Trump vs The Wisconsin Republican Mafia... And A Chastened Trumpanzee, A Loser, Backs Down

Most of the Wisconsin congressmembers aren't what you would call Trumpists-- and neither are their constituents. Trump, in fact, performed poorly in the state's Republican primary. Ted Cruz was the big winner with 531,129 votes (48.2%) to Trump's 386,370 (35.1%). He won 6 delegates to Cruz's 36. The Wisconsin congressional district where Trump did best-- and won-- was the 7th, Sean Duffy's district way up near Canada in the dark, frozen tundra. And Duffy, a former minor TV reality "star" himself, is Trump's top congressional supporter in the state. But yesterday Duffy sided with Ryan in the GOP civil war between the Speaker and Trump, telling CNN viewers that Trump's stance against Ryan "makes no sense" and hurts him in Wisconsin. The 3 most recent Wisconsin polls show Clinton beating Trump by 4, 5 and 8 points-- and they were all before Trump decided to pick a spurious, pointless and pre-adolescent spat with Ryan or the Khan family.

Today, feeling the intense pressure and the even more intense pain from the Republican Party establishment, Trump buckled and was forced to endorse Ryan (as well as John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire) at his rally in Green Bay, an area Cruz won in the primary, Brown County going for him 25,612 to 18,705 for Mr. Trumpanzee. (Bernie won about 4,000 more votes in Brown County than Trump did.) Governor Scott Walker and Senator Ron Johnson, not to mention Ryan, all kept away from the rally, each politely claiming scheduling conflicts. Walker tweeted a photo of himself and Ryan together with the message, "We stand with Paul Ryan!"

This morning, as Trump was getting ready to fly to Green Bay, Robin Vos, the hyper-partisan Speaker of Wisconsin's Assembly released an open letter to the state's Republicans: Welcome to Wisconsin, Mr. Trump, a virtual declaration of war against the Trumpanzee forces that starts off with him admitting he's embarrassed that Trump is the GOP nominee.

When I saw Donald Trump say kind words about Paul Nehlen’s longshot bid against my friend and Congressman Paul Ryan, I have to say I was incredibly disappointed. Frankly, I was heartbroken because it revealed a lack of judgement from our nominee that I just cannot look away from or forgive. He might be able to repair the damage, but it can’t be ignored.

As Donald Trump has said stupid things and been rude to so many people over the past year, I usually chalked it up to inexperience and the spotlight of an incredibly hostile press. But since the convention, his lack of judgement has got to concern even the most ardent Trump supporters.

...As the GOP nominee comes to visit our great state of Wisconsin, let’s remind him of some important facts. For nearly the past 20 years, the Legislature has had a strong Republican majority. Our governor is one of the biggest reformers in the nation and the first in U.S. history to survive a recall attempt. Republicans know how to win here. Wisconsin has an amazing GOP ground game with strong conservative voices. And those voices are united, standing with our House Speaker, Congressman Paul Ryan.

Welcome to Wisconsin, Mr. Trump, but let’s get something straight-- we are Ryan Republicans here in Wisconsin, not Trump Republicans.

Show us you can be the leader our nation needs by admitting you made a mistake supporting a bigot like Paul Nehlen who said we should ban a religion. Show us you are a real leader by standing in Green Bay today and joining nearly everyone in the conservative movement in endorsing Paul Ryan. Conservatives in Wisconsin are watching and hoping you do the right thing.

Last May Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns reported that the big GOP donor class-- which basically beats off to the thought of a Paul Ryan presidency nightly-- isn't on the Trumpanzee side of the fight. Trump's raising money from small donors the way Bernie did while many of the multimillionaire and billionaire campaign financiers are either going over to Hillary or sitting out the presidential race this time around (at least so far). They wrote that "interviews and emails with more than 50 of the Republican Party’s largest donors, or their representatives, revealed a measure of contempt and distrust toward their own party’s nominee that is unheard of in modern presidential politics." Hard to imagine why!

More than a dozen of the party’s most reliable individual contributors and wealthy families indicated that they would not give to or raise money for Mr. Trump. This group has contributed a combined $90 million to conservative candidates and causes in the last three federal elections, mainly to “super PACs” dedicated to electing Republican candidates.

Up to this point, Mr. Trump has embraced the hostility of the Republican establishment, goading the party’s angry base with diatribes against wealthy donors who he claimed controlled politicians. And he has succeeded while defying conventions of presidential campaigning, relying on media attention and large rallies to fire up supporters, and funding his operation with a mix of his own money and small-dollar contributions.

