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The term “gaslighting” comes to us from a play called “Gas Light,” written in 1938 by British playwright Patrick Hamilton. The play focuses on an abusive husband in the 1880s who convinces his wife that she is going crazy. One of his methods is lowering the gaslights and telling her it hasn’t gotten any darker. It’s all in her imagination. Donald Trump has been playing this game on the American people, or at least a meaningful portion of it, for five months now. Telling us that Trump University was a success. Telling us that he only worked with the mafia...

"No matter what he does, Trump always goes up in the polls!" That's the line Trump followers routinely employ when their man dives face-first into the latest unseemly controversy du jour -- including, most recently, spreading conspiracy theories to justify attacking and threatening Ted Cruz's wife. The reality is that while Trump's boorish showmanship doesn't harm his standing among a certain percentage of the GOP primary electorate, it most certainly hurts him among voters generally. The brash billionaire's overall unfavorable ratings have swelled to the mid-60's, spiking into the stratosphere among women. And now we have a fresh data point...

NBC anchor Chuck Todd isn’t buying the National Enquirer hit piece on Ted Cruz. On the March 27 edition of Meet the Press, Todd commented that “there’s more evidence that ties Trump to planting the story, than there is to the story itself tying anything to Cruz.” Todd also accused Trump of taking a page out of the “LBJ playbook.” Discussing the story with NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, Todd retorted that “Trump is almost trying to borrow a page from the LBJ playbook, when he put out a statement on the National Enquirer – let me put...

As the father of three daughters, I reserved the right to interview their dates. . . For the next few hours, she would be affected by his ability to drive a car, avoid the bad crowds and stay sober. I wanted to know if he could do it. I wanted to know if he was decent. This was my word: “decent.” Would he treat my daughter with kindness and respect? Could he be trusted to bring her home on time? In his language, actions and decisions, would he be a decent guy? Decency mattered to me as a dad, and...

Donald Trump has denied any connection to the National Enquirer story released yesterday claiming Ted Cruz has had 5 mistresses: I have no idea whether or not the cover story about Ted Cruz in this week’s issue of the National Enquirer is true or not, but I had absolutely nothing to do with it, did not know about it, and have not, as yet, read it. Likewise, I have nothing to do with the National Enquirer and unlike Lyin’ Ted Cruz I do not surround myself with political hacks and henchman and then pretend total innocence. Ted Cruz’s problem...

CHIP REID CBS NEWS March 25, 2016 Trump Feeling Female Voter Backlash (snip) A CBS News/New York Times poll in October found that 57 percent of registered women voters had an unfavorable view of Trump. Now, it's up to 63 percent.

Michael Savage said today on his radio show that the National Enquirer story smearing Ted Cruz is completely false, and he knows this based on a source he says he would trust with his life. Savage points out that Cruz is rightly offended over this utter garbage. But even more so, Savage says that he abhors these attempts of assassination by innuendo, as it has been done to him, and while he doesn’t blame Trump for the story, he threatens to withdraw his support of Trump if he doesn’t completely disavow the story and the man who owns the National...

The latest issue of the National Enquirer contains a story alleging that Ted Cruz has had extramarital affairs with five women. The story features pixelated photos of women the Enquirer claims were involved in affairs with the Texas senator and presidential candidate. There’s been speculation that one woman in a blurred photograph is Donald Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson. Pierson offered these comments on the story:

‘#FakeToughGuy’: GOP Sen. Ben Sasse Shames ‘Tiny Little Man’ Donald Trump For Attack On Heidi Cruz,,,

Poll: Nearly Half Of Republican Women Wouldn't Vote For Trump By GABBY MORRONGIELLO 3/24/16 A new survey of women voters suggests a general election contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton could be disastrous for the Republican Party. Nearly half of the female Republican electorate (47 percent) currently has a difficult time imagining voting for Trump as the Republican presidential nominee, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Far fewer say the same of Trump's two remaining opponents, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (32 percent) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (27 percent). Trump also has the worst favorability rating...

DONALD TRUMP OPEN TO NUCLEAR RETALIATION AFTER BRUSSELS ATTACK Reena Flores CBS News March 24, 2016 Donald Trump is not ruling out the use of nuclear weapons in the U.S. fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to an interview with the GOP front-runner that aired on Bloomberg TV Wednesday. Asked if he would consider nuclear retaliation after this week's terror attacks in Brussels, Trump responded: "Well, I'm never gonna rule anything out. And I wouldn't wanna say. Even if I felt -- it wasn't going -- I wouldn't wanna tell you that because, at a...

