Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 190
Trump Is Everywhere
Trump confidant Roger Stone admitted to the Washington Times that he engaged in private conversations with Guccifer 2.0, the persona behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, but insisted the chats were “innocuous.”
The Smoking Gun reports that U.S. authorities had obtained private messages between Stone and the hacker.
Donald Trump’s “long-time but informal adviser” Roger Stone says the Secretary of State job was dangled in front of Mitt Romney in order to “torture” him for previously opposing the president-elect, the Daily Beast reports.
Said Stone: “To toy with him. And given the history, that’s completely understandable. Mitt Romney crossed a line. He didn’t just oppose Trump, which is his democratic right, he called him a phony and a fraud. And a con man. And that’s not the kind of man you want as Secretary of State.”
Coming soon: The Making of the President 2016: How Donald Trump Orchestrated a Revolution by Roger Stone.
Stone left the Trump campaign in 2015 as a result of “strategic differences.”
Ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone suggested that Donald Trump may put his extensive political capital behind boosting a primary challenger to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in 2018, the Huffington Post reports.
Stone harshly criticized Cruz as “an odious, greasy figure who doesn’t have any of Reagan’s warmth or likeability.”
He added: “Conservatives have long memories. So in four years or eight years after the Trump presidency, conservatives will remember that he walked out on us.”
Roger Stone, an informal adviser and friend of Donald Trump, suggested that Hillary Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin could be a “Saudi spy” or a “terrorist agent,” Politico reports.
Said Stone: “I also think that now that Islamic terrorism is going to be front and center, there’s going to be a new focus on whether this administration, the administration of Hillary Clinton at State was permeated at the highest levels by Saudi intelligence and others who are not loyal Americans. I speak specifically of Huma Abedin, the right-hand woman, now vice-chairman or co-chairman of vice—of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.”
New York Times: “The 2016 election, filled with ugly insults, whispered innuendo and sordid character attacks, features two central antagonists known for their colorful traits and devotion to the dark arts of politics: David Brock and Roger J. Stone Jr.”
“Each has a passion for his side — Mr. Brock for Hillary Clinton and Mr. Stone for Donald J. Trump — and a zeal for attacking critics of his candidate. Their intensity and pugnacity make them either perfect villains or misunderstood masterminds, depending on your point of view.”
Roger Stone, a longtime political ally and former campaign adviser to Donald Trump, admitted that Donald Trump posed as his own publicist in the early 1990s, BuzzFeed reports.
Said Stone: “They focus on whether or not Donald Trump may or may not have posed as a public relations man in order to get his spin and his side of the story. This is ridiculous. James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton — they all wrote under pseudonyms, they all had things they wanted to say, and they wrote under pseudonyms.”
He added: “Trump wanted to get his spin and his side of the story, so he handled the press call himself, probably because he didn’t want to pay a public relations expert. What difference does it make?”
To get a sense of why Trump is following an unusual playbook all his own, the Washington Post spoke with longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone:
Said Stone: “Trump is going to eschew everything the establishment and the press think he should be doing to have a total grassroots communications strategy. He’ll be all over the media, doing as many interviews as he can, calling into radio shows, and having wall-to-wall rallies that get broadcast on the cable channels. Remember, those rallies also get you to dominate the local news. So you’re all over the local channels, all over the national, wall-to-wall and free.”
Stone didn’t always agree with Trump’s tactics: “I told him it couldn’t work. I was skeptical. An adviser telling someone that you could win a presidential campaign by not spending much at all on ads? By simply going on TV? It was a historic calculation. But he did it. A blunt speaking style, a repetition on three issues, and you combine that with a sour and suffering electorate and it all worked.”
Veteran political operative Roger Stone told the New Yorker that Donald Trump “listens to no one.”
Said Stone: “On his own, he conceptualized a campaign model that rejects all the things you do in politics—no polling, no opposition research, no issue shop, no analytics, no targeting, no paid advertising to speak of.”
He added: “He had this vision of an all-communication-based strategy of rallies, debates, and as many interviews as he can smash into a day. The campaign exists to support the logistics of the tour.”
Longtime Donald Trump ally Roger Stone “is threatening to make public the hotel room numbers of Republican National Convention delegates who switch from Trump to another candidate,” Politico reports.
Said Stone: “We’re going to have protests, demonstrations. We will disclose the hotels and the room numbers of those delegates who are directly involved in the steal… We urge you to visit their hotel and find them. You have a right to discuss this, if… your votes are being disallowed.”
“Republican operative Roger Stone, who says he is no longer working for Donald Trump but continues to back his presidential campaign, is launching a super PAC to attack leading rivals, particularly Florida Sen. Marco Rubio,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Stone said he has not talked to Mr. Trump or his campaign about the Committee to Restore America’s Greatness. Mr. Trump has been an outspoken critic of super PACs and frequently claims to be self-funding his campaign, though he has received and spent millions of dollars in donations.”
Donald Trump’s campaign said it has fired top political adviser Roger Stone — who promptly said he had quit, CNN reports.
Said a spokesman: “Mr. Trump fired Roger Stone last night. We have a tremendously successful campaign and Roger wanted to use the campaign for his own personal publicity. He has had a number of articles about him recently and Mr. Trump wants to keep the focus of the campaign on how to Make America Great Again.”
Earlier in the day, Stone’s friends told Politico that he sent an email to Trump announcing his decision to leave the campaign.
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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