In April, a few weeks before Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, he stood on a stage in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and made a bold prediction. “At some point, I'm going to be so presidential that you people will be so bored,” he said. “And I’ll come back as a presidential person.”
The remark raised a challenging question about a candidate who had shattered so many of the supposed rules of politics en route to the nomination: How would President Trump behave in the White House?
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To answer that, POLITICO decided to track Trump’s every move for his first 100 days as presumptive Republican nominee. Ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt, the “first 100 days” has been a cornerstone measurement of American presidents. The aim was simple: To capture a snapshot of how this unconventional candidate who has strained the boundaries of American political discourse is evolving, and not evolving, as he seeks the nation’s highest office.
Amid the torrent of Trump that followed, there were recurring themes: staff turmoil and turnover, talk of resets followed by relapses, Trump attacking Republicans, Republicans distancing themselves from Trump, missed opportunities, flirtations with Russia, and uncomfortable associations with white nationalism. For much of the time, Trump lurched from controversy to controversy, lighting a new one as the final embers of the last burned low.
He tweeted every single day, sending more than 1,000 140-character missives, often driving news cycles, sometimes for days.
The longest-running storyline was the awkward political embrace with Speaker Paul Ryan, the self-styled ideas man for a party whose ideas Trump ran against. There was the initial snub (Day 3), the eventual endorsement (Day 31) and then 10 weeks of distancing and denunciations (Days 32, 36, 43, 45, 64 (twice), 80, 86, 90, 91, 94).
What also emerges from this 100-day review is a Trump outlook less tethered to the traditional left-right ideological spectrum and more to his binary view of winners and losers, the weak and the strong. He praises foreign strongmen like Saddam Hussein and Vladimir Putin, and casts as weak his political opponents. It's one of the reasons Trump seems never to back down, no matter the cost to himself, dragging out controversies around a judge’s ethnic heritage (Days 32-36), the use of a Jewish star atop a pile of money (Days 61-65), and his feud with the Muslim-American family of a fallen U.S. soldier (Days 87-92).
Those three episodes alone consumed 15 percent of his days.
But as much news as Trump made, much of Trump’s 100 days is a tale of time squandered: the three weeks before holding his first fundraiser, the 39 days before a swing-state tour, the 50 days before his first email solicitation for money. “Usually campaigns don’t even start until September,” said Paul Manafort, his campaign chairman, on Day 94. Trump has still not aired a general election ad.
Indeed, perhaps the most difficult missteps to measure are Trump’s neglected opportunities. He essentially ignored an inspector general’s report critical of Clinton (Day 23), stomped on the Labor Department’s worst jobs report in six years (Day 32) and posted that controversial Jewish star the same day Clinton sat down to be interviewed by the FBI (Day 61).
By far, though, the hardest part of tracking Donald Trump is simply keeping up.
Day 1: Tuesday, May 3
It’s election day in Indiana. Trump begins by alleging that Sen. Ted Cruz’s father was with John F. Kennedy’s assassin shortly before he killed the president. There is no evidence for this claim, other than a National Enquirer story. Cruz responds that Trump is a “pathological liar” and a “narcissist.”
Trump wins the Indiana primary by 16.6 percentage points. He celebrates at Trump Tower in New York, where he launched his campaign 11 months earlier. Cruz drops out. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus tweets that Trump will be the GOP’s “presumptive nominee.”
"It is a beautiful thing to watch, and a beautiful thing to behold," Trump says in his victory speech. "We are going to make America great again."
This is Day One.
Day 2: Wednesday, May 4
Trump calls into the morning shows. “Do I want to sell a couple of buildings and self-fund?” Trump muses on MSNBC. “I don’t know that I want to do that.” He talks about fundraising instead of self-funding his campaign. It is the first of many reversals he’ll make now that he is the nominee.
After opposing a minimum-wage hike in the primaries, he declares on CNN, “I am open to doing something with it.” He says that makes him “very different from most Republicans.” “You have to have something that you can live on,” he says.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Trump’s final opponent, drops out. Trump floats Kasich as VP. “I’d be interested in vetting John,” Trump tells Wolf Blitzer.
Still, there is some early resistance within the GOP to Trump’s rise. “There are dumpster fires in my town more popular than these two ‘leaders,’ ” Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska writes on Facebook in a widely circulated post, about Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Day 3: Thursday, May 5
It is Cinco de Mayo. Trump celebrates by posting a photo of himself eating a taco bowl. “I love Hispanics,” he writes.
