A week earlier, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, cut off reporters’ questions about Trump, declaring
I’m not going to be commenting on the presidential candidates today.
John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate majority whip, told Politico last week that he will not discuss Trump until Nov. 8, adding wistfully, “Wish me luck.”
On June 19, Paul Ryan, the House speaker, told Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press”:
Well, first of all I feel like I have certain responsibilities, as not just Congressman Paul Ryan from the first district of Wisconsin, but as Speaker of the House. And imagine the Speaker of the House not supporting the duly elected nominee of our party, therefore creating a chasm in our party to split us in half, which basically helps deny us the White House, and strong majorities in Congress.
As if that were not enough, Ryan continued down this path:
The last thing I want to see happen is another Democrat in the White House. I don’t want see Hillary Clinton as president. I want to see a strong majority in the House and the Senate. And I think the way to achieve those goals is to have a more unified party, than a disunified party. Now having said that, you know me well, Chuck. If something is done and said that I don’t agree with that I think puts a bad label on conservatism, then I’m going to speak out on it as I have, as I will continue to do, and I hope I don’t have to keep doing.
.. You know the Republicans — honestly folks, our leaders, our leaders have to get tougher. This is too tough to do it alone, but you know what I think I’m going to be forced to. I think I’m going to be forced to. Our leaders have to get a lot tougher. And be quiet. Just please be quiet. Don’t talk. Please be quiet. Just be quiet to the leaders because they have to get tougher, they have to get sharper, they have to get smarter. We have to have our Republicans either stick together or let me just do it by myself. I’ll do very well. I’m going to do very well. O.K.? I’m going to do very well. A lot of people thought I should do that anyway but I’ll just do it very nicely by myself.
Who does Donald Trump listen to? Other Trumps.
One trademark of the most unconventional campaign in modern history is that members of Trump’s family — who have virtually no political experience — are so deeply involved in his campaign that they often act as gatekeepers and strategists.
.. The campaign’s latest financial filings showed that not only did Trump have a surprisingly small amount of cash on hand — $1.3 million — but he had spent more than $1.1 million in May reimbursing his properties and family members for expenses.
.. Lewandowski’s abrupt departure was spurred in part by suspicions within the family that he was trying to sideline Kushner by spreading dirt to the media about him.
.. In 2005, Kushner’s father, Charles, was convicted in federal court of making illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering. The charges were rooted in a nasty family dispute that involved Charles Kushner hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law in order to get an incriminating sex tape.
.. Jared Kushner — the 35-year-old chief executive of a huge family real estate company — now sits in campaign meetings with the prosecutor in that case, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who was a U.S. attorney at the time and now advises Trump.
.. is widely credited with helping Trump write his well-received March speech to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.
.. Ivanka, 34, who is as controlled as Trump is spontaneous, has urged her father to soften his tone
.. Ivanka was key in him offering support for Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion work
Confident. Incorrigible. Bully: Little Donny was a lot like candidate Donald Trump
the Trumps’ house on Midland Parkway was distinct, if not for its size then for what it suggested about the wealth of its builder, Fred Trump.
“No one had individualized license plates in those days,” said Ann Rudovsky, who grew up nearby. “Everyone talked about the Trumps because of the house and the cars.”
.. Unlike most families in the neighborhood, the Trumps had a cook, a chauffeur and an intercom system.
..
Fred Trump, with his thick mustache and hair combed back, was a stern, formal man who insisted on wearing a tie and jacket at home. A conservative Republican who admired Barry Goldwater, Fred Trump and his wife forbade their children from cursing, calling each other by nicknames and wearing lipstick.
.. “Donald was known to be a bully, I was a little kid, and my parents didn’t want me beaten up,”
.. “He had a reputation for saying anything that came into his head,” said Donald Kass, 70, a retired agronomist who was a schoolmate. When Trump misidentified Rocca, the pro wrestler, Kass recalled, “We would laugh at him and tell him he was wrong, and he’d say he was right. The next time, he would make the same mistake, and it would be the same thing all over again.”
.. As a second-grader, he wrote, he “actually” gave his music teacher a black eye because “I didn’t think he knew anything about music, and I almost got expelled.”
.. Near the end of seventh grade, Fred discovered Donald’s knives and was infuriated to learn about his trips into the city. He decided his son’s behavior warranted a radical change. In the months before eighth grade, Fred Trump enrolled Donald at the New York Military Academy,
.. Fred Trump’s decision was “a very severe response to a kid who hadn’t gotten arrested and wasn’t involved in drinking and drugging. He was essentially a smart aleck.”
.. Dobias, who died recently, would smack his cadets with an open hand if they ignored him, students recalled. He set up a boxing ring and forced students with poor grades and disciplinary problems to fight each other.
.. Dobias said he recognized in Trump an innate drive: “He wanted to be number one. He wanted to be noticed. He wanted to be recognized. And he liked compliments.”
.. By senior year, Trump was known for bringing stylish women to campus and showing them around. “They were beautiful, gorgeous women, dressed out of Saks Fifth Avenue,” recalled classmate George White.
.. Amid the pageantry, Donald noticed that no one paid homage to the bridge’s 85-year-old Swedish designer, who had traveled from Europe for the occasion.
“I realized then and there that if you let people treat you how they want, you’ll be made a fool,” he later told a reporter. “I realized then and there something I would never forget: I don’t want to be made anybody’s sucker.”
Trump’s secret plan to quash a ‘Dump Trump’ convention plot
The presumptive GOP nominee is building a massive whip team in preparation for a possible floor fight.
In a Tuesday night conference call led partly by Trump’s top adviser Paul Manafort and including 200 staffers and volunteers, Trump’s senior convention aides sketched out a whip operation led by a half-dozen operatives with deep convention experience. The effort will rely on a team of 150 volunteers and paid staff to keep the convention’s 2,472 delegates in line, and it will utilize a database with information on many of the delegates.
.. The team will be overseen primarily by Doug Davenport, a former lobbying associate of Manafort, who was brought on board by the Trump campaign in April to court supportive delegates.
.. Trump campaign attorney Bill McGinley, who was counsel to the 2012 convention’s rules committee, will handle all of the campaign’s legal operations at the convention.
.. Anti-Trump delegates, meanwhile, have yet to compile even a complete roster of members of the convention Rules Committee, let alone the entire attendance list.
.. Davenport and Manafort did not respond to requests for comment. But the offer to pay for travel and accommodations for members of the whip team, many of whom are not campaign staffers, is notable, given the dire financial straits facing the campaign. It seems to suggest that Trump’s team is leaving nothing to chance when it comes to securing the nomination.