President Donald Trump

So... Just figured I'd start a thread for discussion. But do we even need a thread to discuss the Donald's batshit crazy ideas? Defaulting on debt, printing money, that fucking wall, banning Muslims... It's like asking a six year old "what would you do if you were President?" No response or discussion is really necessary, because they're only six.

At least we get to watch the GOP fucking eat itself. I haven't enjoyed this much backtracking since 2000 when all those liars for Jesus had to show up on TV January 1st to explain why the Rapture hadn't happened yet.

He's a reality TV star where nothing is real and nothing ever gets fact checked and he's pretty much operated that way his whole life. Now he's in a whole new ball game where everything he says is going to be fact-checked. The fight he started with the press on Tuesday might be the beginning of the end for him and there's no way he can walk that back because "evil liberal mainstream media" is the official war cry of the GOP,Fox News and hate radio.

I often wonder if he truly wants to be POTUS the way he behaves. According to a reporter on MSNBC,Katy Tur,who's been covering him since the beginning,his staff is at wits end with him,and so is the GOP whether they want to admit it or not. He lies constantly,his own words will be used against him,and he just keeps lying because he doesn't seem to know any other way.  Nukes for Japan,anyone?

Thanks for starting the thread,although the title is .

It is utterly beyond comprehension how anybody with a functioning brain could think that this pathological liar with the temperment of a toddler, is qualified to be President of the United States.
It's simply fucking unbeliavable.

Trump says he's revoking press credentials for The Washington Post

Quote :

Donald Trump on Monday said he is revoking the press credentials of The Washington Post, one of the nation’s largest newspapers, over its “dishonest reporting.”

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee made the announcement in a brief post on Facebook Monday afternoon.

“Based on the incredibly inaccurate coverage and reporting of the record setting Trump campaign, we are hereby revoking the press credentials of the phony and dishonest Washington Post,” Trump wrote.

I look forward to their future articles

Then....
Donald Trump on calls to fire campaign manager: ‘I don’t do that, I’m loyal’

Now...
JUST IN: Trump Fires Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski

Trump campaign manager Paul Manifort today:

"“We have a candidate who doesn’t need to figure out what’s going on in order to say what he wants to do,”

Well that should put all our minds at ease.

Ouch!
WaPo: Trump Promised Millions In Private Donations, Gave Less Than $10K

Quote :

While Donald Trump’s campaign claimed that the candidate personally donated millions to charity between 2008-2015, Washington Post investigation out Tuesday only managed to find one donation amounting to less than $10,000.

Only 11 out of 167 charities to which Trump had some link told the Post that they had received a personal donation from the real estate mogul. Another 77 said they never received such a gift, 39 declined to comment and 40 didn’t respond to the newspaper’s inquiries.

The most recent personal gift discovered by the Post was submitted to the Police Athletic League in 2009 and amounted to under $10,000. The donations to the league were counted in $5,000 blocks, making it impossible to determine the precise amount, but Trump’s contribution was between $5,000-$9,999.

The Post chose the 167 organizations because Trump either gave them money through his foundation, went to their charity events or publicly praised their work.

The Trump campaign, which has banned the Post from covering its events, did not respond to the newspaper’s multiple requests for comment. His staff said when he launched his campaign in June 2015 that he’d personally given $102 million between 2010-2015 alone.

A search through the records of donations submitted by the Trump Foundation revealed similar discrepancies, according to the Post.

The newspaper found that the tycoon’s pledges to donate earnings from “The Apprentice,” Trump Vodka, Trump University and several books would have amounted to some $8.5 million in charitable gifts over the past 15 years if they were actually paid out. But during that time, the foundation, which is set up to donate the businessman's money, donated about $2.8 million. The last recorded donation from Trump to the foundation came in 2008, the Post reported.

The GOP candidate’s refusal to release his tax returns means that the millions in charitable cash gifts that Trump and his staff say have been paid out can't be confirmed.