Trump announces a new finance chairman, a former Goldman Sachs executive who previously donated to Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama. Trump had previously attacked his opponents for their Goldman Sachs ties, including Cruz. “I know the guys at Goldman Sachs. They have total, total control over him. Just like they have total control over Hillary Clinton,” he had said.
Trump holds his first rally as presumptive nominee in West Virginia. “You’ve been hearing me say it’s a rigged system,” Trump says of the primaries. “But now I don’t say it anymore because I won.” West Virginia’s primary is next week; it is not a general-election swing state.
Speaker Paul Ryan declines to endorse Trump, saying he is “not ready” on CNN. “What a lot of Republicans want to see is that we have a standard-bearer that bears our standards,” Ryan says. Trump does not take kindly to the snub. “I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan's agenda,” he replies. Trump calls Priebus minutes after Ryan’s remarks to complain.
Party unity appears far off.
Day 4: Friday, May 6
Trump says he is surprised by Ryan’s refusal to endorse him. “With billions of people coming into the party, obviously I’m saying the right thing,” he says on “Fox and Friends.” The U.S. population is a little more than 300 million.
Trump, who on Wednesday had said “I’m the king of debt,” suggests on CNBC he is open to negotiating with creditors to pay less on the national debt. “I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal,” he says, adding, “And if the economy was good, it was good. So, therefore, you can’t lose.”
Economists and others express concern about the full faith and credit of the United States.
Trump brings up former President Bill Clinton’s sexual dalliances to attack Hillary. “Nobody in this country — and maybe in the history of this country, politically — was worse than Bill Clinton with women. He was a disaster. He was a disaster,” Trump says at a rally in Oregon. He continues: “She's been the total enabler. She would go after these women and destroy their lives. She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler. What she did to a lot of those women was disgraceful.”
The Ryan-Trump feud continues. “Paul Ryan said that I inherited something very special, the Republican Party. Wrong, I didn't inherit it, I won it with millions of voters!” Trump tweets. Ryan and Trump agree to meet the following week.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says he isn’t backing Trump because he lacks the “temperament or strength of character” to be president. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham says he isn’t supporting Trump yet, either. Trump attacks both of them.
Priebus, asked at a POLITICO Playbook event if the GOP is now Trump’s party, says no. “It’s the party’s party,” he says cryptically.
It is not exactly clear what he means.
Day 5: Saturday, May 7
Mitt Romney delivers a commencement address. He warns of "demagogues on the right and the left draw upon our darker angels, scapegoating immigrants and Muslims or bankers and businesspeople." He does not mention Trump by name.
Day 6: Sunday, May 8
Trump signals willingness to change his tax plan. “For the wealthy, I think, frankly, it's going to go up. And you know what, it really should go up,” he says on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I’ll tell you what the real concept is,” he confides on ABC. “Lower taxes for business, lower taxes for the middle class, lower taxes for everybody and then we’re going to start negotiating” with Democrats. Of rates for the rich, he says, “In my plan they’re going down, but by the time it’s negotiated, they’ll go up.”
Trump expands on his change of heart on the minimum wage. “Sure it’s a change. I’m allowed to change. You need flexibility,” he says on ABC. On NBC: “I don’t know how people make it on $7.25 an hour.”
Trump dismisses the need for party unity. "I think it would be better if it were unified, I think it would be — there would be something good about it. But I don't think it actually has to be unified in the traditional sense.” And he resists hewing to conservative orthodoxy. “Don’t forget, this is called the Republican Party. It’s not called the Conservative Party,” he says.
Sarah Palin, a prominent Trump backer, says on CNN that “Paul Ryan is soon to be Cantored," a reference to the defeated former House leader.
Day 7: Monday, May 9
Trump begins his day by dialing into CNN and Fox Business. He does not appear on MSNBC, instead tweeting, “Wow, I hear @Morning_Joe has gone really hostile ever since I said I won't do or watch the show anymore. They misrepresent my positions!”
On CNN, Trump tries to clarify his earlier remarks about debt, saying, “First of all, you never have to default because you print the money, I tell you, OK? So there’s never a default.” Still, he says, “if there’s a chance to buy back debt at a discount” he would.
He speaks about Bill Clinton again. “He was impeached! He was impeached! And then he lied about it. He said, nothing happened with Monica Lewinsky, and then he said, sorry folks, it actually did happen. And the guy was impeached for lying.”
