Capitol Report
By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
After sweeping the so-called Yankee primaries last week in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island, Donald Trump is now making another exaggerated claim that he is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.
Even though Trump has yet to garner the necessary total of pledge delegates (1237) needed to ensure the nomination on the first ballot at the Republican convention, he continues to make the assertion nevertheless.
Granted Trump was widely expected to dominate the primaries, his margins of victory intensified the aura on inevitability around his bid to lead the Republicans, and created urgent new challenges for his rivals.
The other Republican candidates, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and John Kasich of Ohio, fared so poorly last Tuesday that they were likely to lose most of the 118 bound delegates up for grabs across the Northeast.
At the time this article was written, the outcome of the Indiana primary was yet to be decided. With that being said, Ted Cruz is now under intense pressure to beat Trump in Indiana’s primary this week, perhaps the last real chance the stop- Trump forces have to halt his march to the nomination. But in truth, if Trump wins Indiana, a merely modest win in California could be enough to give him 1,237 delegates. Trump has led in all the pre-election polls in California, sometimes by a double-digit margin, with around 40 percent of the vote.
Trump also dominated the news cycle on different front last week. He delivered what was touted as a major address on foreign policy.
It was Trump’s feeble attempt to appear “presidential” and even went as far as to use a teleprompter in delivering his remarks.
However, the speech was a complete and utter sham: void of any substance or specificity and lacking real solutions. In all honesty, it was just another of Trump’s endless rants about: Making America Great Again and his expertise at brokering deals, which will be useful in dealing with foreign heads of state.
There are many reasons to explain the rise of Donald Trump, from the establishment within the Republican Party summarily dismissing his candidacy to the wide spread anger among Republican voters, stemming from the GOP’s failure to deliver on its promises.
However, in my view, the media also shares considerable blame for the emergence, and subsequent ascendency, of Donald Trump.
More specifically, the media has failed to ask Trump enough tough questions and permitted him to dominate the daily news cycle. Here’s the rub. One of the words you hear most from supporters of Donald Trump is “authentic.” Authenticity implies honesty, or the very least an absence of deception (or B.S.). Politico analyzed nearly five hours of Trump’s speeches and news conferences, roughly a week’s worth of words. The Donald averaged a lie every five minutes. No matter the subject – poll numbers, his record, domestic policy, foreign policy, our trade deficit with China, his personal wealth, or his approach to lawsuits – Trump lied and exaggerated with perfect dexterity, like a man with no compass or shame. In all likelihood, Trump will get the mandatory number of pledged delegates and will become the presumptive Republican nominee, but that has yet to happen. But like most things that come out of his mouth, they are either exaggerated, erroneous or an outright lie. Donald Trump is nothing more than another Bernie Madoff promoting and his political Ponzi scheme: Make America Great Again.