More Bad News for Trump Is Great News for America!

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | June 27, 2016 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | June 27, 2016 |

Covering the Donald Trump campaign used to be so depressing. He was winning primaries, and no matter what stupid shit came out of his day-glo yapper, his polling numbers never dropped.

But now? I know there are a lot of our readers counting down the days until it’s all over, but the way I see it, it’s 5 more months of watching Donald Trump inflict damage upon himself. Or 3 more weeks, at least, should Donald Trump throw his hands in the air and quit at the Convention (oh, what sweet, sweet justice it would be).

Every day now seems to come with another round of news that’s terrible for the presumptive Republican nominee, and his pain is like a little hit of dopamine. It keeps me going. I am fueled by Donald Trump’s dropping poll numbers.

The news cycle hasn’t been kind, either. Two new polls, for instance, show that Hillary Clinton is widening her lead over Donald Trump, with one showing a 12-point margin of victory. That’s goddamn landslide territory. That same poll showed 2/3 of Americans were uneasy with the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency. Two thirds! That means that 66 percent of Americans at least have their brains partially screwed on.

Meanwhile, it’s probably not the kind of op-ed that will change anyone’s opinion of Trump, but Aziz Ansari’s NYTimes article — in which he tells Trump to go fuck himself — should help shore up the millennial vote. He’s also not wrong to be afraid for his parents in the event of a Trump Presidency:

The vitriolic and hate-filled rhetoric coming from Mr. Trump isn’t so far off from cursing at strangers from a car window. He has said that people in the American Muslim community “know who the bad ones are,” implying that millions of innocent people are somehow complicit in awful attacks. Not only is this wrongheaded; but it also does nothing to address the real problems posed by terrorist attacks. By Mr. Trump’s logic, after the huge financial crisis of 2007-08, the best way to protect the American economy would have been to ban white males.

Elsewhere, George Will — whose love of baseball has always been endearing in spite of his politics — took his ball and went home, leaving the Republican party over its decision to nominate Trump as is nominee. He’s not having it.

Trump’s response to Will’s departure is starting to sound like a broken record. He’s like the Republican Cookie Monster: He has a very limited vocabulary of short words he just repeats over and over. SAD. BAD. COOKIE.

George Will, one of the most overrated political pundits (who lost his way long ago), has left the Republican Party.He's made many bad calls

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2016

George Will is not the only recent Republican to run away from Donald Trump. Henry Paulson, the treasury secretary to former President George W. Bush., has added his name to the growing list of Republicans who will be voting for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump:

“When it comes to the presidency, I will not vote for Donald Trump. I will not cast a write-in vote,” Paulson wrote. “I’ll be voting for Hillary Clinton, with the hope that she can bring Americans together to do the things necessary to strengthen our economy, our environment and our place in the world. To my Republican friends: I know I’m not alone.”

Brent Scowcroft, a top national security adviser to several former Republican presidents, has also endorsed Clinton, which I suspect is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it’s nice to see some Republicans endorsing Clinton over Ronald McRacist in their party. On the other, I don’t want anyone on the liberal side getting the idea that they’re endorsing Clinton because she’s a Republican in Democrat’s clothing. (I’m looking at you in the comments. You know exactly who you are!).

Meanwhile, there’s yet another attempt by Republican delegates to change the rules so that they can vote their conscience and nominate someone else besides Trump at next month’s convention. It’s all well-and-good, but unless they can find someone else to rally the party around, that rebellion is going nowhere. Still, it’s gotten Trump’s attention, and he’s now using some of his limited campaign funds to cover travel and lodging costs for volunteers and delegates attending the Cleveland convention to ensure he gets their vote. He keeps promising to inject more of his own cash into his election bid, but maybe Trump’s not as bad a business man as we might have thought, because even he’s not been willing to gamble on himself, yet.

The Convention, by the way, is likely to be a shitshow, as a number of top Republicans have said that they will not speak, participate or even attend July’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Trump can’t even depend on serial rapist Ben Roethlisberger to speak at the Convention, unless it’s about going for two after every TD.

Finally, this wasn’t really Trump sticking his foot in his mouth, but the sight of it is sure to provoke many, many more gaffes in the coming days and weeks.

Still, as bad as it may look for Trump — and it’s only Monday! — it’s important to heed the advice of Jon Oliver and not get complacent come November, because there are “no fucking do overs!”