“She can't talk about me because nobody respects women more than Donald Trump, and I will be better for women by a big factor than Hillary Clinton, who frankly, I don't even think will be good to women,” Trump concludes.
Trump’s political team meets at the RNC headquarters.
Day 8: Tuesday, May 10
Trump wins the West Virginia and Nebraska primaries. He carries Nebraska with only 61.4 percent of the vote, despite the fact that all his opponents have dropped out. Trump is revealed to have selected a white nationalist as a delegate from California. They blamed a computer problem. The delegate quickly withdraws his name.
Trump tells the AP that he won’t be releasing his tax returns before November and that he doesn’t plan to run a data-driven campaign. "I've always felt it was overrated," Trump says. "Obama got the votes much more so than his data processing machine. And I think the same is true with me."
Cruz says he won’t endorse Trump yet. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, another of Trump’s former rivals, says he will “support the nominee” but he withdraws his name from the vice presidential sweepstakes. “That's certainly not me,” Rubio says.
Day 9: Wednesday, May 11
POLITICO reports that Trump has tasked two conservatives, Larry Kudlow and Stephen Moore, with rewriting his tax plan. They are looking at raising the top rate from his original plan, which helps explains some of his comments.
In an interview with Don Imus, Trump says he did does not regret his summer of 2015 comment that Arizona Sen. John McCain was “not a war hero” because he was captured. “There are many people that like what I said,” Trump says. “You know after I said that, my poll numbers went up 7 points.”
Trump gives an interview to a newspaper in Israel. It is owned by billionaire Republican donor Sheldon Adelson.
Trump unveils a new nickname for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders: “Crazy Bernie.” It immediately begins trending on Twitter. He also bestows a nickname on Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “Goofy Elizabeth Warren.”
Trump says he is going to keep being himself, despite calls to change. “You win the pennant and now you’re in the World Series — you gonna change?” he says to The New York Times. “People like the way I’m doing.”
Day 10: Thursday, May 12
Trump and Ryan meet at RNC headquarters. Protesters circle outside with a coffin, a bagpipe and a shofar. Trump and Ryan issue a joint statement afterward. It doesn’t say much. Ryan does not endorse Trump. “While we were honest about our few differences, we recognize that there are also many important areas of common ground,” the statement says.
Trump also meets with Senate Republicans. Those who attend take photos with Trump, who gives a thumbs up.
Mother Jones reports Trump’s longtime butler posted on Facebook that Obama should be killed and “hung for treason!!!” The Trump campaign disavows the statements. White supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke suggests on Twitter that he should form a ticket with Trump. “It'd be Trump's best LIFE INSURANCE.The Zio NeoCon Mossad boys would not dare touch him if I was heartbeat from Presidency,” Duke writes.
Day 11: Friday, May 13
The Washington Post posts audio of Trump faking being his own spokesman, John Miller, to speak flatteringly about himself in 1991. Trump denies the voice on the recording that sounds like him is him. “It was not me on the phone,” he says on the “Today” show. “It was not me on the phone. And it doesn't sound like me on the phone. I'll tell you that. And it was not me on the phone.”
Later in the day, he appears to hang up on the Post when the reporter asks if he ever employed someone named John Miller.
Trump makes other news on the morning shows. Asked about his tax rate on ABC, he snaps, “It's none of your business.” On Fox News, he says none of his policy prescriptions are written in stone. “It was a suggestion,” Trump says of his controversial ban on Muslim immigrants. “Look, anything I say right now, I'm not the president. Everything is a suggestion, no matter what you say, it's a suggestion."
His spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, meanwhile, says Trump is not rewriting his tax plan, despite asking economists to draft revisions for him.
Sheldon Adelson spent roughly $100 million on the 2012 elections. During the primary, Trump had mocked Adelson, saying he wanted to make Rubio “his perfect little puppet.” Soon after he became the presumptive nominee, Trump had met privately with Adelson and his wife in Manhattan.
Day 12: Saturday, May 14
The New York Times publishes a massive review of Trump’s private interactions with women, from asking them to change into bikinis to kissing them unwantedly on the lips.
Trump tweets a link to a story about Adelson promising to spend $100 million to elect Trump.
Day 13: Sunday, May 15
Trump calls Warren “Pocahontas” for the first time.
