Nutmegger

Trump hard at work, ticking off everyone. (This has one of the best descriptions of him I've seen in print, "an appalling creature... one of the most malignant figures in politics.")

Donald Trump: Police 'afraid for their lives' in 'radicalised' London - BBC News

Leslie

I know. I had Morning Joe playing in the background while I was getting ready this morning. My heart sank when I heard him say that about London and Paris. Really???? SERIOUSLY?????? Just awful.

Interestingly, Joe Scarborough, who has been a huge Donald Trump sycophant, basically cut Trump's mic this morning, which was very nice.

zargof

You have to love Boris:

"Crime has been falling steadily both in London and in New York - the only reason I wouldn't go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump,"

Giantaxe

Clearly Fiorina needs to raise her Islamophobia game.

scrubbedexpat099

A phobia is an irrational fear.

Philk

One of my friends back in the UK had some of his #TrumpFact tweets listed in this Telegraph Story - but his tweet of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton ( as an example of how islamized the UK has become ) was taken seriously by a Christian Professor from Texas

SultanOfSwing

Oh, FFS, this is nuts. They'll be going after Eastern Orthodox buildings next, because they're usually a bit domey.

What's next? Don't look up at the sky for 2 weeks out of every month, you might see a crescent moon? The ignorance burns, doesn't it?

Philk

Mecca Bingo halls are going to have to change their name and Downton Abbey will have to be edited to remove all the times the dog is called ISIS

Nutmegger

Now there's a petition to keep Trump out of the UK:

More than 150,000 Britons petition to ban Trump from UK

kimilseung

Isnt he British? Scottish mother? (I understand this would have nothing to do with the rhetoric of the petition)

SultanOfSwing

Yes, Scottish mother. Poor woman. I don't know if he ever claimed British citizenship at any point, though.

zargof

So I think I've figured out Trump's game plan.

With Trump's latest outburst about banning all Muslims there was a very important caveat: "until we figure out what is going on." Remember this it will be important later.

So, where are we right now? Trump is saying crazy shit and still leading in the polls. Here's the thing, for Trump's plan to work, it doesn't matter what the subject is, only that's it's crazy. This is because he's: 1) able to sell his appeal as honest and not afraid to say what needs to be said, and 2) keep getting tons of publicity and media coverage. This leads to him staying high in the polls, which he needs to show he's invincible and the inevitable candidate.

Now, he has the GOP by the balls as they have to keep supporting him regardless of what crazy shit he does, as he just has to threaten to run as an Independent because he isn't getting their support and he takes his loyal Trumpers with him and the GOP loses the election. Now if the GOP were to coalesce around another candidate, then all this would be lost as Trump would no longer be leading the polls and would have lost his power. But the GOP is too divided for that to happen.

Anyway, this keeps going on until the primaries. All the while Trump keeps on saying crazy shit, rides high in the polls, the GOP establishment panics, and Democrats think Trump is crazy, but secretly want him to win as it guarantees them victory (some of them even vote for him in the primaries to make it happen).

Now this is the important part. If this gambit pays off and Trump is the candidate, he totally changes tactics. He walks back all the crazy shit. Remember the caveat above? Well Trump then says, it's OK, they figured it out we don't need to ban Muslims. He also claims credit for it by saying they only figured it out because he talked about it. He says similar stuff for all the other crazy shit.

So it's the general election, and Trump has his loyal Trumpers in the bag as well as all the other Republicans who'll vote for whoever the Republican candidate is. On the Democrat side, you have the Anyone But Hillary crowd who are going to sit this out, or may even vote for Trump, plus the Bernie fanatics who are going to write in Sanders. I'm not sure what the numbers are and how many swing voters he'll need. In order to get them he'll go all out on the populism (job/ponies for everyone etc.), while trashing Hillary (untrustworthy, Wall St, Benghazi, etc). It's enough to persuade the swing voters and say hello to President Trump.

Now, I'm not sure what his real agenda is once elected, and frankly I'm not sure he knows himself. Rather it's an ego trip to prove he can do it. Not that it really matters as he'll have no support in Congress to get anything done anyway.

Even if it doesn't work, he can still Palin the shit out of all the publicity and hawk whatever tat he's trying to sell next.

scrubbedexpat099

Don't forget the biggie, the dirt I am sure Obama has on Hillary and is just waiting for the right time to use.

SultanOfSwing

What the **** would it matter to him anyway? He's a little over a year away from paid vacation time. No ****s will be given there.

zargof

Plus, why would he? Maybe if Diamond Joe was running, but he isn't. So why would he damage his best successor?