Donald Trump “will not only attack his likely Democrat opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but also her husband and family,” ABC News reports.
Said campaign chairman Paul Manafort: “Trouble follows the Clinton’s everywhere. People are frustrated with all of the drama around the Clinton family and the history of the Clinton family. And certainly, if they’re going to be back in the political milieu, then their history is relevant to what the American people can expect.”
“Donald Trump’s campaign is considering booking one of Cleveland’s big sports venues for his acceptance speech in July,” CNN reports.
“Trump has said in recent weeks that he wants to add a Hollywood flair to this summer’s convention, adding that he thought the nominating event for 2012 GOP candidate Mitt Romney was too boring.”
“For the past two months, Donald Trump has presided over a political team riddled with turf wars, staff reshuffling and dueling power centers,” the Washington Post reports.
“But the tensions are more than typical campaign chaos: They illustrate how Trump likes to run an organization, whether it’s a real estate venture or his presidential bid. Interviews with current and former Trump associates reveal an executive who is fond of promoting rivalries among subordinates, wary of delegating major decisions, scornful of convention and fiercely insistent on a culture of loyalty around him.”
Donald Trump claimed that California is not facing a drought, USA Today reports.
“Trump said state officials were simply denying water to Central Valley farmers to prioritize the Delta smelt, a native California fish nearing extinction — or as Trump called it, ‘a certain kind of three-inch fish.'”
Said Trump: “If I win, believe me, we’re going to start opening up the water.”
“In one of his most personal attacks against an apolitical figure since becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump delivered an extended tirade about the federal judge overseeing the civil litigation against his defunct education program,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Trump’s attack on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel was extraordinary not just in its scope and intensity but for its location: Before a crowd packed into a convention center here that had been primed for the New York billionaire with a warm-up speech from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.”
After the audience chanted the Republican standard-bearer’s signature ‘build that wall’ mantra, Trump told them that Judge Curiel is “Mexican.”
“Donald Trump’s campaign has alerted Senate Republicans that he won’t have much money to spend fending off attacks from Hillary Clinton over the next couple months.”
“The notice came when Paul Manafort, Trump’s senior advisor, met with a group of Senate Republican chiefs of staff for lunch last week, sources familiar with the meeting told the Washington Examiner. The admission suggests that Trump will be far more dependent on the GOP brass for money than he has led voters to believe, but it’s consistent with his reliance on the Republican National Committee to provide a ground game in battleground states.”
Donald Trump said he will not participate in a debate with Bernie Sanders, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “Based on the fact that the Democratic nominating process is totally rigged and Crooked Hillary Clinton and Deborah Wasserman Schultz will not allow Bernie Sanders to win, and now that I am the presumptive Republican nominee, it seems inappropriate that I would debate the second place finisher.”
He added: “As I want to debate Bernie Sanders – and it would be an easy payday – I will wait to debate the first place finisher in the Democratic Party, probably Crooked Hillary Clinton, or whoever it may be.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that our system will prevent any “big mistakes” if Donald Trump becomes president, TPM reports.
Said McConnell: “Well, one thing I’m pretty calm about is that this is nowhere near the most divisive period in American history. But what protects us in this country against big mistakes being made is the structure, the Constitution, the institutions.”
He added: “No matter how unusual a personality may be who gets elected to office, there are constraints in this country. You don’t get to do anything you want to.”
“A constant stream of changes and scuffles are roiling Donald Trump’s campaign team, including the abrupt dismissal this week of his national political director,” the New York Times reports.
“A sense of paranoia is growing among his campaign staff members, including some who have told associates they believe that their Trump Tower offices may be bugged.”
“And there is confusion among his donors, who want to give money to a ‘super PAC’ supporting Mr. Trump, but have received conflicting signals from top aides about which one to support.”
Mitt Romney told the Wall Street Journal that the decision to take on Donald Trump was a matter of personal integrity.
Said Romney: “I know that some people are offended that someone who lost and is the former nominee continues to speak, but that’s how I can sleep at night. And there are some people, though it’s a small number, who still value my opinion.”
Jeff Weaver, the campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders, suggested Donald Trump may now be trying to avoid a debate between the two candidates, Politico reports.
Said Weaver: “There’s a little bit of foot-dragging now it seems on their side. It may be that, you know, there may be some chickening out or, you know, an unwillingness to stand on stage and really debate with Bernie Sanders because they know Bernie Sanders is going to do quite well in that debate, frankly.”
Politico: “Over the past 12 months of the presidential campaign, Donald Trump has dulled its power with his systematic evasions, contradictions and deceptions, making a general mockery of the form. Thanks to his skills at quibbling, his talent for the nonsequitur, and his willingness to reverse himself inside a single sentence, Trump has figured out how to soften rather than sharpen public discourse every time he is interviewed, blurring it into yet another form of meaningless PR, and—if he continues—destroying a journalistic institution in the process.”
“There’s one more thing that we must do to make America wealthy again, and you have to be wealthy in order to be great, I’m sorry to say.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by The Hill.
“It’s been called a hostile takeover of the Republican Party, but there’s little that has happened since Donald Trump became the GOP’s presumptive nominee to suggest he wants anything to do with the party. He’s borrowing the brand for his own purposes,” the Washington Post reports.
“In all ways, Trump continues to show that he is the anti-conventions candidate. That’s especially the case with any notions of him becoming the leader of a political party. Trump is a singular politician unlike any who has risen as fast and as far as he has in modern times. In the same way that he has demonstrated no consistency in his views on issues over time, there is nothing to suggest that he has much regard for the responsibilities and opportunities that come with being the leader of a party.”
“What has been apparent during Trump’s march through the primaries is how little he thinks or acts with the partisan — or party-building — instincts of typical politicians. The constituency he has attracted is certainly more conservative than liberal and far more Republican than Democratic. But the core issues that have brought him to this position — immigration, national identity, trade and jobs — which he projects with the posture of a strongman (or to his critics, a bully) speak to a candidate who looks at the electorate far differently than the typical Republican or Democrat.”
President Obama’s public disparagement of Donald Trump during a news conference in Japan “obliterated the now-quaint political convention that partisanship stops at the water’s edge. It also revealed a stark truth: The world is worried about Trump,” the Washington Post reports.
“Although he is not on the November ticket, Obama has a foreign policy legacy to protect, particularly against Trump, who has called the president’s approach weak and incoherent.”
Marco Rubio told CNN that he plans to attend the Republican convention, will release his delegates to vote for Donald Trump and would be willing to speak on Trump’s behalf.
Said Rubio: “I want to be helpful. I don’t want to be harmful, because I don’t want Hillary Clinton to be president.”
He also said his political aspirations aren’t over, calling it a “safe assumption” that he’ll run for office — the presidency or something else — again.
Fox, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC all featured this shot of an empty podium waiting for a Donald Trump press conference this afternoon.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was in Las Vegas discussing her plans to raise incomes for working families.
Walter Shapiro: “The Clintonian penchant for parsing the language in order to mislead — shared by both the former president and first lady — might be troubling. Except when compared to the non-stop outpouring of lies from the man whom the GOP will nominate in Cleveland.”
“Yes, Hillary’s stubborn refusal to provide the transcripts of her presumably fawning speeches at Goldman Sachs events is a symbol of her obsession with secrecy. But Trump, defying four decades of political tradition, balks at even releasing his tax returns. ”
“For Republicans appalled by Trump, there are, in truth, only two reasons to support the top of the ticket — careerism and a timorous fear of being tarred with disloyalty. It would be more intellectually honest for these Republicans to announce that they are writing in The Incredible Hulk for president than to facilely argue that Hillary is worse.”
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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