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The real estate mogul's final sprint for to lock down 1,237 delegates starts in New York. The billionaire is poised for a ringing victory that will take the edge off a brutal month of controversy and soaring unpopularity. It’s a chance for Trump to rewrite a campaign narrative that seemed to get away from him — and will likely be the first triumph in a cascade of victories across the northeast over the next week.

“Armed militants in Afghanistan staged a coordinated assault on a government security agency in the capital Tuesday morning, killing at least 28 people and wounding more than 320. The Taliban has claimed responsibility. The attack, including a suicide car bombing, appears to have targeted an agency similar to the U.S. Secret Service, providing personal protection for high-ranking government officials.

John Kasich apparently doesn’t like being asked why he's only won a single state in the Republican presidential primary. On Saturday, the Ohio governor — whose lone victory was in his home state — was talking up his chances when Demetri Sevastopulo, a reporter for the Financial Times, interrupted him. . . . "I'm answering the question the way I want to answer it," Kasich said. "You want to answer it?" Kasich then snatched Sevastopulo's voice recorder out of his hand and turned it toward him: "What do you think?"

President Barack Obama will drop in on three of America's most important allies this week, possibly for the last time. But he isn't expecting an adoring reception in any of them. The U.S. relationship with all three nations is distressed, and Obama will be doing more than a little damage control. In Saudi Arabia, where he lands on Wednesday, Obama will try to soothe anger over his nuclear deal with Iran and his increasingly public complaints about the Saudi kingdom. In London, he’ll make amends for comments about British foreign policy that rattled the teacups at 10 Downing Street. And...

Following a dramatic deterioration in official diplomatic channels between the US and Saudi Arabia when over the weekend the Saudis threatened the U.S. with dumping billions in Treasuries if Congress were to pass a bill probing into their alleged support of Sept 11 terrorists in the aftermath of last weekend's 60 Minutes report on the classified "28 pages" from the Septemeber 11 commission, moments ago the Obama administration made a stunning admission, when for the first time it revealed on the record that the Saudis were the original source of funding for Al Qaeda. As Politico reports, Obama's deputy national...

Why Trump may be costing Democrats millions for their convention The GOP is struggling to raise cash from corporate donors, and now Democrats are feeling the pinch. By Anna Palmer and Brianna Gurciullo 04/18/16 05:34 AM EDT Republicans have been struggling for months in the shadow of Donald Trump to get corporate sponsors to pony up for their convention. Now Democratic fundraisers are feeling their pain, too. Several Fortune 500 companies — including Bank of America, Duke Energy and Time Warner —are taking a pass on chipping in for the Democratic convention in Philadelphia or, with just 100 days to...

Donald Trump hasn't even been nominated yet but that hasn't kept Politico from engaging in wild speculation about what they claim could be his impending impeachment. The Politico fantasy takes us on a time travel trip to the summer of 2017 which goes into such detail, you have to wonder if author Darren Samuelsohn has been indulging in an overabundance of magic mushrooms. The funniest thing of all is that Samuelsohn concludes by pretty much stating Never Mind! See, it probably won't happen so why engage in all this impeachment speculation in the first place? So let us now watch Politico engage...

Give Donald Trump credit for planning ahead. He is preparing to be a sore loser. Trump’s complaints that he is being undone by a rigged system crafted by a corrupt Republican Party is the dress rehearsal for his campaign’s closing argument should it come up short in Cleveland. Trump will, in his telling, have been stabbed in the back by insiders and be fully justified in wreaking a terrible revenge on the party that he briefly sought to lead. Facts and logic don’t particularly matter to Trump or his mouthpieces, yet the “rigged” charge is absurd even by the standards...

As a student at George Washington University in 1996, Huma Abedin began working as a White House intern assigned to then-first lady Hillary Clinton. The two have been together since, with Abedin traveling the country as Clinton's "body woman" throughout her 2008 Democratic presidential campaign. She later became Clinton's deputy chief of staff at the State Department and still works for her transitional team, assisting the former secretary of state's move back into her private life. Here are 17 pictures that describe their 17 years together so far: http://www.politico.com/gallery/2013/07/how-close-are-huma-abedin-and-hillary-clinton-169489?slide=5

WOW! On Wednesday night Politico reported that Donald Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski will not be charged for a hoax assault on reporter Michelle Fields. She made it up. Unfortunately, a lot of Cruz supporters stood with the hoaxer Fields. Tonight Megyn Kelly blamed the Trump Campaign for Michelle Fields filing a fraudulent police report against Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski.

