Donald Trump once ran a real-estate school called Trump University that charged tuition of up to $35,000 while promising students that they would be getting classes from real-estate experts handpicked by Trump and would get rich after graduation. All but one of the "experts" never even met Trump and the things they taught were easily available on the Internet for free. Few students got rich, and a number of them sued. Cases are pending in New York and California, accusing the university and Trump of defrauding the students. Yesterday federal judge Gonzalo Curiel ordered Trump to release documents related to the case to the Washington Post, which had requested them.
Trump has loudly objected to the judge's ruling, saying that his Latino heritage made him biased against Trump. Stay tuned for more on the case as the Post gets and analyzes the documents. (V)
Speculation about who will be Donald Trump's running mate will continue until he makes an announcement. Once he tells us who it is, speculation will start about why he picked that person. Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post has come up with a short list, based on his conversations with Republican insiders. However, it should be noted that they don't know anything about the matter. Nobody does (well, maybe Ivanka does). Here is the list.
If Trump has any interest in winning over voters who don't already support him, Gingrich and Christie are poor choices. The establishment favorite is clearly Corker, a popular and effective senator. While the women might pull some votes from Hillary Clinton, neither one can make a strong case for being presidential material, especially not Ernst, who ran for the Senate on a campaign of cutting pork, something she said she was uniquely qualified to do because she grew up on a farm castrating hogs. But with Trump, anything is possible. (V)
Former U.S. Senator and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole sat for an interview on Saturday, and shared his views on the current race. In no uncertain terms, he called on Republicans to unify behind Donald Trump. He also said that the best available vice presidential candidate is his former colleague, Newt Gingrich.
Perhaps this is a sign of good things to come for Trump. Dole is the Republican with the most stature to give his full-throated support to The Donald, and perhaps his example will eventually win over some of the other holdouts. On the other hand, perhaps it suggests that an aging politico has lost his touch. His demand that Trump apologize to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) hints in that direction, as does his suggestion that the GOP nominee still has plenty of time to win over women and minorities. Or maybe Dole is just trying to ensure that he no longer has the worst defeat for a post-Goldwater Republican presidential candidate on his resume. (Z)
A number of pundits have raised questions about the extent of Donald Trump's financial acumen, and now the Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman has penned a particularly solid specimen of this genre.
Krugman starts by reviewing the now well-worn notion that Trump may not actually be all that successful a businessman. The lack of tax returns and other specific information make it hard to form firm conclusions, but there is some reason to suspect that Trump would have done just as well parking the $200 million he inherited from his father in an index fund as he has done with his real estate and other businesses.
The meat of Krugman's case, however, is that whatever kind of businessman Trump may be, it does not make him suited to craft an economic policy. The one wildly successful businessman to become president was Herbert Hoover, and his economic policy led to the Great Depression. Further, those businessmen who presume to comment on economic policy tend to think that the United States is like a big corporation, which it most certainly is not. Just for starters, the CEO of a corporation can fire anyone who won't heel but the President can't fire Congress or the courts. Trump, of course, falls victim to this way of thinking all the time. And so, concludes Krugman, "the idea that Donald Trump, of all people, knows how to run the U.S. economy is ludicrous." (Z)
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) suspects that he's not going to get a fair shake from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy (D-CT) and former Democratic representative Barney Frank, who will be heading, respectively, the rules and platform committees of the Democratic National Convention in July. Sanders is almost certainly right about this, particularly in the case of Frank, who has written editorials declaring that the Vermont Senator is not a good presidential candidate and is not a real progressive.
Sanders' problem is that "he doesn't like me" is not a basis for forcing a change. So, his campaign filed a complaint that the appointments of Malloy and Frank violated Democratic Party rules. The complaint did not specify what exact rules had been broken, however, and so the Party promptly rejected the complaint. Undoubtedly, this chess game is going to continue for at least a few more weeks, and maybe a few more months. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is holding her breath that neither side does too much damage while the process plays out. (Z)
Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) is starting a PR offensive claiming he has done nothing wrong despite the FBI investigation into his campaign financing. McAuliffe is a close personal friend of the Clintons and has numerous professional ties with them as well, including chief fundraiser. He would surely be considered for a cabinet job in a Clinton administration. In 1999, McAuliffe, who is wealthy from his earlier ventures in banking, real estate, and other businesses, helped the Clintons buy a home in Chappaqua, NY, so Hillary could run for the Senate from New York. At the time, the Clintons were deeply in debt due to their legal bills, so McAuliffe guaranteed their mortgage. In 2000, Bill Clinton appointed McAuliffe as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Nothing illegal here, but the Clintons and McAuliffe are joined at the hip and any damage to him is damage to them.
The FBI is looking into a donation of $120,000 that a Chinese businessman, Wang Wenliang, gave to McAuliffe's gubernatorial campaign. Foreign nationals are not allowed to contribute to U.S. election campaigns. However, McAuliffe is claiming that Wang has a green card and that makes the donation legal (V).
The Libertarian Party meets in Orlando this weekend to choose its nominees for President and Vice President, and members are feeling pretty good about their chances to make some noise in 2016. Recognizing that one of the major parties is going to be saddled with a nominee who makes many voters unhappy, they think they will be able to attract a lot of defectors to the LP banner. Interestingly, however, it appears the party that they're thinking of is the Democrats, and not the Republicans. LP leaders see much in common between their platform and that of Bernie Sanders, including decriminalization of drugs, opposition to the Patriot Act, and a generally dovish approach to foreign policy.
It's an interesting thought, but also a delusional one. To start with, while there are indeed similarities between Sanders and the LP, there are also some massive differences. Sanders wants to expand government regulation of the economy, they want to reduce it. He favors higher income taxes, they favor lower ones. He wants college to be free (as do many of his supporters), they want government out of the higher education business entirely. Further, Sanders supporters are not going to move en masse to a third party unless their leader tells them to do so. And the Vermont Senator has made very clear that he is not going to do anything that significantly increases the chances of Donald Trump's being elected president. The LP may peel off some members of the red team, but with the blue team they are almost certainly barking up the wrong tree. (Z)
As mentioned above, the Libertarian Party is holding its nominating convention this weekend. The likely nominee, former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, wants former Massachusetts governor William Weld as his running mate. However, Weld is getting a chilly reception from the delegates. Part of the problem is that his conversion to Libertarianism is very recent and part of it is that some of his ideas—such as staying in the United Nations—are anathema to the LP. While the convention could yet choose him, another candidate, New York business consultant Larry Sharpe, is also running for the job. (V)