It’s been a terrible thirty-six hours for Team Trump. Donald Jr. made a deeply offensive “joke” about the Holocaust. Ivanka walked out on an interview after being asked about her father’s record of insulting women. And the clan’s patriarch delivered what Talking Points Memo called a “word salad” outlining his widely panned (and incoherent) economic policy proposals.
Finally, the pressure continued to grow on The Donald to release his tax returns. In a devastating admission, Donald Jr. effectively told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that his father was hiding something negative in his tax returns. A few hours later, Speaker Paul Ryan called on Trump to finally disclose his taxes.
Reminder: it’s now been 235 days since the Donald promised the American people he would show them his taxes.
LAST NIGHT
6:20 pm ET: DONALD TRUMP JR. CUTS OFF AN INTERVIEW AFTER BEING ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE TRUMP FOUNDATION
Donald Trump Jr. abruptly cuts off an interview with a Philadelphia TV station after being asked about reports that his father used the family’s charity to buy a six-foot portrait of himself.
7:00 pm ET: IN OFF-SCRIPT RALLY, TRUMP ATTACKS HILLARY’S HEALTH
During a rally in Ohio, Vintage Trump was back. Trump was off-script, insulting and out of control. At one point, Trump even attacked Hillary Clinton’s health, asking “do you think Hillary would be able to stand up here for an hour?”
7:39 pm ET: DONALD TRUMP JR. EFFECTIVELY ADMITS HIS FATHER IS HIDING SOMETHING IN HIS TAX RETURNS
In an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Donald Trump Jr. explained that his father will not release his taxes “because he’s got a 12,000-page tax return that would create … financial auditors out of every person in the country asking questions that would detract from (his father’s) main message.”
Approximately 8:00 pm ET: IVANKA ABRUPTLY CUTS OFF AN INTERVIEW WITH COSMOPOLITAN
After being asked about her father’s misogynistic comments about working women, Ivanka Trump abruptly ends an interview about childcare and maternity leave policy with Cosmopolitan’s Prachi Gupta.
TODAY
7:16 am ET: TRUMP ATTACKS FLINT PASTOR AS “STRANGE”
In an interview on Fox & Friends, Trump attacks the Flint pastor who respectfully asked him not to make political attacks in church. “When she got up to introduce me, she was so nervous, she was take—shaking. Wow, it was strange,” Trump said. “She came up. She had that in mind. No question about it. [….]Everyone plays their games.”
11:19 am ET: BUZZFEED REPORTS THAT DONALD TRUMP JR. SAYS MEDIA WOULD BE “WARMING UP THE GAS CHAMBER” IF GOP DID WHAT HILLARY DID
BuzzFeed reports that yesterday Donald Trump Jr. told a local Philadelphia radio station that the media has let Hillary Clinton “slide on every in-discrepancy, on every lie, on every DNC game trying to get Bernie Sanders out of this thing. If Republicans were doing that, they’d be warming up the gas chamber right now.”
Approximately 11:41 am ET: HOUSE SPEAKER PAUL RYAN SAYS TRUMP SHOULD RELEASE HIS TAX RETURNS
House Speaker Paul Ryan calls on Trump to release his tax returns, telling reporters that “I released mine. I think he should release his.”
11:48 am ET: TRUMP UNVEILS “WORD SALAD” ECONOMIC PLAN
In an address to the Economic Club of New York, Donald Trump laid out his plan for the economy with nothing to back it up, even when asked for specifics– from economists. Trump told at least five lies and could only give a “boilerplate variation” on how he got to his proposed business income tax rate.
11:51 am ET: TRUMP CAMPAIGN CALLS FOR THE ELIMINATION OF FOOD SAFETY REGULATIONS
The Trump campaign released a fact sheet calling for an end to regulation on “food production hygiene and “inspection overkill.” The campaign later pulls the fact sheet down.
2:36 pm ET: FORMER TRUMP EMPLOYEE SAYS DONALD TRUMP HAD A RECORD OF JOKING ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST
In a tweet, a former senior Trump Organization employee said that “years ago, Trump joked about gas chambers and ovens.”
7:34 pm ET: TRUMP ONCE AGAIN REFUSES TO SAY PRESIDENT OBAMA WAS BORN IN THE UNITED STATES
In an article posted Thursday by the Washington Post, Trump said he would answer questions about the president’s birthplace “at the right time.” Even though that argument was settled long ago, Trump said he “just [doesn’t] want to answer it yet.” After all, he was a part of the birther movement.
8:07 pm ET: TRUMP BEGINS NEW HAMPSHIRE RALLY BEFORE THE PRESS ARRIVES
The only candidate who doesn’t travel with press (hint: Trump) started his rally before the traveling press corps arrived— and called it a good thing after apparently telling them he wouldn’t wait. “I have very good news for you. I just heard that the press is stuck on their airplane, they can’t get here. I love it.” Talk about transparency.