MIAMI, Florida — The entire world elite is coming after billionaire businessman and 2016 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump with everything they have got, but Trump remains in command in the home stretch heading into perhaps the most important next three days of the entire GOP presidential primary.
Violent liberal leftwing protesters forced Trump to postpone a rally in Chicago on Friday night. Black activists stormed Trump’s stage before the presidential frontrunner took it, and as security worked to remove them, more broke out in violent altercations throughout the crowd.
Due to security concerns, Trump and his campaign called off the rally. “Mr. Trump just arrived in Chicago and after meeting with law enforcement has determined that for the safety of all of the tens of thousands of people that have gathered in and around the arena, tonight’s rally will be postponed to another date,” the Trump campaign said on Friday night. “Thank you very much for your attendance and please go in peace.”
After the rally-goers who lost their opportunity to see Trump went home peacefully, the situation eventually resolved. Trump’s campaign said in a follow-up statement:
Commander George Devereux of the CPD was informed of everything before it happened. Likewise, Secret Service and private security firms were consulted and totally involved. We have received great credit from everyone for canceling this event. Nobody was injured and crowds disbanded quickly and peacefully. It has been termed ‘really good management and leadership under great pressure!’ It would have been easier for Mr. Trump to have spoken, but he decided, in the interest of everyone’s safety, to postpone the event.
The most stunning part of this whole storyline is perhaps not that liberals got violent trying to stop him: It’s that Trump’s GOP primary opponents, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, blamed him and not the violent liberals for the chaos.
After that, the media spread false reports, Trump noted, that he was supposedly canceling more rallies on Saturday—including one in Cincinnati. Trump wasn’t canceling any rallies. “The rally in Cincinnati is ON. Media put out false reports that it was cancelled. Will be great – love you Ohio!” Trump Tweeted.
In Dayton, Ohio, earlier in the day, a protester reached out at Trump, prompting Secret Service to jump on stage to his defense—and remove the agitator from the audience.
Trump, unfazed, responded forcefully: “Thank you for the warning. I was ready for him, but it’s much easier if the cops do it, don’t we agree? What a great job!” Then he continued speaking to Ohioans.
It turns out, according to Trump, that the person may have had ties to ISIS, the Islamic State terrorist organization.
USSS did an excellent job stopping the maniac running to the stage. He has ties to ISIS. Should be in jail! https://t.co/tkzbHg7wyD?ssr=true
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2016
All of this escalation, of course, comes in the wake of a secret meeting of the world elite aimed at stopping Trump’s ascension to the presidency.
“Billionaires, tech CEOs and top members of the Republican establishment flew to a private island resort off the coast of Georgia this weekend for the American Enterprise Institute’s annual World Forum, according to sources familiar with the secretive gathering,” the Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim wrote of it. “The main topic at the closed-to-the-press confab? How to stop Republican front-runner Donald Trump.”
Those in attendance, according to Grim, included: Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page, Napster creator and Facebook investor Sean Parker, Tesla Motors’ and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Karl Rove, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Tim Scott (R-SC), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Ben Sasse (R-NE). House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House GOP conference chairwoman Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), and Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) were also present according to Grim, as were billionaire GOP donor Philip Anschutz—who owns the company that owns both the Washington Examiner and the Weekly Standard—and New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger.
Bill Kristol, of Anschutz’s Weekly Standard, wrote an emailed report from the conference according to Grim—a report that borrowed “the opening lines of the Communist Manifesto.”
“A specter was haunting the World Forum–the specter of Donald Trump,” Kristol wrote. “There was much unhappiness about his emergence, a good deal of talk, some of it insightful and thoughtful, about why he’s done so well, and many expressions of hope that he would be defeated.”
Kristol has been avidly opposed to Trump for some time, even writing a piece for competitor magazine National Review’s “Against Trump” issue, and suggesting that Democrat Hillary Clinton would be a better president than Republican Trump.
Grim later detailed on CNN how 54 private jets landed on the island off Georgia’s coast for the anti-Trump elite summit.
Trump, meanwhile, has battled with the governments of Mexico, China, Canada, and many other foreign leaders who have been trying to stop his election to the presidency here. He’s fought with the Pope over immigration and Christianity. He’s battled with the most powerful criminals in the world, the Mexican drug cartels, and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has put a bounty on his head.
That’s not to mention the vicious attacks he’s sustained from each of his GOP presidential rivals throughout this primary campaign, ranging from Cruz’s to Rubio’s to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s to Sen. Rand Paul’s to former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s to Sen. Lindsey Graham’s and more. He’s even survived vicious personal attacks from the former GOP nominee, 2012’s Mitt Romney, who’s lost both times he ran for president.
It seems like everyone wants to stop Trump, except the actual voters who keep backing him over his rivals in contest after contest. The biggest one is coming up on Tuesday, as voters here in Florida, per recent polling, are likely to select him over Kasich, Cruz, or their home state senator Rubio—and voters in Kasich’s Ohio, recent polls show, may select Trump. Trump and Kasich are dueling it out for Ohio right now, according to new polls.
Missouri, Illinois, and North Carolina voters will also head to the polls. Trump holds leads in Missouri and Illinois, according to recent polling (though Missouri polling is scant), and he also leads in North Carolina. If Trump wins Florida, Ohio, and Missouri—all winner-take-all states—he will pick up another 217 delegates. Both North Carolina and Illinois award delegates proportionally, so Trump will likely get a significant portion of their combined 141 delegates.
Trump currently has 460 delegates, and would need 1,237 to win the GOP nomination. Winning the three winner-take-all states would put him well over 700 delegates, potentially closer to 800 delegates, and within striking distance of wrapping this thing up in the next few weeks.
So, while the entire world has come at Trump with everything they’ve got, he’s not only still standing. He’s in prime position to potentially win the nomination soon, if his momentum continues on the trajectory it’s on, and then the question would become whether the party would support him–or whether GOP leaders would go back on their pledges to support the eventual nominee. Some, including Kasich and Rubio, have suggested in recent days they may go back on their pledge.
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