The businessman, who claims to be worth $10 billion, recently has come under fire for failing to follow through with promised donations. In May, four months after holding a fundraiser where he claimed to have raised $6 million for veterans, Trump donated $1 million to a veterans group after the Post pressed him for answers on where the money went.

At the time, Trump called reporter David Farenholdt, who also conducted the most recent investigation into Trump’s history of charitable giving, a “nasty guy” for following up.

“I gave out millions of dollars that I had no obligation to do," Trump told him.

White nationalists plan to show up at GOP convention

Quote :

A group of white nationalists plan to head to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next month to defend Donald Trump supporters, McClatchy reports.

"We're essentially just going to show up and make sure that the Donald Trump supporters are defended from the leftist thugs," said Matt Parrott, a spokesman for the Traditionalist Worker Party.

Parrott said about 30 members would attend the convention. The white nationalist group had planned a rally last weekend in Sacramento, Calif., where several people were stabbed in clashes with counter-protesters.

Parrott predicted there would be a "couple of isolated skirmishes."

“You’re going to have a relatively civil event where you’re going to have the leftists protesting Trump and you’re going to have us arguing up against the leftists,” he said. “And you’re going to have the police there ensuring that you’re going to have a first world situation and not some sort of ‘Gangs of New York’ knife fight.”

The brawl in Sacramento began as the group, along with the Golden State Skinheads, was setting up for a march on the California state Capitol grounds to protest aggression toward Trump supporters, according to McClatchy.

But brawls quickly erupted between several dozen white nationalists and hundreds of protestors that left at least 10 people injured.

Trump, who will likely receive the Republican nomination for president at the convention, has faced controversy over white nationalists publicly supporting him.

David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, has called Trump the "white knight" for "European Americans."

"Even though Trump is not explicitly talking about European Americans, he's implicitly talking about the importance of European Americans," Duke said in May on his radio broadcast.

In May, it was also reported that William Johnson, the head of white nationalist organization American Freedom Party, was mistakenly chosen for a delegate position.

Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, said Williams was included as a potential delegate due to a "database error."

McConnell: Trump 'wrong' on NATO

Quote :

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stressed Thursday that he disagrees with Donald Trump's assertion that the United States shouldn't immediately defend NATO allies, seeking to reassure the international community the U.S. would continue to come to the aid of countries in the alliance if they are attacked.

"I disagree with that," McConnell said in an interview with POLITICO on Thursday at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. "NATO is the most important military alliance in world history. I want to reassure our NATO allies that if any of them get attacked, we'll be there to defend them."

Trump triggered an international uproar Thursday — and a rebuke from many Republican officials — when the GOP nominee said he wouldn't automatically come to the defense of America's NATO allies if they are attacked.

Trump has since doubled down.  

He's not even in office yet and the Republicans have to do damage control.

If anyone hasn't been watching the conventions I'll sum it up for you in 2 words.

RNC: Dreadful

DNC: Uplifting

Watching the RNC reminded me of grammar school when we were told to hide under our desks in case of a nuclear attack.

Artie60438 wrote:

If anyone hasn't been watching the conventions I'll sum it up for you in 2 words.

RNC: Dreadful

DNC: Uplifting

Watching the RNC reminded me of  grammar school when we were told to hide under our desks in case of a nuclear attack.

It's almost impossible to turn off voters when you're running what is a 4 day infomercial,yet Trump & Co managed to do it

Gallup: GOP Convention Favorable/Unfavorable MINUS 17 First Time Ever a Convention HURT a Party

Quote :

The Republican party is imploding. Never before has a convention caused a party’s favorable/unfavorable numbers to go negative. This year’s GOP was negative 17 with 35 percent more favorable after the convention and 52 PERCENT MORE UNFAVORABLE after the convention.

On the other hand the Democratic convention improved their favorability 44 to 42. Clearly we have a disquiet general electorate but a majority was appalled by Trump’s disastrous debut.



The Republican Party got a “convention bounce”... after falling off a cliff. The Democrats did well.

