NEWS AND OPINION:
Let’s not forget that he’s a media guy himself. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump intends to bypass the ever-hostile, left-leaning press and go directly to the voters with his message. There’s a call out to “power the Trump train” — actually a one-week fundraising initiative just launched by Mr. Trump’s campaign. Organizers — who include son Donald Trump, Jr. — intend to raise $1 million a day to overstep the biased news media and deliver some well-crafted direct voter outreach to Americans instead.
“My father has been a target from day one, because they know he’s strong enough to stand up to them and put the American people first,” notes the younger Mr. Trump. “But the depth of their bias and dishonesty now is beyond anything we’ve ever seen before. Since Hillary Clinton’s coronation in Philadelphia, it has been a constant barrage. We’re launching the ’Power the Trump Train’ push to smash through the liberal media filter and connect directly with voters.”
NOW THERE’S A THOUGHT
“He may still beat me.”
— Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton referring to GOP rival Donald Trump, in a fundraising message. She added: “He’s unqualified and unfit to lead our country — but the unfortunate reality we must confront is that he still might be able to win if he spends enough to convince voters otherwise.”
CAROLINA BOUND
SEE ALSO: Susan Collins won’t vote for Donald Trump
The aforementioned Donald Trump heads for North Carolina on Tuesday for two jumbo rallies, one in Wilmington and the other in Fayetteville, both staged in major arenas. His daughter-in-law Lara — wife of son Eric Trump, and a native of North Carolina — has been in the battleground state for the past 48 hours, delivering as many as four local speeches a day, according to the Fayetteville Observer, a local newspaper.
“I think we can all agree if we don’t do something now, this country is never going to get back to where it was,” Mrs. Trump told an appreciative audience of several hundred who turned out to see her in the town of Southern Pines, and all intense fans of the GOP presidential nominee.
“He wants to come in, take over, keep us safe and bring jobs back,” she told them.
At a stop Sunday at the Antioch Road to Glory International Ministries in Charlotte, Mrs. Trump spoke before a predominantly black congregation which now backs Mr. Trump for president.
“We are no longer drinking the Democrat Kool-Aid,” Mark Burns, pastor of Harvest Praise and Worship Center, told the Charlotte News-Observer.
CAREGIVER POLITICS
SEE ALSO: GOP foreign policy experts call Trump unfit to lead
Now here’s a question: should nannies work for families that share opposing political perspectives? It could be a factor.
“The family should ask their potential nanny about their political views before hiring them, if politics are an important value to them,” advises Florence Ann Romano, a former nanny who wrote “Nanny and Me,” book about her experiences in the profession.
“Beyond that, if the parents expect the nanny to educate the child — in terms of current events — that needs to be assessed from the onset, as well,” says Ms. Romano.
DIAGNOSIS: $49 MILLION
“Here’s $49,577,386 that could have gone to Zika relief,” says Washington Free Beacon staff writer Elizabeth Harrington, who took a very close look at sundry expenditures at the National Institutes of Health, which indeed were approaching $50 million. Here’s a few examples of what the money went for:
• $10.7 million to develop a smartphone app that “can predict the ’psychological status’ of Americans.”
• $10.1 million to address “gender disparities in research with mice.”
• $3.5 million for a study to determine why “a majority of lesbians are obese while gay men generally are not.”
• $2.5 million to produce an anti-obesity song for kids.
• $1.6 million for an exercise program for refugees, which sends “’community partners’ into mosques to talk about physical activity.”
TRUMP CHARMS LESS-GOVERNMENT FANS
Predictable critics of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump pecked away at the content of his economic policy speech in Detroit on Monday. But Mr. Trump made some serious points with those who actually track the nation’s fiscal woes.
“Donald Trump has given the definitive answer to #NeverTrump with his low-tax, less regulation, pro-economic growth message that goes to heart of what every Republican purports to believe,” says Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government, a nonprofit. “Any doubts that Trump intends to roll back President Obama’s pen and phone regulatory assault on the economy should forever be put to rest. And any so-called conservative who clings to their Trump opposition in the wake of this message has lost all credibility.”
Notes Pam Villareal, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis: “The moratorium on federal regulations is “sorely needed in light of the more than 20,000 regulations that have taken effect during the Obama administration. On taxes, Trump proposed an across-the-board tax cut, simplifying the tax code from 7 to 3 brackets, and a new corporate tax rate of 15 percent. He also proposed the immediate expensing of businesses, a tax cut on repatriated foreign income, and the elimination of the death tax — all policies that will create jobs and grow the economy.”
POLL DU JOUR
• 62 percent of young black Americans ages 18 to 30 are worried about the threat of violence by “white extremists”; 41 percent of young Asian-Americans, 55 percent of young Hispanics and 33 percent of young whites agree.
• 55 percent of young black Americans are worried about the threat of violence by “people in the U.S. inspired by foreign extremists”; 54 percent of young Asian-Americans, 57 percent of young Hispanics and 50 percent of young whites agree.
• 49 percent of young black Americans are worried about the threat of violence by “individuals and groups from outside the U.S.”; 40 percent of young Asian-Americans, 56 percent of young Hispanics and 41 percent of young whites agree.
Source: An AP/NORC “GenForward” poll of 1,940 U.S. adults ages 18 to 30 conducted July 9 to 20 and released Monday.
• Murmurs and asides to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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