Tag: unqualified

Donald Trump Skips West Bank Answer

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Donald Trump took a pass when asked Thursday how he would refer to the West Bank, territory hotly contested by Israelis and Palestinians, and asked his company’s top attorney — who is Jewish — for an answer.

“Jason, how would you respond to that?” Trump said, turning to Jason Greenblatt, the chief legal officer for the Trump Organization.

The question came from a reporter with the Forward, a leading Jewish newspaper, during a meeting Trump held Thursday with two dozen reporters from Jewish and Israel-focused publications and Orthodox activists, according to the outlet.
Trump did not offer up a name for the territory. Many Israelis call the area, which their government controls, by the biblical names of Judea and Samaria, terms often embraced by pro-Israel activists and evangelical Christians.

Instead, Trump said simply that there are “many words that I’ve seen to describe it,” before deferring to Greenblatt.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking how Trump would refer to the area, home to the Palestinian Authority and a key part of the territory Palestinians claim for an independent state.

The United States government calls the territory the West Bank and successive administrations have consistently urged the Israeli government to cease new construction of Israeli settlements there, which most legal experts view as contrary to international law.

Trump’s positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have consistently faced close scrutiny.

The question came from a reporter with the Forward, a leading Jewish newspaper, during a meeting Trump held Thursday with two dozen reporters from Jewish and Israel-focused publications and Orthodox activists, according to the outlet.

Trump did not offer up a name for the territory. Many Israelis call the area, which their government controls, by the biblical names of Judea and Samaria, terms often embraced by pro-Israel activists and evangelical Christians.

Instead, Trump said simply that there are “many words that I’ve seen to describe it,” before deferring to Greenblatt.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking how Trump would refer to the area, home to the Palestinian Authority and a key part of the territory Palestinians claim for an independent state.

The United States government calls the territory the West Bank and successive administrations have consistently urged the Israeli government to cease new construction of Israeli settlements there, which most legal experts view as contrary to international law.

Trump’s positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have consistently faced close scrutiny.

Trump first said late last year that he would like to remain “neutral” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in order to better negotiate a peace settlement in the decades-old conflict.

The Republican front-runner then delivered a speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., during which he sought to remove any doubt about his support for the Jewish state.

Trump made no mention of his neutrality pledge, instead promising to be a stalwart partner for Israel as president and leveling a hefty critique of Palestinian society, which he claimed glorifies terrorism.

Trump hasn’t always been in line with his party’s base in answering questions on the conflict.

Speaking before an audience of Jewish Republican donors in November, Trump declined to say whether he would support recognizing Jerusalem as the undivided, undisputed capital of Israel — a position favored by Israel supporters on the right.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

We need some help understanding how this is not an embarrassment, or at least concerning.

We agree that it is reasonable to expect the President or a presidential candidate to have advisors and experts to consult with. But would it not also be equally reasonable to expect a world leader candidate to have some understanding of basic foreign policy or at least study up before publicly speaking to a group?

Can you imagine a President sitting across from Russian President Vladimir Putin and taking a pass? We can’t either.

This is yet another example of how Donald Trump is unqualified for the Presidency.

Trump Complains Primary Rigged Despite His Lead

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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.

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Fox News Interview

Trump Admits He Lost Iowa Because He Has No Idea How to Run a Campaign

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Donald Trump on Wednesday morning acknowledged that his campaign may have needed a more robust operation in Iowa, noting that he only recently learned what the term “ground game” means.

Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” when asked if his campaign needed better organization to win in Iowa.

“I think we could’ve used a better ground game, a term I wasn’t even familiar with. You know, when you hear ‘ground game,’ you say, ‘What the hell is that?’ Now I’m familiar with it.”

 

“I think in retrospect we should’ve had a better ground game, I would’ve funded a better ground game. But people told me my ground game was fine. And I think by most standards it was.”

Trump came in second place in the Iowa caucus, despite polls showing he had a good chance of winning the state.

At the beginning of his Wednesday interview on “Morning Joe,” it seemed Trump was not thrilled to talk about his second place finish.

“So let’s talk about Iowa. What happened?” “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski asked Trump.

After a long pause, Trump simply responded, “OK.”

The hosts then asked if Trump could hear them, and he said he could.

When asked again what happened in Iowa, Trump responded, “Well, I think I did well there,” adding that he could have done better if he “did a little more work there.”

“The caucus system is a complex system that I was never familiar with,” the Republican presidential candidate continued. “I mean, I was never involved with the caucus system. Don’t forget, Joe, I’m doing this for the first time. I’m like a rookie. And I’m learning fast, and I do learn fast.”

Reality

Another example of how Trump is dangerously unqualified.

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