Free Republic

NEW YORK — It’s the evening rush on the Staten Island Ferry, and Donald Trump’s New Yorkers, spent after a day’s work in Manhattan, are heading home. There’s the construction worker who is convinced Trump will stop “pussyfooting around” when it comes to terrorism. There’s the Hungarian immigrant tow-truck driver who says Trump speaks his language. There’s the moving-company worker who believes Trump would be the first honest and courageous president in his lifetime, the diamond dealer who respects his toughness and the fashion model in awe of his glamour. “He’s just the man, right?” says Jimmy Dawson, 20, just...

The Trump campaign said Wednesday that Rick Wiley — who has more than two decades of experience in state and national politics and most recently served as campaign manager for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential bid — is joining the operation as national political director. “Rick is a seasoned political expert with a very successful career in winning elections,” Trump said in a news release. “He brings decades of experience, and his deep ties to political leaders and activists across the country will be a tremendous asset as we enter the final phase of securing the nomination.” Wiley said in...

If Donald Trump secures the Republican presidential nomination, he would start the general election campaign as the least-popular candidate to represent either party in modern times. Three-quarters of women view him unfavorably. So do nearly two-thirds of independents, 80 percent of young adults, 85 percent of Hispanics and nearly half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. Those findings, tallied from Washington Post-ABC News polling, fuel Trump’s overall 67 percent unfavorable rating — making Trump more disliked than any major-party nominee in the 32 years the survey has been tracking candidates.

Donald Trump revealed part of his foreign policy advisory team and outlined an unabashedly non-interventionist approach to world affairs during a wide-ranging meeting Monday with The Washington Post's editorial board.

Donald Trump revealed part of his foreign policy advisory team and outlined an unabashedly non-interventionist approach to world affairs during a wide-ranging meeting Monday with The Washington Post's editorial board. The Republican presidential front-runner listed for the first time five of the individuals who are part of a team, chaired by Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), counseling him on foreign affairs and helping to shape his policies.

Donald Trump is drawing a huge crowd for his campaign rally in Exeter, New Hampshire at noon Thursday. The rally is being held at the historic Exeter Town Hall. CBS News reporter Jacqueline Alemany posted a photo to Twitter showing a long line of parked cars of rally attendees on a street that extended out of town. "Squeezing a Trump rally into the Exeter Town Hall is a sight to behold. Crowded, steamy, and scores of disappointed Trumpeters locked out." A photo posted to Twitter by the Cook Report's Dave Wasserman shows Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace and crew...

I never expected to write these words, but I miss Mitt Romney. Last Wednesday, the day the front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination was in New Hampshire alleging that Syrian refugees fleeing for their lives may actually be clandestine terrorists, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee was in Washington, talking sense. "Donald Trump will not be the nominee," Romney told a group of business-school students at Georgetown University. And why won't Trump, who when he isn't besmirching Syrian refugees as terrorists is maligning Mexican immigrants as rapists, get the nod? Because, Romney said, "when all is said and done, the...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump released a chilling video Monday attacking opponent Jeb Bush for once suggesting that undocumented immigrants entered the United States as "an act of love." The 15-second video, which Trump posted to Instagram and Twitter, begins with the text: "Jeb Bush's Thoughts on Illegal Immigration." It plays sound of Bush, a former Florida governor, saying of undocumented immigrants, "Yes, they broke the law, but it's not a felony. It's an act of love." Over the sound of Bush talking, with harrowing music playing, the Trump video flashes mug shots of Francisco Sanchez, who was charged in...

The 2016 Republican primary has turned into a puzzle about how to deal with Donald Trump. The new dynamic has come into focus this week as Trump’s opponents debut strategies for engaging the white-hot front-runner whom they believe, and in some cases fear, could be a dominant force for some time to come. Though flummoxed by Trump’s staying power and aghast at the coarse tone he has brought to the race, party elites said they have no plan to take him down. Donors feel powerless. Republican officials have little leverage. Candidates are skittish. Super PAC operatives say attack ads against...

Jeb Bush stepped onto the fabled soapbox under a broiling sun at the Iowa State Fair here Friday and offered himself to voters as a sober adult campaigning in a summer of anger — a reformer, a consensus-builder, a competent executive who would roll up his sleeves and fix things. "I’m tired of the divides," the former Florida governor said. "I campaign the way that I would govern — out amongst everybody, no rope lines, totally out in the open." Then the fairgoers started asking Bush questions. They asked about the legacy of his brother, a former president. And his...

PHOENIX — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose caustic comments about Mexicans have inflamed the immigration debate, told thousands of cheering supporters here Saturday that “we have to take back the heart of our country.” In a rambling, defiant speech delivered in this border state that has been the epicenter of the nation’s divisive battle over immigration reform, Trump declared: “These are people that shouldn’t be in our country. They flow in like water.” One man in the crowd of 4,200 shouted back, “Build a wall!” Basking in polls that show he has risen to the top of the crowded...

For Democrats, Donald Trump amounts to a kind of divine intervention. With the Republican Party on an urgent mission to woo Latino voters, one of its leading presidential candidates has been enmeshed for two weeks in a nasty feud over his inflammatory comments about Mexican immigrants. “They’re bringing drugs,” Trump said in his campaign announcement speech. “They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” The comments — and many more since — have prompted an uproar among Latino groups and a series of acrimonious break-ups between Trump and various corporate partners. His outlandish rhetoric and skill at occupying the national spotlight is also...

Back in 2010, when the governor of South Carolina was merely "Nikki Who?," running behind in a four-person Republican primary with her top supporter mired in scandal, Jeb Bush gave her some advice. (SNIP) In January, she said, Romney called her to tell her he was thinking about a run in 2016 as well. But before they could schedule a meeting to discuss it further, he announced he would not run. "I’m still heartbroken that he didn’t win last time," Haley said. "Having said that, it’s a new year, it’s a new day, it’s a new time. We’ve gone through...

You almost never see this in politics. David Krone, the chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), launches a major attack on the White House in this blockbuster story by my colleagues Philip Rucker and Robert Costa: At a March 4 Oval Office meeting, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and other Senate leaders pleaded with Obama to transfer millions in party funds and to also help raise money for an outside group. “We were never going to get on the same page,” said David Krone, Reid’s chief of staff. “We were beating our heads against...

The 2016 Republican presidential nominating battle is shaping up as the most wide-open in a generation, with a new Washington Post-ABC News poll showing five prospective candidates within four percentage points of one another at the top and a half-dozen more in the mix. The picture is very different on the Democratic side, where former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton is the clear front-runner. In a hypothetical matchup, Clinton leads former Florida governor Jeb Bush — seen by many GOP establishment figures as the party’s strongest general-election candidate — 53 percent to 41 percent. Clinton’s commanding position is fueled...

In a statement released Thursday, John McCain called Hillary Clinton "my friend" and praised her public service career. ... According to a news release, Clinton is scheduled to "participate in a conversation" with McCain. This year's forum will focus on "Crisis in the Middle East: Values, Strategy and Options," and will include a session on Russia and Ukraine and on combating human trafficking.