Gallup has been polling the conventions this way since 1984.  www.gallup.com/...

   The results are based on Gallup polls conducted in the days immediately after each party's convention -- the Republican convention in Cleveland from July 18-21 and the Democratic convention in Philadelphia from July 25-28.

   Americans' assessments of the effect of the conventions on their image of each party largely mirror their assessments of how the convention will affect their vote in the 2016 election. By 45% to 41%, Americans say they are more rather than less likely to vote for Hillary Clinton based on what they saw or read about the Democratic convention. In contrast, many more Americans said they were less likely (51%) rather than more likely (36%) to vote for Donald Trump as a result of what they saw or read about the Republican convention.

This all happened BEFORE Trump dishonored a gold star family .

Looks like Tubby has gone on his last coffee run for Trump...
Christie Breaks Rank To Criticize Trump's 'Inappropriate' Khan Attacks
Then Don wrote an attack ad sound byte for Hillary....
Trump Beefs With Crying Babe At Rally: 'Get The Baby Out Of Here!' (VIDEO)
And now this...
Trump refuses to support Paul Ryan, John McCain in upcoming Republican primaries

HahaHa and it's not even 5PM yet. Since he has no events planned for tonight expect some interesting Tweets

Meet The New Guy In Charge Of Trump’s Campaign, Stephen Bannon

Quote :

Reeling in the polls, Trump has shaken up his campaign again, appointing Stephen Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News, as CEO.

Bannon has no experience on political campaigns but he does have something more important: an unshakable fidelity to Donald Trump.

During the campaign Breitbart, under Bannon’s leadership, has gained a reputation for doing anything and everything to support Trump — critics are smeared, conspiracy theories embraced, polls unskewed.

The hiring of Bannon answers the question, finally and definitively, if Trump will “pivot” to a more professional and presidential campaign style.

The answer is no.

Here’s a bit more about the man who will be guiding the Trump campaign from now until election day.
Bannon turned Breitbart News into “Trump’s personal Pravda”

This was according to Ben Shapiro, Breitbart’s former editor-at-large:

   Andrew [Breitbart] built his life and his career on one mission: fight the bullies. But Andrew’s life mission has been betrayed. Indeed, Breitbart News, under the chairmanship of Steve Bannon, has put a stake through the heart of Andrew’s legacy. In my opinion, Steve Bannon is a bully, and has sold out Andrew’s mission in order to back another bully, Donald Trump; he has shaped the company into Trump’s personal Pravda

Shapiro resigned after Breitbart management ordered staffers to stop defending one of their reporters, Michelle Fields, after she was alleged assaulted by Trump’s campaign manager at the time, Corey Lewandowski.

Lewandowski was ultimately charged with assault but the charges were later dropped by prosecutors.
Bannon has “a touch of Clinton Madness”

He believes the key to taking down Hillary Clinton is rerunning the attacks Republicans made on Bill Clinton in the 1990s for today’s millennials.

“There’s a whole generation of people who love the news but were 7 or 8 years old when this happened and have no earthly idea about the Clinton sex stuff,” Bannon told Bloomberg.
Trump’s former campaign manager described Bannon’s style as “win at all costs”

Corey Lewandowski told CNN that Bannon was “a bit of a street fighter, a person who is willing to go right at his opponents.”
Trump regularly called Bannon to request coverage of himself

BuzzFeed reported “sources at Breitbart said the billionaire has regularly taken advantage of his relationship with the site by placing calls to Bannon and asking for stories to be written about himself.”

BuzzFeed also said some staffers claimed Trump’s relationship with Breitbart was “pay to play.” Bannon denied the report.
Bannon personally approved all coverage of Trump on Breitbart, according to reports

A Breitbart source told Vanity Fair in March that “everything that is written about Trump must be approved by Bannon.” Vanity Fair reported “Bannon is copied on all stories filed about Trump, and exercises his veto power even for stories that only mention Trump by name or in the context of another person referring to him.”
Bannon is a former banker for Goldman Sachs

Trump has attacked Hillary Clinton for her ties to Goldman Sachs but his campaign finance chairman and now his campaign’s CEO are both former Goldman Sachs employees.

