“Donald Trump has been doling out diamond cuff links to unsuspecting pals as presents — but they’re actually fabulous fakes,” the New York Post reports.
“At least three recipients later learned that the glittery gifts were valuable only as mementos from Trump.”
Rick Klein: “Don’t look now, but Donald Trump is putting together an actual, real-life campaign. He’s hiring new staffers, pushing out opposition research and rapid-response documents, even Tweeting more about the news than about personal grudges. Wednesday’s speech, laying out his anti-Clinton case, will be a major moment for a campaign in desperate need of a new storyline. It has the feel of a major campaign moment – a point where Trump can pivot toward effective messaging, or continue a spiral that he may not be able to end before his convention.”
“Messaging and discipline is one thing, though, and fundraising is another. It’s hard to argue that internal machinations will matter for Trump unless he puts together the kinds of numbers he’ll need to be competitive in terms of advertising and organizing. Even if he were to self-fund, Trump’s promise to do this on his own is essentially hollow; he’ll need the Republican power base on board to compete with the Clinton machine.”
First Read: “Yesterday — the day after Trump dumped Lewandowski — had the feel of a sports team with a new head coach. You immediately saw the change in direction inside of Team Trump. There were the multiple rapid-response emails before and during Clinton’s speech; the campaign took over his Twitter feed; it sent out its first direct fundraising solicitation from Trump; and it finally announced a group of new hires. The question is whether this lasts — because as Washington Redskins fans know all too well, you can fire the coach, but you can’t fire the owner.”
Wall Street Journal: “On Monday, the candidate’s son, Donald Trump Jr., personally carried out the firing of longtime campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, demonstrating the outsize influence wielded by Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump, who also are senior executives of the Trump real-estate operations.”
“The move by the Trump siblings was met with relief by many nervous Republicans, who were seeking a significant change in the campaign. At the same time, the fact that the initiative fell to the children, who readily admit their experience is in business not politics, is being seen by some Republicans as a further sign that Mr. Trump hasn’t brought in enough political professionals to handle the pressures and demands of a general-election effort that in many ways is still being run as a family enterprise.”
Mark Cuban personally attacked Donald Trump, telling Extra that Trump has been running for president for a year “but you don’t look at him and say, ‘Wow, he’s gotten so much smarter on this topic or that topic.’ In fact, you look at him and say, ‘What the hell are you talking about?'”
He added: “It’s rare that you see someone get stupider before your eyes, but he’s really working at it… You have to give him credit. It’s a difficult thing to do but he’s accomplished it.”
“It would be nice to have full support from people that are in office, I mean full verbal support. Now with all that being said I may go a different route if those things don’t happen.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by TPM.
Think Progress: “The Trump campaign made $35,000 in payments to an entity called ‘Draper Sterling’ for ‘web advertising.’ Three $10,000 payments and one $5,000 payment were placed on the campaign’s American Express card on the same day.”
“Draper and Sterling, of course, are the fictional names of the two lead characters in Mad Men, the hit AMC show about advertising.”
“Delayed by the Orlando attack, Donald Trump’s much-touted speech hitting Hillary Clinton’s history in politics with former President Bill Clinton is back on for Wednesday,” Politico reports.
Said Trump: “I will be making a big speech tomorrow to discuss the failed policies and bad judgment of Crooked Hillary Clinton.”
Donald Trump “emailed supporters a fundraising plea in which he vowed to match up to $2 million in donations in the next 48 hours, following a fundraising report filed late Monday that showed he had just $1.3 million in the bank at the end of May,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Tuesday’s fundraising email suggests Mr. Trump is unnerved by the substantial financial lead Mrs. Clinton holds over him. But donating up to $2 million next month to his campaign would not be a real departure for Mr. Trump, who loaned his campaign $2.2 million in May.”
Slate talks to several people who worked on Donald Trump’s reality television show, The Apprentice:
“There was a fat contestant who was a buffoon and a fuckup,” recalls the midlevel producer. “And he would fuck up week after week, and the producers would figure that he’d screwed up so badly that Trump would have to fire him. But Trump kept deciding to fire someone else. The producers had to scramble because of course Trump can never be seen to make a bad call on the show, so we had to re-engineer the footage to make a different contestant look bad. Later, I heard a producer talk to him, and Trump said, ‘Everybody loves a fat guy. People will watch if you have a funny fat guy around. Trust me, it’s good for ratings.’ I look at Chris Christie now and I swear that’s what’s happening.”
“If Donald Trump’s claims that certain of his commercial ventures benefit charity are untrue, he could be held liable under Section 349 of New York’s General Business Law, which forbids deceptive business acts and practices, as well as under charitable solicitation laws, according to legal experts,” Politico reports.