John Kasich delivered a lofty speech on Tuesday in which he implored voters to reject the dark visions of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, slamming their divisive policies and behavior as “not worthy of the office they are seeking.” The Ohio governor’s speech at the Women's National Republican Club in New York had all the trappings of a presidential affair, with “Hail to the Chief” piped into the room and American flags prominently placed behind him. But the rhetoric and setting was out of step with Kasich’s campaign success to date. He has only won one state so far –...

First they spent tens of millions trying to boost their favorite presidential candidates, then they poured cash into ads attacking Donald Trump, and now some of the biggest donors on the right are turning their attention to the delegate fight. Anti-Trump billionaires are funding ground operations in an increasing number of states to try to ensure the selection of national convention delegates who oppose Trump. The strategy is being executed by the anti-Trump Our Principles PAC, which has a stated goal of blocking the bombastic billionaire from clinching the GOP presidential nomination before the party’s convention in July. But the...

I invite FReepers to discuss what they know about Salem Media and Salem Cimmunications. From what I can find out, they are owned by the GOPe and in turn own Mark Levin, Beck and Erikson and probably Limbaugh. It is chilling to see our "heroes@ cheer on our disenfranchisement. The conservative treehouse is a small venue, but would appear to be on top of this issue.

Just moments before Attorney General Eric Holder was voted in contempt of Congress by Republicans and Democrats in June 2012 , President Obama asserted executive privilege over thousands of documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. Holder was held in contempt for stonewalling and failing to turn over the documents to the House Oversight Committee. Obama granted the executive privilege request despite claiming to have no knowledge about Operation Fast and Furious when it was active from 2009-2010. Now after years of court battles and a federal judge striking down the executive privilege assertion, Obama has finally agreed turned them...

REGIONAL BREAKDOWNS: SoCal is head over heels for Trump (Trump 49 percent; Cruz 34, Kasich 13) , Central Valley leans Trump (Trump 39, Cruz 26, Kasich 18), and Inland Empire for Cruz (Cruz, 43, Trump 30, Kasich, 9). Silicon Valley and the Bay Area? Kasich trounces Trump 43-36, with Cruz at 14.

Multiple source told Politico that layoffs, outbursts from Corey Lewandowski, and a lack of attention to detail are to blame for low morale among Donald Trump campaign staffers. Since March, several field staff workers have been laid off, and many members of the South Carolina, Florida, and Ohio teams have not had their contracts renewed, sources said. One layoff in particular has made a huge impact, Politico reports: The leader of the data team was let go, and because he didn't train a successor, the campaign is now unable to access some data. Another source said several staffers and advisors...

He's disparaged his own Republican leader as a liar and dismissed fellow senators as part of the "Washington cartel." But now, with his presidential prospects hanging in the balance, Ted Cruz is moving closer than ever to the D.C. establishment. Directly and through surrogates, the Texas senator is aggressively reaching out to his Senate colleagues as he prepares for the possibility of a convention floor fight against Donald Trump. And Cruz’s emissaries on Capitol Hill are now signaling to senior Republicans that Cruz would be willing to work with them as the GOP nominee in a way Trump would not....

In an exclusive interview for POLITICO's 'Off Message' podcast, the former secretary of state compares Donald Trump to foreign demagogues and says she's not even sure her primary opponent is a Democrat. SYRACUSE, N.Y. — There’s an unmistakable Groundhog Day quality to this spring campaign swing by Hillary Clinton: the chain-chugged Diet Dr Peppers, the pained rasp and crisp pantsuits — and the once-commanding lead undercut by an underdog near enough to nip at her sensible heels. Seventeen years ago, the underdog was Rick Lazio, a forgettable Long Island Republican with a paperboy’s face and a war chest brimming with...

A majority of voters casting their ballots in the Wisconsin Republican primary on Tuesday said the party's nominee should be the candidate who receives the most delegates, regardless of whether that person clinches the 1,237 majority outright, according to an NBC News exit poll. While 56 percent said the nomination should go to the candidate with the most votes, 42 percent said the delegates should be able to choose anyone they prefer at July's Republican National Convention in Cleveland. More than eight-in-ten of those who said they supported Donald Trump (83 percent) said they preferred the nomination go to the...

As he inches toward the GOP nomination, Donald Trump is becoming more and more disliked among American voters. Donald Trump wasn't wildly popular to begin with. And now he's becoming even more disliked among American voters, creating a significant threat to his chances of winning the Republican presidential nomination. Trump is, by far, the GOP delegate leader — and the only candidate with a realistic shot at winning a majority of delegates before the July convention. But at the same time, nearly two-thirds of Americans view Trump unfavorably — and his image rating has declined since Republican voting began in...