Trump’s campaign has also called for a moratorium on all financial regulations.
Bannon created a documentary glorifying Sarah Palin

Bannon wrote and directed a 2011 documentary about Sarah Palin called The Undefeated.

It received a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Los Angeles Times called it a “a troop-rallying campaign infomercial as imagined by Michael Bay: hero-worshipping, crescendo-edited at a dizzying pace, thunderously repetitive and its own worst enemy as a two-hour, talking-points briefing.”

Bloomberg reported that the film was seen as a launching pad for a Palin presidential campaign:

   In the Bannon repertoire, no metaphor is too direct. His films are peppered with footage of lions attacking helpless gazelles, seedlings bursting from the ground into glorious bloom. Palin, for one, ate it up and traveled to Iowa, trailed by hundreds of reporters, to appear with him at a 2011 screening in Pella that the press thought might signal her entrance into the 2012 presidential race.

Bannon makes a fortune off Seinfeld royalties

After leaving Goldman Sachs, Bannon started his own boutique financial firm, focusing on media acquisitions. In one deal in 1992, in lieu of his full fee, he accepted a stake in five television shows, including Seinfeld. Those profits now help finance the Breitbart empire.
Bannon founded the Government Accountability Institute, the organization behind the controversial book “Clinton Cash”

The Government Accountability Institute, which is essentially Breitbart News’ more scholarly counterpart, is run by Peter Schweizer. It produced the book Clinton Cash which propelled issues about the financing of the Clinton Foundation into the national media.

It also contained serious errors, including a chapter based largely around a fake press release. Schweizer has a history of errors and retractions.

Congrats righties. The far right lunatics are officially in charge of running your campaign.

Michele Bachmann: I'm advising Trump on foreign policy

Quote :

Tea Party firebrand Michele Bachmann says she is advising Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on foreign policy.

The former Minnesota congresswoman attended a fundraiser in the state for Trump on Saturday, where she revealed to the press that she has his ear on foreign policy.

“He also recognizes there is a threat around the world, not just here in Minnesota, of radical Islam,” she said, according to MPR News. “I wish our President Obama also understood the threat of radical Islam and took it seriously.”

“He’s a common-sense guy, not into political correctness,” Bachmann added, according to the Star Tribune.

Bachmann is already part of Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board, providing “support” to Trump on “issues important to Evangelicals and other people of faith in America.”

Bachmann, who has yet to officially endorse Trump, launched an unsuccessful presidential bid in 2012.

What could possibly go wrong? OTOH,at least it's not Sarah Palin

Artie60438 wrote:

Congrats righties. The far right lunatics are officially in charge of running your campaign.

Yeah, well like I've been saying the last couple of years or so... the GOP has to cut the crazies loose. Trump will lose against an easily beatable candidate and the Republicans will either learn a valuable lesson from the experience, or they will continue to self destruct.

It's only fitting that the "far right loonies" are running his campaign. After all, they are the people who made Trump the nominee.

Architect of Reagan Tax Cuts Says Trump Should Not Use His Plan

Quote :

In a speech outlining his plan to “jump-start” the economy last week, Donald Trump unveiled new proposals that would dramatically cut taxes. It would be, he said, the “biggest tax revolution since the Reagan tax reform, which unleashed years of continued economic growth and job creation."

The man who wrote the manifesto for the Reagan revolution, Bruce Bartlett, wrote in a New York Times op-ed that the tax cuts Trump has proposed are “not the medicine the economy needs.”

No surprise there.

Yeah,Create the biggest tax cut in history,spend 10's of billions buying new planes,ships,and whatever else we don't really need. Build a wall across the southern border that Mexico will never pay for,rebuild all our infrastructure,blah,blah,blah.

