Trump: We're Having a Problem

He admits he could lose, take 'nice long vacation'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 12, 2016 5:19 AM CDT
Updated Aug 12, 2016 6:40 AM CDT
Trump: We're Having a Problem
Donald Trump attends a rally in Kissimmee, Fla., Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.   (Loren Elliott/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

In what the AP calls a "rare moment of humility," Donald Trump is beginning to signal that he is aware that he could be something other than a winner in November. "We're having a problem," he told a gathering of evangelical ministers on Florida on Thursday. "It could cost us the Supreme Court." Politico reports that Trump complained about the "tremendous problem" he is having winning votes in Utah. He went on to blame evangelicals for Mitt Romney's loss in 2012. "You did not vote for Romney," he told the ministers. "Evangelicals, religion, did not get out and vote. And I don't know why. Whatever the reason, I'm not sure why.” In other developments:

  • Reuters reports that Trump will hold meetings with Republican National Committee officials in Florida on Friday. Officials say it will be a normal meeting, though it comes as Republicans circulate an open letter to the RNC calling for it to spend money on local races instead of Trump because of his "divisiveness, recklessness, incompetence, and record-breaking unpopularity."

  • The Hill reports that Trump warns he will "stop funding the Republican Party" if it shifts funds from him to candidates in other races. "I'm the one raising the money for them," he told Fox's Bill O'Reilly. "In fact, right now I'm in Orlando, I'm going to a fundraiser for the Republican Party. If they want to do that they can save me a lot of time and a lot of energy."
  • Trump slammed Clinton for her "short-circuiting" brain at a Thursday night rally in Florida, where he got the day of the week wrong at least twice, the Guardian reports. "By the way, is there any place to be that’s better than a Friday night in Florida at a Trump rally?" he asked the crowd. "No place."
  • The New York Times reports that in a CNBC interview Thursday, Trump said he wouldn't change his campaigning style, but again acknowledged that he could be the loser this fall. "At the end, it’s either going to work or I'm going to, you know, I'm going to have a very, very nice long vacation," he said.
  • In a Miami Herald interview Thursday, Trump said he would consider having Americans accused of terror offenses tried in military courts at Guantanamo Bay. "I would say they could be tried there, that would be fine," said Trump, who went on to say he isn't a "big believer in man-made climate change," and he believes US climate policy is making American businesses noncompetitive.
  • Politico polled Republican insiders and found that nearly half of them think the race is over already. "Trump is underperforming so comprehensively across states and demographics it would take video evidence of a smiling Hillary drowning a litter of puppies while terrorists surrounded her with chants of ‘Death to America!'" said a Republican from Iowa. "But in 2016, stranger things have happened." Democrats were more cautious, with only 28% saying the race is already effectively over.
(More Donald Trump stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X