US Election: Dump Trump movement gains momentum

Date: June 20, 2016

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Paul McGeough

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Faux Japanese Trump ad goes viral

A satirical video, created by American YouTube personality Mike Diva, has gone viral, with many viewers apparently believing it to be an actual Japanese commercial.

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Washington: Renewed agitation for Donald Trump to be ambushed and stripped of the Republican Party nomination for president at the party's July convention got a push along on Sunday when House Speaker Paul Ryan seemed to encourage the mooted revolt.

The "Dump Trump" movement started with "dozens" of Republican delegates trying for a strategy to defeat the presumptive nominee at the national convention in Cleveland; it now claims "several hundred delegates".

House Speaker Paul Ryan appears to have left the door open for an anti-Trump strike. Photo: AP

Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, Mr Ryan, who will be the convention chairman, said it was not his job to block any new bid to dump Mr Trump.

"They write the rules, they make the decisions ... all I want is to make sure it is done above board, clearly, honestly and by the rules."

Mr Ryan's comments came as supporters of the growing anti-Trump movement announced plans to raise money for staff and a possible legal defence fund as they asked new recruits to help spread the word with less than a month until the convention.

Donald Trump gestures to his camouflaged "Make America Great" hat at a campaign rally. Photo: AP

"As we carefully consider not only the presidential nominee but the rules of the convention, the platform of the Republican Party and the vice-presidential nominee, remember that this is true reality TV - it is not entertainment," said Regina Thomson, co-founder of the group now calling itself "Free the Delegates".

The group is led by convention delegates seeking to block Mr Trump by changing party rules so they can vote however they want - instead of in line with the results of state caucuses and primaries.

It is quickly emerging as the most organised effort to stop Mr Trump and coincides with his declining poll numbers.

An anti-Trump protester chants at an intersection a block away from a Trump rally in Arizona on Saturday. Photo: AP

Concerned Republicans are also increasingly alarmed by Mr Trump's rhetoric, including his racial attacks on a federal judge, a fresh call he made on Sunday to begin profiling Muslim Americans, and his support for changing the nation's gun laws following the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

But Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus and other party leaders believe that convention delegates are bound to the results of the caucuses and primaries held over the course of the year.

An RNC spokesman on Friday dismissed plans to undermine Mr Trump, first reported by The Washington Post, as "silly" and "nothing more than a media creation and a series of tweets".

Supporters arrive to see Donald Trump in Phoenix on Saturday. Photo: AP

Mr Trump called attempts to strip him of the party nomination "totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying".

With Washington Post, Bloomberg

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95 comments so far

I'm voting for Trump on July 2nd to become the next Australian Prime Minister.

Commenter

Vote Trump 2nd July

Date and time

June 20, 2016, 2:13PM
- Ordinary Australians never get to vote for anyone to become PM of Australia, they're just continually deluded by the media and the political parties into that belief.
  But what the whole Trump episode reveals is the ridiculous level American beltway political degeneracy has devolved to. Trump has all the charm of Vladimir Putin and impeachment proceedings against Hilary are almost certain to start the day after she is sworn in.
  
  Commenter
  
  SteveH.
  
  Date and time
  
  June 20, 2016, 3:09PM
- I know we have a small field but I thing your selection will drop the bridle jockey and fall over before the finish line
  
  Commenter
  
  Fergus
  
  Date and time
  
  June 20, 2016, 4:00PM
- Malcolm Trump or Tony Trump?
  
  Commenter
  
  Will
  
  Location
  
  Darwin
  
  Date and time
  
  June 20, 2016, 4:23PM
- But Tony Abbott isn't running for Prime Minister?
  
  Commenter
  
  Snapperhead
  
  Location
  
  The Reef
  
  Date and time
  
  June 20, 2016, 4:25PM
- Snapper
  Get with it man. Of course Tony is running for PM. If Mal wins by a small margin, Tony becomes PM by default.
  
  Commenter
  
  bg2
  
  Date and time
  
  June 20, 2016, 4:48PM
- Watching Trump implode is going to be the best viewing this year (after July 2). As his poll numbers slide south, he is going to become even more shrill and desperate in his attacks on Hillary and Minorities which will only drive his polls even further south.
  After a few weeks of this, he will wake up to himself and try to change tact and act more “Presidential” but that won’t work because voters aren’t totally stupid and there are too many of his crazy comments on the record to walk them back now, so when changing tact fails, he will totally lose the plot and start blaming anyone within earshot.
  Remember how Palin imploded mid campaign because she was simply not up to the job? Trumps collapse will be Palin on steroids. And when all hope is lost, Trump will look for anyone else, other than himself to blame, and then the Lawsuits will start. He will do anything he can to save his reputation and bruised ego but what he fails to understand is that his reputation is already trashed.
  No one in their right mind will be paying to have his name on any of their merchandise moving forward. The Brand Name that he is so proud of has now been totally ruined.
  
  Commenter
  
  Snapperhead
  
  Location
  
  The Reef
  
  Date and time
  
  June 20, 2016, 4:49PM
- Will, I am still trying to decide between Bill Trump and Richard di Trump.
  
  Commenter
  
  Won't
  
  Date and time
  
  June 20, 2016, 6:11PM
- snapper - all those 'crazy comments on the record' haven't hurt him so far (if they were going to, they would have by now). are polls a trustworthy source of information? (you seem to think so). are the large attendances at his rallies in any way declining? (it doesn't look like it). Granted Trump is not the most perfect example of an experienced statesman/diplomat, but I tend to think under these circumstances that won't matter. Trump may appear to be short on detail at times, but he can certainly think fast on his feet. Hillary is going to have to be very careful during the debates.
  
  Commenter
  
  sun
  
  Date and time
  
  June 20, 2016, 6:25PM
- Once upon a time, the populist left-wing's theory was that the national media in US was virtually a right-wing puppet of the Republican party, swaying the masses to vote for George W. Bush and hiding all their dirty laundry.
  Well Trump won the nomination without much help from the media. If Republicans hold so much influence through the media and they didn't want Trump, how could he be the Republican nominee? They even launched campaigns telling their own members not to vote for him and the media demonised him over there just as much as they did here.
  Another populist left theory is that money and wall street buy elections. Yet Trump became nominee on one of the smallest campaign budgets by comparison and he's most certainly not universally liked by the Wall Street establishment.
  So, In the midst of all this, lets not over look the fact that a number of theories about the GOP, national media and influence of faceless bankers have come crumbling down...
  Suggests that the masses in the US can and do think independently of the media and the establishment of the party.
  The biggest hurdle for the left to get over is themselves. Instead of overused theories such as "they're all misinformed" and "Trump has twisted their thinking" and "Trump is playing on their insecurities", perhaps they should reflect on why his message is connecting. So far, all the left have done is belittle and dismiss those that don't share their views; and abandon logic and sensibility to automatically assume the counter-position to conservatives - a counter-position often laden with unnecessary hate, criticism and offers no specific, meaningful alternatives.
  
  Commenter
  
  Dezel
  
  Location
  
  Melb
  
  Date and time
  
  June 20, 2016, 7:55PM

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