After all,It's working out so well in Kansas

When it comes time to pay? Just tell our creditors they'll have to settle for less than what they loaned or worked for like Trump does.

Anyone watch that "Commander in Chief" forum that ended up with Matt Lauer rolling over and getting a belly rub from Trump?  Pathetic.

Artie60438 wrote:

Anyone watch that "Commander in Chief" forum that ended up with Matt Lauer rolling over and getting a belly rub from Trump?  Pathetic.

Yeah, I saw it.  You know what's really pathetic?  It's that these two are what we have to choose from... and that there is actually an outside chance that Trump could win.  Just about any other Democrat would have buried him by now.  We'd have been much better off with Bernie, or Biden, or Warren.

Hillary is such a crappy candidate that I suspect even Christie could have beaten her... and there is no way that she could have beaten Kasich.

So now we're left with a "Hobson's Choice."  Awesome!

Scorpion wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

Anyone watch that "Commander in Chief" forum that ended up with Matt Lauer rolling over and getting a belly rub from Trump?  Pathetic.

Yeah, I saw it.  You know what's really pathetic?  It's that these two are what we have to choose from... and that there is actually an outside chance that Trump could win.  Just about any other Democrat would have buried him by now.

She will put him away once the media gets over their obsession with her emails that have been investigated so many times I've lost count and for which she was exonerated.

There is a double standard here. Case in point: The reporting on the Clinton foundation which actually saves lives and the back burner,where the Trump foundation donation to Fla Atty General Pam Bondi, who was looking into investigating Trump U,seems to have been placed.

Artie60438 wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

Anyone watch that "Commander in Chief" forum that ended up with Matt Lauer rolling over and getting a belly rub from Trump?  Pathetic.

Yeah, I saw it.  You know what's really pathetic?  It's that these two are what we have to choose from... and that there is actually an outside chance that Trump could win.  Just about any other Democrat would have buried him by now.

She will put him away once the media gets over their obsession with her emails that have been investigated so many times I've lost count and for which she was exonerated.

There is a double standard here. Case in point: The reporting on the Clinton foundation which actually saves lives and the back burner,where the Trump foundation donation to Fla Atty General Pam Bondi, who was looking into investigating Trump U,seems to have been placed.

Yeah. Well when a candidate has to resort to "blaming the refs," it generally means that they are losing. The plain fact of the matter is that Hillary has no upside. "Fear Trump" isn't a very inspirational campaign slogan. I'm starting to get really concerned over Democratic turnout.

Scorpion wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

She will put him away once the media gets over their obsession with her emails that have been investigated so many times I've lost count and for which she was exonerated.

There is a double standard here. Case in point: The reporting on the Clinton foundation which actually saves lives and the back burner,where the Trump foundation donation to Fla Atty General Pam Bondi, who was looking into investigating Trump U,seems to have been placed.

Yeah. Well when a candidate has to resort to "blaming the refs," it generally means that they are losing.  The plain fact of the matter is that Hillary has no upside.  "Fear Trump" isn't a very inspirational campaign slogan.  I'm starting to get really concerned over Democratic turnout.

Huh? Show me where she is "blaming the refs"? That's Trump who claims the media is crooked,who bans media reporters and claims polls are rigged non-stop unless he finds one that favors him.

Matt Lauer conducted the worst candidate forum I've ever seen. He spent 17 minutes on her emails and then rushed her answers to the questions of the people who meant most...the veterans. Trump OTOH,wasnt challenged at all and once again was allowed to lie about his record on the Iraq war.

Today we have Trump trying to set up his next Heads I win,Tails You Lose,con.
Trump: We shouldn't have a debate moderator because the system is rigged

Quote :

What do you call a debate with no moderator? Donald Trump’s suggestion for his faceoff with Hillary Clinton.

Trump on Monday floated a new idea for his upcoming debates against Clinton, proposing a debate without a moderator to avoid a “very unfair” showdown because such a person would go “really hard” against him following Matt Lauer’s performance in NBC News' commander in chief forum last week.