He also mocks his former rivals for continuing to give advice. “I love getting advice,” Trump tells New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. “It’s just what I need, just what I need is more advice. The 17 people I beat are still giving me advice.” Of his success, he says: “Don’t analyze it. Just do it. The other players would come up to Babe Ruth and say, ‘Babe, how do you hit the long ball?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know, man. I just hit it.’ There’s a little bit of truth in that.”
Senior adviser Paul Manafort says on CNN that Trump can contest “several New England states,” saying “Connecticut is a possibility.”
As for a Trump “pivot,” Manafort says there wouldn’t be one. “He's just won the primary process with a record number of votes, beating a field of 16 qualified candidates. So, there's no reason for Donald Trump to change,” he says.
Day 14: Monday, May 16
The Times article on Trump and women becomes the paper’s most-read online story of the year.
One of the women in the piece says on Fox News that the Times had wrongly “spun” her comments. Trump personally calls the control room of CNN to tell them about it.
Trump holds no public events. He urges Sanders to run as an independent. He attacks The New York Times, bringing more attention to its story. And, in the same tweet, he criticizes what a CNN commentator is saying while claiming not to watch the network.
After months of decrying pollsters, Trump hires pollster Tony Fabrizio.
After months of decrying political fundraising, POLITICO reports Trump is negotiating a joint fundraising committee with the RNC.
Day 15: Tuesday, May 17
Trump has bragged for months about bringing “millions and millions” of new voters to the GOP. POLITICO reports the vast majority aren’t actually new to voting or to the Republican Party, but rather they are reliable past voters in general elections.
Trump outlines his plans to attack Clinton over her husband’s infidelities. “Just getting nasty with Hillary won’t work,” Trump tells the Times. “You really have to get people to look hard at her character, and to get women to ask themselves if Hillary is truly sincere and authentic. Because she has been really ugly in trying to destroy Bill’s mistresses, and she is pandering to women so obviously when she is only interested in getting power.”
Trump tells Reuters he would speak with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in what would be a major shift in American foreign policy. He also approves of renegotiating the Paris climate accord and dismantling the Dodd-Frank financial regulations.
Trump appears on a Megyn Kelly special on Fox. It is their first interview since the first debate. Then, she challenged him on his language toward women — “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs” and “disgusting animals,” she repeated. Now, Kelly asks if anyone has hurt Trump emotionally. “When I am wounded, I go after people hard, OK?” he says. “And I try and un-wound myself.”
Melanie Trump defends her husband. “He’s not Hitler,” she says in an interview with DuJour magazine.
Day 16: Wednesday, May 18
Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, adds to the list of things Trump is not. “He’s not a groper,” she says on CBS, “It’s not who he is.”
Trump releases his annual financial disclosure form. It shows he made more money selling the Miss Universe Pageant, $49.3 million, than he spent self-financing his entire primary campaign.
He releases 11 names on his list of potential Supreme Court appointments. Trump then goes on Sean Hannity and says he might not actually select names on the list. “We are going to choose from, most likely, from this list. But, uh, at a minimum, we will keep people within this general realm.”
Hannity and Trump also speak about Bill Clinton’s history with women. “In one case, it's about exposure. In another case, it's about groping and fondling and touching against a woman's will,” Hannity says.
“And rape,” Trump replies.
Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and Hicks, Trump’s press secretary, are spotted screaming on the streets of Manhattan. “I am done with you!” Hicks says to Lewandowski, according to an account that would appear on Page Six of the New York Post the next day.
Day 17: Thursday, May 19
After previously dodging, Hillary Clinton declares for the first time that Trump is “not qualified” to be president.
Trump holds a fundraiser and a rally in New Jersey with Gov. Chris Christie. “Build a wall,” the crowd chants. “We’re going to make it beautiful and we’re going to make it big,” Trump shouts back.
Bill Weld, former GOP Massachusetts governor, joins the Libertarian Party ticket to run as vice president and says of Trump’s immigration plans, “I can hear the glass crunching on Kristallnacht in the ghettos of Warsaw and Vienna when I hear that, honest.”
Day 18: Friday, May 20
Trump is endorsed by the National Rifle Association, during the group’s meeting in Louisville, Ky. He uses a teleprompter to speak to the group. He still wanders off script. “My poll numbers with men are through the roof,” he says. “But I like women more than men. Come on, women, let's go. Come on.” Trump vows to end gun-free zones. “That wasn’t part of my speech, I must be honest with you,” Trump confesses. The crowd cheers.
