Calling Democratic front-runner, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s prolonged bathroom break “disgusting,” 69-year-old real estate mogul Donald Trump ripped Hillary for lying about Trump appearing in Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s [ISIS] recruitment videos. Whatever Trump’s criticism of Hillary, including fabricating ISIS recruitment videos, Trump was blasted for saying Hillary got “schlonged” by Obama in the 2008 campaign. While the press looks for Webster’s definitions, the term roughly translates into nothing more in the context of getting “hosed,” a colloquial expression referring getting beaten badly. Whatever reference “schlong” has to the literal definition of the male’s sexual anatomy, that’s not the way Trump used it, nor would the same expression be used any other way. Jumping all over the “schlong” remark gives the press more excuses to attack Trump.
Speaking in Flint, Michigan yesterday, Trump continued his stump speech attacking Washington’s “stupid” career politicians, both Republcians and Democrats, and his GOP rivals. Trump spent considerable time on Hillary’s “bathroom break,” largely getting laughter from the crowd. In the press and political circles, usually more serious than a heart attack, Trump’s humor sometimes falls flat or is ripped by the media as over the top. “She was favored to win and she go schlonged, she lost,” Trump told the Flint audience, almost immediately drawing ire from the press. Making anything about Trump’s “schlong” comments proves that the mainstream media is out to sabotage his political campaign. There’s not a minute that goes by on network or cable news where pundits don’t dismiss Trump’s standing the polls, insisting that voters will not deliver on Election Day.
However Trump went over the top on Hillary’s bathroom break, the press went further making a big deal about Trump saying she got “schlonged” by Obama. Unfamiliar with the term, the press loses the context, focusing only on the literal definition. Hillary’s spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri insists that Trump’s anti-Muslim remarks play right into the hands of ISIS recruiters, despite offering no proof. While its OK to take a political shot at Trump, it’s absurd to think that a terror group like ISIS needs any recruiting help, let alone a U.S. presidential candidate. If anything, Trump’s harsh rhetoric, like Reagan’s more than a generation ago, puts ISIS on notice that terrorists’ happy days would be over with a Trump presidency. Obama confessed in a PBS interview yesterday that the public had a right to be frustrated with his counter-terrorism strategy, especially the fight against ISIS.
Trump promotes so much outrage in the press that it’s become impossible to trust anything reported on his campaign. No matter what Trump’s lead, the press follows the Republican National Committee agenda to back anyone but Trump, hoping that one of the many GOP candidates capitalize on Trump’s failures. So far, the RNC and mainstream press haven’t gotten their way. Trump continues to draw the biggest campaign crowds, 10-times the size of most candidates, both Democratic and Republican. Yesterday’s speech in Flint was no different. Reacting with amusement and laughter, the crowds get Trump’s humor, something the press doesn’t. Trump’s crowds delight when he goes after the press, like he did last night. Fixated on “schlonged,” the press seeks any excuse to attack Trumps, to finally watch him fall from the relentless press’s death by a thousand cuts.
Trump hasn’t showed any signs of wavering, despite taking a pounding in political and media circles. His audiences get his over-reaching emphasis on changing Washington’s status quo of bitter partisanship. Trump’s growing group of supporters want a new brand of politics in 2016, one that offers authenticity, optimism and humor. “We are not responding to Trump, but everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should,” tweeted Palmieri. Unlike the GOP that hasn’t yet figured out Trump, Hillary’s campaign has concluded that he presents the biggest obstacle to the White House. There’s enough disenfranchised Democratic and independent voters to know that a Hillary presidency would be met with more-of the-same partisan gridlock. Going after Trump proves that Democrats would do anything to run against someone else.
Trump’s increasingly growing crowds like his style of lambasting Democrats, Republicans and the press. Voters know that everyone’s piled on, including the press, to sabotage Trump’s campaign, hoping, against the polls, that voters do something different on Election Day. While crossing the “obscenity” line in his campaign, Trump wants to push political correctness to the breaking point to highlight what’s wrong with the White House and Capitol Hill. Fixating on Trump’s “schlonged” comments, both Republicans and Democrats hope to take shots a Trump’s front-runner status. Trump’s GOP rivals seek any traction before the Feb. 1 Iowa Caucuses. Hillary hopes to run against anyone other than Trump in the general election. Whatever the polls say about who runs best against Hillary, Trump has the energy and charisma to drive his campaign to unexpected heights.