Lauer was panned for aggressively questioning Clinton over her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state while seemingly giving Trump a pass, allowing his false assertion that he never supported the Iraq War to go unchecked.

Quote :

“As far as the debates are concerned, the system is being gamed because everybody said that I won the debate, you know, the so-called forum that your group put on,” Trump said during a phone interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “But they all said I won and that Matt Lauer was easy on me. Well he wasn’t. He was — I thought he was very professional, I have to be honest. I think he’s been treated very unfairly, but they all said that I won, and what they’re doing is they’re gaming the system so that when I go into the debate, I’m gonna get — be treated very, very unfairly by the moderators.”

Trump compared the NBC News forum and upcoming Sept. 26 debate to a basketball game coached by Bobby Knight, a Trump supporter and former Indiana University head coach.

Quote :

“Bobby would do numbers on the referee and toward the end of the game, they would just sort of, you know, very sub—maybe subconsciously, they’d give him the calls and, you know, he was a master at it,” Trump said. “Well, they’re doing the same thing now. They’re saying about how Matt Lauer was nice to Trump. He wasn’t nice to me. He was tough on me. He gave me tough [questions]. I answered them better than she did.”

Quote :

“The fact is,” Trump continued, “that they’re gaming the system, and I think, maybe, we should have no moderator. Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate because I think the system is being rigged so it’s gonna be a very unfair debate, and I can see it happening right now because everyone’s saying that he was soft on Trump. Well now the new person’s gonna try to be really hard on Trump just to show, you know, the establishment what he can do. So I think it’s very unfair what they’re doing. So I think we should have a debate with no moderators — just Hillary and I sitting there talking.”

The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates announced the general election presidential debate moderators earlier this month: NBC News' Lester Holt, ABC's Martha Raddatz, CNN's Anderson Cooper and Fox News' Chris Wallace, with C-SPAN's Steve Scully serving as a backup moderator.

So if Hillary wins the 1st debate Trump will whine that it's not fair,rigged,or whatever far fetched excuse he can think up. If he gets fact checked who knows what he'll do.

Artie60438 wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

She will put him away once the media gets over their obsession with her emails that have been investigated so many times I've lost count and for which she was exonerated.

There is a double standard here. Case in point: The reporting on the Clinton foundation which actually saves lives and the back burner,where the Trump foundation donation to Fla Atty General Pam Bondi, who was looking into investigating Trump U,seems to have been placed.

Yeah. Well when a candidate has to resort to "blaming the refs," it generally means that they are losing.  The plain fact of the matter is that Hillary has no upside.  "Fear Trump" isn't a very inspirational campaign slogan.  I'm starting to get really concerned over Democratic turnout.

Huh? Show me where she is "blaming the refs"? That's Trump who claims the media is crooked,who bans media reporters and claims polls are rigged non-stop unless he finds one that favors him.

I should have said "supporters" rather than the candidate. I stand by my comments about her "message" and my turnout concerns.

Artie60438 wrote:

Matt Lauer conducted the worst candidate forum I've ever seen. He spent 17 minutes on her emails and then rushed her answers to the questions of the people who meant most...the veterans. Trump OTOH,wasnt challenged at all and once again was allowed to lie about his record on the Iraq war.

Yeah, well I don't think that there's any doubt that he was harder on Clinton. I'm sure the Iraq thing will come up again in the debates. The 30 minute per candidate format just didn't work. Somebody was bound to come away unhappy.

New economic analysis shows Trump presidency could cost US $1 trillion

Quote :

The U.S. economy could be $1 trillion smaller than otherwise expected in 2021 if Republican candidate Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November, economics research firm Oxford Economics said on Tuesday.

Another bipartisan report, echoing similar warnings as Moody and CitiGroup.

Also, looks like Ivanka is a thin skinned little weasel just like her father, walking out of a weaksauce interview with the hard-hitting Cosmo before launching into a tirade on Twitter:

Quote :

[A]pparently Trump's daughter Ivanka thinks the press is being too harsh—at least when it comes to that hard-hitting, tough-as-nails outlet called Cosmopolitan magazine.