But that formula will be tested as he presents himself to a far larger audience of voters. Mr. Trump has turned to the task of winning over elites he once attacked, with some initial success. And he has said he hopes to raise $1 billion, an enormous task given that he named a finance chairman and started scheduling fund-raisers only this month.

Among the party’s biggest financiers disavowing Mr. Trump are Paul E. Singer, a New York investor who has spent at least $28 million for national Republicans since the 2012 election, and Joe Ricketts, the TD Ameritrade founder who with his wife Marlene has spent nearly $30 million over the same period of time, as well as the hedge fund managers William Oberndorf and Seth Klarman, and the Florida hospital executive Mike Fernandez.

“If it is Trump vs. Clinton,” Mr. Oberndorf said, “I will be voting for Hillary.”

The rejection of Mr. Trump among some of the party’s biggest donors and fund-raisers reflects several strains of hostility to his campaign. Donors cited his fickleness on matters of policy and what they saw as an ad hoc populist platform focused on trade protectionism and immigration. Several mentioned Mr. Trump’s own fortune, suggesting that if he was as wealthy as he claimed, then he should not need their assistance.

Among the more than 50 donors contacted, only nine have said unambiguously that they will contribute to Mr. Trump. They include Sheldon G. Adelson, the casino billionaire; the energy executive T. Boone Pickens; Foster Friess, a wealthy mutual fund investor; and Richard H. Roberts, a pharmaceutical executive.

Some major donors have not explicitly closed the door on helping Mr. Trump, but have set a high bar for him to earn their support, demanding an almost complete makeover of his candidacy and a repudiation of his own inflammatory statements.

“Until we have a better reason to embrace and support the top of the ticket, and see an agenda that is truly an opportunity agenda, then we have lots of other options in which to invest and spend our time helping,” said Betsy DeVos, a Michigan Republican whose family has given nearly $9.5 million over the last three elections to party causes and candidates.

But others simply believe Mr. Trump is unfit to serve in the Oval Office. Michael K. Vlock, a Connecticut investor who has given nearly $5 million to Republicans at the federal level since 2014, said he considered Mr. Trump a dangerous person.

“He’s an ignorant, amoral, dishonest and manipulative, misogynistic, philandering, hyper-litigious, isolationist, protectionist blowhard,” Mr. Vlock said.

Mr. Vlock said he might give to Hillary Clinton instead, describing her as “the devil we know.”

“I really believe our republic will survive Hillary,” he said.

And Mr. Trumpanzee really believed he was right to refuse to back Ryan. He told a West Palm Beach TV station Wednesday that he was happy he didn't endorse Ryan. "I was very forthright when I said, when I made certain statements, and you know, I’m happy with them. We’ll see what happens, I think we’re going to do very well." RNC Chairman, toady Reince Priebus doesn't agree.

Charlie Sykes, a conservative Wisconsin radio talk show host who has been an outspoken critic of Trump, told Yahoo News: “Reince is a friend, but I think is a tragic figure here.”

“He’s the guy who brokered, obviously, the deal with Ryan and with Walker,” Sykes said, referring to Ryan and Walker’s endorsements of Trump.

“So you can’t overstate the humiliation, the personal and political humiliation for Reince Priebus, when Trump does this with Ryan,” Sykes said. “This means so much to Reince. This is above politics. It’s very personal that he wanted to unite the party, get Ryan and Trump on the same page, get Walker.”

“He’s basically mortgaged his entire reputation and career for Donald Trump,” Sykes said of Priebus.

Meanwhile, deranged lady-Trumpists, Ann Couler, Sarah Palin and Phyllis Schlafly, are all working to replace Ryan with Nehlen. In an interview on a neo-Nazi website Schlafly insisted that Ryan has repeatedly demonstrated that he is “not really for America” and is “not for American citizens... Get rid of him! We don’t want anybody who believes in open borders. Obviously Paul Ryan is not an ‘America first’ guy.”

Tomorrow Nehlen has rallies in Janesville and Kenosha with fascist former superstar Ann Coulter. But Nehlen, Coulter, Schlafly and Palin-- even with the implicit blessing of the House Freedom Caucus-- can't defeat Ryan in the first district. The only way for that to happen would be if enough Democrats figure out they can end Ryan's Speakership, throw the House Republicans into a full-fledged civil war and end any chance of passage of the TPP by pulling Republican ballots in the open primary Tuesday and voting for Nehlen. It's certainly what I'm telling everyone I know in the district to do.