Donald Trump is out with a new statement this morning, attacking The New York Times for distorting what he said about reducing the federal debt by deal-making with bond holders to reduce the amount the US government has to pay out to them. In truth, it’s more than just the Times, though Trump seems to have decided they were the best target for his broadside. You can read the statement here.
Keep an eye on our Official TPM Trump Elected Official Endorsement Scoreboard next week as we continue to add new names to each of the five categories. I will say that I am mildly surprised at how many elected officials have essentially decided to sit out the election.
Here’s what I mean.
So many stories in presidential politics, in all politics, are more sound and fury than substance. This one isn’t. It’s hard to overstate how big a deal it is. Donald Trump caught a lot of grief during the primaries for putting several of his companies through bankruptcies during his career. He’s also made a point of arguing that he’d bring his brand of “deal-making” to the presidency. It now seems like both of those things may have been way more significant than maybe anyone realized.
Big news today on the Official TPM Elected Official Trump Endorsement Scorecard. Still pretty few endorsements for Trump but “the nominee” continues to surge with numerous elected Republicans saying they’ll support him. (“the Nominee 2016” shirts are selling like crazy.) Meanwhile, Paul Ryan and other go into the Fuzzball category. (Keep your email tips coming – a huge resource for our team assembling the Scorecard.)
Several times over the years I’ve told the story of the first big political prediction I got right – less than a year into my first job in journalism. It was the fall of 1998, in the build up to President Clinton’s impeachment, and I was telling my officemates that I thought Democrats would pick up seats in the November election. I tried to write about it but my editor wouldn’t let me. (He said I would embarrass the publication.) This was contrary to what virtually everyone else predicted. So what special insight did I have? Really, none. I watched the public polling and paid attention to what those polls were saying. Contrary to the widespread predictions of a GOP wave, they suggested a modest Democratic gain, which is precisely what happened. Everyone else saw the same polls. But almost everyone else had come up with explanations for why they couldn’t be right.
We got a new entry into the “fuzzball” Trump endorsement category: Paul Ryan.
But wait, you say, he’s saying he can’t endorse … yet. Please. Let’s go back to the explanation of the “fuzzball” category in the TPM Trump Endorsement Scorecard.
Speaker Paul Ryan not ready to throw his support behind Donald Trump as the GOP nominee quite yet.
It’s moving fast and furious. Embattled Sen. Rob Portman has just moved from the “Fuzzball” to the “Supporting the Nominee” category on the Official TPM Elected Official Trump Endorsement Scorecard.
We’ve got another member of Congress added to the “support the nominee” add to the Official TPM Elected Official Trump Endorsement Scoreboard. The latest is freshman Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY). Awkward statement after the jump. From the Press-Republican …
Our Official TPM Elected Official Trump Endorsement Scorecard continues to grow. See our five categories here. Check out the list and tell us if there are people we’ve left out. Remember we are only including sitting members of Congress and governors. At the moment we have only three in the “Endorse” category, though we know there are some members of the House that are still be added. Meanwhile, there are only three who are in the genuine “NeverTrump” category. The great majority are in the “support the nominee” or “fuzzball” category. Check it out and let us know who we’re missing. Our panel of Trump taxonomy judges continues to evaluate where everyone stands.