On Wednesday, Cosmopolitan interviewed Ivanka Trump about her father's new child care policy. She is considered the force behind the new policy; she helped introduce it alongside her father this week and is publicizing it. But when she was asked a few basic questions about the policy, the interview went off the rails.

The tensions began when reporter Prachi Gupta asked some simple questions about whether fathers and same-sex couples would be eligible for benefits under the plan's maternity leave policy. Trump clearly didn't appreciate this line of questioning and provided cryptic answers, saying, "The original intention of the plan is to help mothers in recovery in the immediate aftermath of childbirth."

But it was a question about her father's comment from 2004 that pregnancy is "an inconvenience for a business" that pushed Trump over the edge. Gupta gently offered her an opportunity to address those comments, telling her, "Talk a little bit about those comments, and perhaps what has changed."

Christ, what a shitshow.

Trump blows off debate tune-up

Quote :

In this public town-hall rehearsal, Trump shows he’s put in as little 'prep' as the first time.
This was not the debate tune-up that jittery Republicans were hoping for.

Only days before Donald Trump must face Hillary Clinton in a town-hall style presidential debate, the GOP nominee added just such an event in New Hampshire. It was seemingly a concession to anxious allies and advisers hoping he might hone his skills in what can be a difficult format even for the most dexterous of politicians.

Trump had other plans. “They were saying this is practice for Sunday,” he told the crowd in speech before the so-called town-hall. “This isn’t practice. This has nothing to do with Sunday.”

He wasn’t wrong.

The format was nothing like what Trump will face in St Louis, when half the questions will be posed by uncommitted voters, and the candidates will have two minutes to respond to each question as Martha Raddatz of ABC and Anderson Cooper of CNN serve as moderators.

On Thursday night, Howie Carr, a conservative radio host and Trump booster, played the role of moderator, and the crowd was hand-picked by his campaign. The audience didn’t even ask Trump their questions. Carr did so on their behalf. Before the event, Carr had said Trump would take 20 questions. He stayed for about a dozen.
161006-trump-clinton-getty-1160

And while Sunday’s debate will stretch for 90 minutes without a bathroom break, Trump bolted from his town hall in Sandown after barely more than one-third of that time.

Trump’s campaign did place a two-minute countdown clock in front of their candidate on Thursday. He repeatedly blew past that time limit anyway.

“I said forget debate prep. I mean, give me a break,” Trump said at one point. “Do you really think that Hillary Clinton is debate-prepping for three or four days. Hillary Clinton is resting, okay?”

Yet even without the duress of an opponent, independent moderators and anything but softball questions from supporters, Trump struggled to drive any type of cohesive message, either about himself as a change agent or Clinton’s shortcomings.

Instead, he whacked at CNN’s John King, CNBC’s John Harwood, polling analyst Nate Silver and Republican Sen. Mark Kirk. He digressed about how Hispanics in Nevada would rather be called Latinos. He kept complaining about his microphone at the last debate.

“Doing well, doing well,” Carr said after a few questions, offering Trump encouragement.

“I like this audience,” Trump said. “I like this audience.”

I needed a political fix so I confess to watching this side show rather than wall to wall hurricane hype. It was every bit as bad as the author writes and then some.

How little faith can they have in Trump when they won't even let the hand-picked attendees ask the questions themselves Instead,Howie Carr would call out the name of the person who allegedly posed the question. Trump would say "hello" and then Carr would ask it.

I keep asking myself, Does he really want to win? He inserts remarks that make absolutely no sense like a couple of days ago when he lectured Nevada residents on how to correctly pronounce their state's name. He was 100% wrong in how he pronounced it. I lived there for 2 years and never heard anyone pronounce it Nev(Ahhh)da other than maybe an out-of-state tourist. Why even bring it up? What could he possibly hope to gain?

Anyway.....Buckle up your seat belt for Sunday