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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis responded to Donald Trump's recent attack on former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, saying that it was "really, really bad." "Donald Trump, even his greatest supporters have acknowledged, had a tough time picking good people. He had a lot of terrible personnel decisions, people like Jerome Adams, his Surgeon General...so we know there was a tough record, but Kayleigh was one of the greatest selections. She did a fantastic job," DeSantis, who is also a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, said while appearing on the NH Journal podcast on Friday. DeSantis added: "She's a Harvard-trained lawyer,...

Despite his big win in New York on Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has had a pretty bad week. But will it matter? It should -- and just might. During an NBC "Today" show town hall Thursday, the host read a question from Twitter concerning Trump's views on LGBT issues and how he plans to be inclusive as president. "Speak about North Carolina bathroom law in particular." Trump responded: "I had a feeling that question was going to come up, I will tell you. Well, look, North Carolina did something that was very strong, and they're paying a big...

GUTHRIE: Do you believe in raising taxes on the wealthy? TRUMP: I do. I do – including myself. I do. That was...this morning, in an interview that featured some other controversial statements.  In fairness to Trump, he's been using the "raise taxes on rich people like me" line for months, embracing Obama-style class warfare tax gimmicks like the 'Buffet Rule.'  But raising taxes on anyone, an outcome Trump just re-endorsed, is not what his formal policy agenda proposes.  Just the opposite.  As we've seen on issues such immigration, abortion and foreign policy, Trump routinely makes clear that he isn't familiar with his own positions.  His stances aren't...

Donald Trump runs The Trump Organization, his real estate company that dabbled in failed meat, water, and education industries, among others. His campaign for president, on the other hand, has been anything but organized. The way heÂ’s run his campaign has the appearance of a wealthy man who decided heÂ’d run for president on a lark, then woke up to find himself in the lead with no clue how to handle it or finish the job. In many ways the Trump campaign is The Mouse That Roared. For those of you who donÂ’t know, The Mouse That Roared is a...

If the Republican primary process were designed to produce an exactly proportional result based on voters' choice rather than a winner, the party would have been doomed to a contested convention almost from the start. Donald Trump, who has failed more than any other GOP presidential front-runner in recent history to unite the party behind him, would have no chance of securing the nomination, for he has won only 37 percent of primary votes so far. Keep this in mind as Trump gripes about how his opponent Ted Cruz secured all 37 delegates at the Colorado convention last weekend. The...

The Associated Press is out with new polling pitting Democrat Hillary Clinton against Republican Donald Trump. Clinton beats Trump in every category among the general electorate, including on the questions of who is best to create jobs, who is better on international trade and who can "Make America Great Again," which of course is Trump's campaign slogan. First, the criteria:

Six months ago, I warned that Donald Trump's strengths could also be the weaknesses that would destroy his campaign. I think we're beginning to see that play out now. Trump has repeatedly said he is a counterpuncher -- that he won't initiate attacks against his rivals but if they were to hit him first he would hit back much harder. He seems to take pride in this, as if it proves his toughness -- an essential part of the image he's cultivated. It's not just abstract machismo that he sells but muscularity in promoting the policy issues that form the...

So I asked Bitey the Dog about her views on NATO, and she responded by growling and attacking my sock. In doing so, she offered a more comprehensive, insightful, and sane commentary on this vital alliance than the putative Republican frontrunner. Yes, it’s been a bad couple weeks for Donald Trump. Let’s review: · His skeevy attacks on Ted Cruz’s wife confirmed his status, in the eyes of women, as America’s nightmare first husband. · His transparent plant of the bizarre “Ted Cruz, Sex God” story in his pal’s pseudo-paper offended anyone who doesn’t require a drool bib. · He...

Donald Trump has gotten a lot of criticism from both sides of the abortion debate for his five different positions on abortion in three days. Those criticisms are legitimate because it shows Trump either doesn’t know what he’s talking about, is faking his position on abortion to appease his supporters, or has no real position at all. But that’s not stopped Maureen Dowd with The New York Times from asking one of craziest questions of the political cycle. Given his draconian comment, sending women back to back alleys, I had to ask: When he was a swinging bachelor in Manhattan,...

Why does Donald Trump assert that he is pro-life? It’s easy to understand that if he is running as a conservative for the GOP nomination this checked-box would be necessary to survive the primary process. He is running against two other candidates who have clear credentials on the matter, and if he were to be found to still be pro-abortion it would doom his chances of securing the nomination. It might also be because he is ashamed of the pro-abortion views he has held for most of his sixty-nine years on the planet. It might be that he is filled...

