From the transcript of a May 7 interview with George Stephanopoulos. (Emphases mine):
—snip—
STEPHANOPOULOS (on camera): But Paul Ryan is different. He’s the speaker of the House. He’s the highest ranking…
TRUMP: No.
STEPHANOPOULOS: — elected Republican in the country right now. He’s the chairman of the convention.
Back in March, you said he’d pay a price if he didn’t get along with you.
What is that price?
TRUMP: Well, we’re going to see what happens. He wants to meet. He’d like to meet. And I think we’re meeting on Thursday. And we’ll just see what happens. It’s just more drama.
But I think it’s a mistake not to do this. We want to bring the party together.
Does the party have to be together?
Does it have to be unified?
I’m very different than everybody else, perhaps, that’s ever run for office. I actually don’t think so. I think that…
STEPHANOPOULOS: It doesn’t have to be unified.
TRUMP: No, I don’t think so. I think it would be better if it were unified. I think it would be, uh, there would be something good about it. But I don’t think it actually has to be unified in the traditionally sense.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But the party (INAUDIBLE).
TRUMP: I’m going to do what I have to do. I have millions of people that voted for me because I have strong borders, because I want strong trade. I want good trade. I want trade. I don’t want to be an isolationist, but what’s happening with China, what’s happening with Japan, what’s happening with Mexico, they’re just absolutely eating our lunch. It’s a shame. It’s terrible.
So I have to say true to my principles, also. And I’m a conservative, but don’t forget, this is called the Republican Party. It’s not called the Conservative Party. You know, there are Conservative Parties. This is called the Republican Party.
I am a conservative.
—snip—
STEPHANOPOULOS (on camera): So you’re not worried about Obama…
TRUMP: I won with…
STEPHANOPOULOS: — out there campaigning against you?
TRUMP: Look, you know what?
TRUMP: Well, I’ll tell you what my reaction is. I won in massive doses and massive — by a massive number, New York, Pennsylvania, everything. I won overall. But I won with women. I won with men. I won with older. I won with soldiers. I won with highly educated and not so highly educated. I won with everybody.
TRUMP: Look, you know what?
Once we start, I think it’s going to be good.
—snip—
Read on for more…if more is even needed.
I repeat the salient information:
“…don’t forget, this is called the Republican Party. It’s not called the Conservative Party. You know, there are Conservative Parties. This is called the Republican Party. I am a conservative.”
And:
STEPHANOPOULOS (on camera): So you’re not worried about Obama…
TRUMP: I won with…
STEPHANOPOULOS: — out there campaigning against you?
TRUMP: Look, you know what?
TRUMP: Well, I’ll tell you what my reaction is. I won in massive doses and massive — by a massive number, New York, Pennsylvania, everything. I won overall. But I won with women. I won with men. I won with older. I won with soldiers. I won with highly educated and not so highly educated. I won with everybody.
TRUMP: Look, you know what?
Once we start, I think it’s going to be good.
Translation:
Listen up. I just kicked the asses of the Republican so-called elite and their lap dog media. For 12 months!!! Now it’s time for them to either come kiss my ass or take their money and go home.
And…I’m gonna do the same thing to the Democrats. Watch.
As I wrote in the comments section of another of my recent posts here:
RidgeCook posed the question:
“…who will be [Trump’s] minder in the White House?”
Here is my answer:
Who will be his minder in the White House?
I suspect that he will not suffer any minders, RidgeCook. If he wins, his “minders” will be the Permanent Government establishment in general…Congress first and foremost, w/the intelligence services, the armed forces and the courts right behind them. He has no political party of his own…yet…and (ironically) his inauguration would pull together all of the disparate special DC interests in one overreaching task…making sure that he doesn’t:
1-Tank the entire country
and
2-Seriously disturb the .01%’s massive feed trough.
Anything truly new that he wants to do will have to be done by executive fiat…which will suit his style very well. I personally think that if he does win (and of course succeeds in forming some sort of an alliance with the armed forces and intelligence system), within three years…prior to the real beginning of the next presidential election…the U.S. will be living under a form of government that could quite rationally be considered a form of dictatorship. Autocratic rule from the top. A Trumpocracy, if you will. He will bypass Congress and the media, go straight to the people and attain popular approval of whatever he is doing that is so great that it seriously threatens the pork-barrelers’ positions in Washington. At that point, they will begin to OK whatever least harms their own little pork barrels, and so-called “democracy” as we know it now will be well on the way to being gone.
That’s why we are now seeing an unprecedentedly united front of all the wings of the Permanent Government in an effort to stop him. They don’t want to lose their perks. Simple as that.
Watch…
AG
Like dat.
If he wins.
The whole current media pooh-pooh poobah about how the RatPubs are crashing and Trump can’t possibly win?
This is essentially the same shit that they were trying to run back in June and July, squared. Cubed, even. But they can take it to the Nth power if they wish to do so and it still won’t make a damned bit of difference…he’s a media Teflon Don. Only a true scandal or something worse will stop him now.
They’d better start digging before it’s too late. After the first debate with HRC? If she makes it that far without getting smacked upside the head by a couple of those pieces of baggage that are circling ever closer over her head? Baggage that she has so willingly accumulated during her long slog to the top and so far managed to dodge?
He’s going to do to her exactly what he did to the amateurs he opposed in the primaries.
He’s going to paint her bad.
Very bad.
It’s what he does, and he is very good at it.
Watch.
AG