March 23, 2016 POLL: CLINTON WOULD CRUSH TRUMP IN GENERAL ELECTION By Jonathan Easley According to a Bloomberg Politics poll released Wednesday, Clinton leads Trump 54 percent to 36 percent in a contest between the two presidential front-runners. Also troubling for Trump, only 29 percent of likely general election voters nationally have a favorable view of him, compared to 68 percent who view him negatively. Trump’s favorability rating is at an all-time low in the survey, while his negative rating has gone up 13 points since November and has hit a new high. Clinton is similarly underwater on favorability, with...

This month, about half (47 percent) of Republican female primary voters said they could not imagine themselves voting for Trump. (About 40 percent of male GOP primary voters said the same.) Compare that to their relative willingness to accept Trump's rivals. Only about three in ten female Republican voters say they can't imagine backing Ted Cruz (32 percent) and John Kasich (27 percent). The poll, which was taken before Marco Rubio exited the presidential race, also showed that only 30 percent of GOP women couldn't imagine backing the Florida senator.

MAR 23 2016 Marvel, Disney Threaten Film Boycott Over Georgia Bill LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Co. and Marvel Studios stated their opposition to a Georgia "religious liberty" bill pending before Gov. Nathan Deal, saying that they will take their business elsewhere "should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law." With generous tax incentives, Georgia has become a production hub, with Marvel currently shooting "Guardians of the Galaxy 2" at Pinewood Studios outside Atlanta. "Captain America: Civil War" shot there last summer. "Disney and Marvel are inclusive companies, and although we have had great experiences filming...

Why Donald Trump Is Poised To Win The Nomination And Lose The General Election, In One Poll By Philip Bump March 23 Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but a new poll from Quinnipiac University suggests that the most likely outcome of this presidential race is the following: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump face off in the general election, and Hillary Clinton wins. Standard polling caveats apply, not the least of which is that the campaign hasn't started and that polls taken well in advance of an actual election are often not predictive. But reading this poll on...

Fox News Poll: Cruz, Kasich Ahead of Clinton In 2016 Hypothetical Matchups By Dana Blanton Published March 23, 2016 FoxNews.com Republicans are eager to win back the White House in 2016. A new Fox News national poll finds both John Kasich and Ted Cruz ahead of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in hypothetical matchups, while Donald Trump trails her. Kasich does best against Clinton. He has a double-digit advantage and also comes in above the 50 percent mark: 51 percent to Clinton’s 40 percent. Cruz is preferred over Clinton by three percentage points (47-44 percent). Clinton tops GOP front-runner Donald Trump...

Donald Trump is a New York businessman, reality show host and a Republican candidate in the 2016 United States presidential election. His politics have been described as populist,[1] nativist,[2][3][4] protectionist[5][6] and authoritarian[7][8]. Trump has described his political positions in various and often contradictory ways over time.[9][10][11][12] Politico has described his positions as "eclectic, improvisational and often contradictory."[12] Trump calls himself a conservative Republican,[13] while others describe him as a moderate Republican.[14] His stances on illegal immigration, free trade agreements, and military interventionism, as well as his support for social security, has often put him in conflict with Republican Party establishment...

March 21, 2016 DONALD TRUMP AND HILLARY CLINTON VIEWED UNFAVORABLY BY MAJORITY - CBS/NYT POLL By Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus, Jennifer De Pinto, Sarah Dutton More than half of the states have held a primary or caucus, and registered voters nationwide now hold negative opinions of the political parties' current frontrunners. More than half of voters have unfavorable views of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump; each has a net negative rating in the double-digits. Trump 57% Negative vs. Hillary 52% Compared to frontrunners in previous presidential primary races, Trump and Clinton's unfavorable ratings (57 percent and 52 percent respectively) are...

WASHINGTON—Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, dominated WORLD’s ninth evangelical insiders survey, which found a large majority of participants ready to vote for a third-party candidate if Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination. The new findings are part of a monthly survey of 103 evangelical leaders and influencers, 81 of whom participated in March. The results are not scientific or representative of all evangelicals but provide a glimpse into how some influential evangelicals are leaning in the 2016 presidential race. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida came out on top in the first eight surveys, but after his exit from the race last...

GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz said Tuesday that Donald Trump was engaging in a "pre-emptive surrender" to Islamic terror by calling for a "withdrawal" from NATO on the eve of the Brussels terror attacks. On Monday, Trump told CNN that the U.S. should greatly reduce its support of NATO. "It's too much and frankly it's a different world than it was when we originally conceived of the idea," Trump said of the US-European security alliance. Cruz said he found it "striking" that the terror attacks occurred on the day after his rival candidate Donald Trump called for reducing the U.S....