On the heels of a Marquette University poll showing Sen. Ted Cruz taking a 10-point lead in Wisconsin, Donald Trump once again whined on Wednesday that the “establishment” is trying to take the nomination away from him, citing the Louisiana delegate allocation which gave Cruz more delegates even though Trump got more votes. as Exhibit A. As Breitbart News reported: With less than a week to go until the Wisconsin primary, Trump came out swinging -- against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), against the Establishment lining up behind Cruz in order to keep Trump below 1,237 delegates so they can broker...

As we say in the South -- it's time for a "Come to Jesus Moment." The 2016 Republican presidential race has been one of the most rancorous in recent history. The behavior of the candidates and their followers has been downright repulsive. There are no clean hands among this bunch. Instead of focusing squarely on the issues at hand -- they have chosen to engage in ugly personal attacks. I'm especially disappointed in the behavior of those devout followers of both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. For what it’s worth many good-hearted conservatives have been caught in the crossfire between...

Normally, with an issue as complex as immigration, it’s hard to pinpoint any one thing that’s driving a notable shift in opinion. Unless there’s a sudden surge at the border, as there was in the summer of 2014 with children from Central America being sent north via Mexico, there’s no obvious reason for public opinion to change dramatically within a narrow six-month window, as it has here. In fact, if you’d asked me to guess whether support for the wall was up or down lately, I’d guess up for the simple reason that Americans are more worried about terrorism...

Have you heard? The Establishment is conspiring to steal the GOP nomination from Donald Trump! It’s true. I read it somewhere. There have been secret meetings all over the country of Establishment types plotting how best to deny what the voters want, and what they want is Donald Trump! At least, that’s how the story goes from the paranoid and the media desperate to attract them to their shows. It’s pathetic. Here’s some breaking news for you: If Donald Trump acquires 1,237 delegates to the GOP convention he will be the nominee. If he doesn’t, he may not be the...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I must begin the program today with an announcement of sorts. I know that a major story in the media today is -- I don't know what we call it -- Lewandowskigate, Grabgate. Whatever it is, the ongoing and still blossoming controversy involving the videotape of the reporterette, Michelle Fields, the Trump campaign coordinator, Corey Lewandowski, and the Trumpster himself and what the heck happened. My friends, I have decided that, going forward, I cannot share with you my opinion on this story. And so going forward, I will not opine. I will simply tell you what...

Frontrunner Donald Trump has become more unpopular since the start of primaries in February, and now the convention calendar turns to more moderate-to-liberal states as the contest draws near completion. Will Trump's decreasing popularity cost him the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the nomination outright?In January, the Huffington Post Pollster average of recent polls found that only 37 percent of voters view The Donald favorably, while 57 percent view him unfavorably. This was bad enough, but the most recent numbers (from Tuesday, March 29) show an even less popular frontrunner. Only 31.6 percent have a positive image of the...

In light of last week's terrorist attacks in Brussels, Ted Cruz says, "we need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized." I am not sure what he means by that, but I am pretty sure it is neither fair nor smart. "This is a war," the Republican presidential candidate emphasized the day of the attacks, suggesting that the patrolling and securing he had in mind was akin to what the military does in hostile territory. The implication seemed to be that American Muslims are an enemy population that needs to be pacified --...

Donald Trump is a boor. He's a vulgarian, a liar, an ignoramus. He has only the most cursory grasp of policy, a stentorian voice and a great big set of self-assurance. He's winning the Republican nomination. Why? It is partly because of the Clintons. While the media point and laugh at the Trump reality show carnival, they forget that the Clintons originally took us all to the circus. This week, we found out that Hillary Clinton's email scandal now occupies the attention of 147 FBI agents, and that she will be questioned by the FBI. We found out that her...

I have said from the outset that I would vote for Donald Trump if he were chosen as the Republican nominee. I am contemptuous of much of what he does; I don't trust what he says, and I have no reason to believe that he actually holds conservative values. But, if Trump becomes the GOP nominee, he will be the only alternative to the left ruining America for another four years. Really, though, their ruining could go on for much longer than four years. With two or three more left-wing Supreme Court justices, the left wouldn't need to win the...

Although the current colorful, for want of a better word, presidential campaign is attracting attention from voters, indicators are that this attention reflects voters being turned off to the whole process. According to new polling data from Gallup, in the first three months of 2016 the percentage of Americans who say they have given "a lot of thought" to the election increased from 63 percent to 71 percent. However, over the same period, the percentage saying they are "extremely or very enthusiastic" about voting dropped from 48 percent to 43 percent. And the current 43 percent who say they are...