“In promoting products as varied as Trump University, Trump Vodka, a Trump board game and his latest book, Crippled America, the businessman has declared that the proceeds would go to charity. None of Trump’s proceeds from Trump University have gone to charity, and only a few hundred dollars of charitable giving related to Trump Vodka has been accounted for.”
Rick Klein: “Where does Donald Trump go to get his base confident about his campaign? Not in internal management, with his campaign manager now out, the victim of an internal turf war that involved Trump’s three oldest children. Not in his fundraising report, a measly document that would have set a new low this century for a major-party candidate at this stage in the cycle if not for another personal contribution he made. And not in campaign messaging that hasn’t evolved since the distant primary phase, when insults and racially tinged remarks drew bold headlines.”
“All three elements will prove difficult to fix. But none might be as devastating as anemic fundraising, so long as big donors either sit on the sidelines or mull their options in congressional races. Those desperate to block Trump’s nomination before the convention have the fodder they need, just not a winning strategy or mechanism – at least not yet.”
Mark Leibovich in the New York Times Magazine:
To a comical extent, top Republicans willed themselves invisible when I reached out to them for this article, fearing, not incorrectly, that the conversation would turn to Trump. This included some of the most typically quotable Republicans, including former Trump challengers like Graham (“He’s sorta had his fill talking about Trump,” a spokesman emailed), Perry (“Thanks for thinking of him”) and Ted Cruz (“Not great timing on our end”); the previous nominee Mitt Romney (“You are kind to think of me,” he wrote); Trump stalwarts like Chris Christie (“We are going to take a pass this time”); Trump-averse Republican governors like Charlie Baker of Massachusetts (“The governor won’t be available”); and senators like Mike Lee, of Utah (“Senator Lee would love to talk to you about the state of the G.O.P. and conservatism in general. We are free anytime after Nov 8.”).
“A campaign to stop Donald Trump from becoming the Republican presidential nominee has the support of nearly 400 delegates to the GOP’s convention next month, according to organizers, quickly transforming what began as an idea tossed around on social media into a force that could derail a national campaign,” the Washington Post reports.
“While organizers concede their plan could worsen internal party strife, they believe they are responding to deep-rooted concerns among conservatives about Trump, who is suffering from declining poll numbers after weeks of missteps and embarrassing headlines.”
David Drucker: “It’s an uphill battle and unlikely to succeed. There is both a lack of leadership at the top necessary to direct a convention revolt, and insufficient dissatisfaction among Republican voters at the bottom to fuel it. Also lacking: an alternative candidate.”
Donald Trump “enters the general election campaign laboring under the worst financial and organizational disadvantage of any major party nominee in recent history, placing both his candidacy and his party in political peril,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump began June with just $1.3 million in cash on hand, a figure more typical for a campaign for the House of Representatives than the White House. He trailed Hillary Clinton, who raised more than $28 million in May, by more than $41 million, according to reports filed late Monday night with the Federal Election Commission.”
“He has a staff of around 70 people — compared with nearly 700 for Mrs. Clinton — suggesting only the barest effort toward preparing to contest swing states this fall.”
Politico: Trump getting crushed by Clinton money machine
“Donald Trump’s campaign raised $3.1 million in May and ended last month with $1.3 million in the bank, a remarkably poor showing that will only heighten Republican concerns about his ability to run a serious general election campaign against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump’s paltry fundraising last month is totally inexplicable given that he effectively secured the Republican presidential nomination on May 3 when he crushed Texas. Sen. Ted Cruz in the Indiana primary.”
The Huffington Post reports Trump’s presidential campaign paid more than $1 million last month to companies controlled by the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Gabriel Sherman: “At around 9:30 Monday morning, Donald Trump and his adult children gathered for a regular strategy meeting at Trump Tower. Also present were senior staff, including Corey Lewandowski, the campaign’s embattled manager… According to two sources briefed on the events, the meeting was a setup. Shortly after it began, the children peppered Lewandowski with questions, asking him to explain the campaign’s lack of infrastructure.”
“Their father grew visibly upset as he heard the list of failures. Finally, he turned to Lewandowski and said, “What’s your plan here?”
“Lewandowski responded that he wanted to leak Trump’s vice-president pick. And with that, Lewandowski was out. Trump has long viewed announcing his running mate at the GOP convention next month as a valuable card to play. He was shocked that Lewandowski didn’t have any other ideas.”
“Shortly after the meeting, Lewandowski was escorted out of the building by Trump security.”
The Lid: “Even if Lewandowski’s ouster makes nervous Republicans feel a smidge better, the way it was handled probably gave them heartburn anyway.”
BuzzFeed: “During that 27-year period, Trump has claimed to donate millions to charity — especially when marketing products and events that bear his name. Some of those claims are in fact contradicted by the publicly available records. And while it’s impossible to estimate how much Trump has claimed to have raised for charity, the presumptive Republican nominee often touts his public-speaking fee at $1 million or more — and says he donates the fees to charity.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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