed. The crowd booed the initial mention of Kelly’s name.

“She was very, very nice,” Trump said. “I give her a lot of credit for doing what she did. Let’s see what happens.”

(h/t Fox News)

Reality

The fact that Trump was willing to meet with her should be somewhat commendable, however it is interesting to note that it was Megyn Kelly, not Donald Trump, who was the bigger person and initiated the conversation.

Trump’s feud with Megyn Kelly has been well-documented by this site. Trump has called Kelly “crazy” and a “bimbo” on multiple occasions.

Media

Trump Complains Primary Rigged Despite His Lead

Trump complains primary system is rigged

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump lashed out at what he called the party’s “rigged” delegate selection rules on Monday after rival Ted Cruz swept all of Colorado’s 34 delegates over the weekend.

The New York billionaire, who has been outmaneuvered by Cruz in a series of recent state meetings to select national convention delegates, said the process was set up to protect party insiders and shut out insurgent candidates.

“The system is rigged, it’s crooked.”

Trump said on Fox News on Monday, alleging the Colorado convention results showed voters were being denied a voice in the process.

“There was no voting. I didn’t go out there to make a speech or anything, there’s no voting. The people out there are going crazy, in the Denver area and Colorado itself, and they’re going absolutely crazy because they weren’t given a vote. This was given by politicians – it’s a crooked deal.”

Again at a rally in Rome, NY, he accused party leaders of maneuvering to cut his supporters out of the process:

“Our Republican system is absolutely rigged. It’s a phony deal,”  “They wanted to keep people out. This is a dirty trick.”

Trump has 743 bound delegates to 545 for Cruz, according to an Associated Press count, in the battle for the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot and avoid a messy floor fight at the Republican National Convention from July 18-21.

But both are at risk of not acquiring enough delegates for a first-ballot victory, leaving many free to switch their votes on later ballots.

That has set off a fierce scramble by Republican candidates to get their supporters chosen as convention delegates and brought new scrutiny to the selection rules, which vary by state.

Trump, who has brought in veteran strategist Paul Manafort to lead his delegate-gathering efforts, complained about Cruz’s recent success at local and state party meetings where activists pick the actual delegates who will attend the national convention.

Trump accused Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, of trying to steal delegates in South Carolina. Trump won the state primary in February, but Cruz supporters got four of the first six delegate slots filled at congressional district meetings on Saturday, according to local media.

Cruz also succeeded at getting more of his supporters chosen as delegates in Iowa, where he won the caucuses in January, and at last week’s state convention in North Dakota.

(h/t Reuters)

Reality

We are unable to locate the chapter in “Art of the Deal” where it instructs you how to whine after you lose.

Trump being surprised about the nomination process, that has currently given him the lead, is an example of how unfamiliar with the process he knows and how unprepared he is.

To put it in more general terms; How Trump is complaining about the nomination process is analogous to listening to someone completely unfamiliar with baseball who is watching a game for the first time:

  • “Why did that guy run to a base when the batter didn’t hit that ball! It’s called stealing? That’s not fair!”
  • “I thought there was only four fouls! That guy got more! This game is rigged!”
  • “Well if that fielder made an error he should get another try. It’s only fair.”

Perhaps a video like this could help him.

Trump has a pattern of claiming fraud when an election does not go his way, like when he claimed voter fraud after losing Iowa. And his critics say this kind of misdirection is his specialty. By blaming the process rather than his own inadequacies as a manager, Mr. Trump is trying to shift focus after Senator Ted Cruz of Texas outmaneuvered him in delegate contests in states like Colorado, North Dakota and Iowa, losses that could end up denying Mr. Trump the nomination.

Chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus has spent the past few days pushing back over Twitter.

However there might be a tactical reason for Trump’s attacks on the Republican primary process. Every time Donald Trump attacks the establishment he strengthens his position as an “outsider” candidate, which plays to his supporters. So there is no downside in the primary for attacking the nomination process to a group largely unaware of how it works.

Media

Fox News Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYlw-bgk2NM

Men Brawl at Albany N.Y. Trump Rally

Trump’s speech in Albany’s Times Union Center on Monday night was geared to stir up the loud, enthusiastic crowd, with the front-runner continuing on his tirade against the “crooked” GOP nominating process — with focus on his loss in Colorado on Saturday.

The intensity of the rally was vividly captured Monday when a Trump supporter was recorded on video shoving another man in the face twice during a raucous gathering in Albany, New York.

The man — who gave his name as “Mike” and said “hell, yeah,” he’s a Trump supporter — told NBC News he shoved the man because he was “yelling in my face.”

“I have my personal rights and my personal space,” he told the Albany Times-Union after the rally. “They’re going to start yelling about some bullshit, I’ll snatch your ass up.”

Video of the incident captured by several people shows the two men shouting at each other in the middle of a loud crowd. “Mike” lunges and shoves his right palm into the other man’s face, backs up, lunges and makes contact a second time before other people in the crowd wrestle the two men away from each other.

(h/t NBC News)

Reality

Trump, on multiple occasions, has defended violence against protesters, encouraged violence against protesters, and promised violence. It stands to reason that it is Trump’s actions and behavior that creates an environment where violence against protesters is acceptable.

Media

High Definition video of the encounter.

 

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