Backstage, McConnell asks Trump whether he had a prepared speech. “And he pulled it out of his pocket,” McConnell later recalls in a Bloomberg podcast. “He said, ‘You know I hate scripts, they’re so boring.’ And I said, ‘Put me down in favor of boring.’”
Late in the day, the Washington Post reports that Trump’s January fundraiser for veterans, when he skipped a presidential debate and claimed to have raised $6 million, had raised only $4.5 million. The Post verifies only $3.1 million in donations.
Trump hires Washington lawyer A.B. Culvahouse to vet his potential running mate.
Day 19: Saturday, May 21
Trump makes no significant news. “Crooked Hillary said that I want guns brought into the school classroom. Wrong!” he tweets.
Day 20: Sunday, May 22
Trump skips the traditional Sunday shows. He calls into “Fox and Friends.” “I’m gonna pick up big league,” he predicts of his position in the polls. He attacks Clinton for using a teleprompter two days after he used one at the NRA. “She reads off a teleprompter. You notice she’s reading off a teleprompter. She always does. She really doesn’t have her own words,” Trump says.
Trump comes down on both sides of the guns-in-classrooms issue: “I don’t want to have guns in classrooms although in some cases teachers should have guns in classrooms, frankly … but I’m not advocating guns in classrooms.”
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows Clinton’s margin over Trump narrowing to 3 points, 46 percent to 43 percent, down from an 11-point edge in April.
“My campaign is not going to let Donald Trump try to normalize himself,” Clinton says on “Meet the Press.” “I've said he was unqualified to be president. I believe that deeply.”
Trump tweets Clinton “would be four more years of stupidity.”
Day 21: Monday, May 23
Trump posts an Instagram video featuring a photograph of Bill Clinton chomping on a cigar while women talk about accusations against the former president, including one saying, “No woman should be subjected to it—it was an assault.”
Trump uses one of his favorite rhetorical techniques — apophasis — to suggest foul play in the suicide of former Clinton White House aide Vince Foster, calling his death “very fishy.”
“I don’t bring [Foster’s death] up because I don’t know enough to really discuss it. I will say there are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I don’t do that because I don’t think it’s fair.”
Trump pushes back on the negative media attention to his veterans fundraiser. “Amazingly, with all of the money I have raised for the vets, I have got nothing but bad publicity from the dishonest and disgusting media,” he tweets late at night.
Trump passes Clinton in the weekly polling average kept by RealClearPolitics for the first time.
Trump meets with Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, a rumored VP pick, in Trump Tower.
Day 22: Tuesday, May 24
Trump goes on his first campaign swing with a press charter. He flies to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he hosts his first fundraiser as the presumptive nominee, a $10,000 per-person affair.
After Republican Gov. Susana Martinez says she is “too busy” to meet with Trump, he attacks her. “Since 2000, the number of unemployed people in Albuquerque has doubled. Whose fault is it? Is it your fault or is it your government’s fault? Since 2000, the number of people on food stamps in New Mexico has tripled. We have to get your governor to get going, OK? She’s got to do a better job.” He adds: “Your governor has got to do a better job. She’s not doing the job.”
Trump mocks Warren as “Pocahontas” again and says to a protester: “He can’t get a date so he’s doing this instead.” Outside, there are raucous protests.
Day 23: Wednesday, May 25
As Trump calls for party unity, he attacks fellow Republicans. He says Romney “choked liked a dog,” knocks South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, calls writer Bill Kristol a “los-err,” and renews his mocking of Jeb Bush’s energy level. At a stop in Anaheim, Calif., the crowd boos at the mention of Ryan’s name by a Trump surrogate.
Trump also says Romney “walks like a penguin.”
An inspector general’s report is sharply critical of Clinton’s email practices at the State Department, citing “security risks” and that it is “not an appropriate method” for public records.
Trump makes only passing mention of this: “Inspector general’s report: Not good.”
POLITICO reports on the ongoing internal power struggle between Manafort and Lewandowski. “It’s a total cage fight in there now,” an operative close to the campaign says.
Trump ends the day by firing Rick Wiley, his national political director. Wiley had been hired only six weeks earlier. “Rick Wiley was hired on a short-term basis as a consultant until the campaign was running full steam,” the campaign claims in a statement.
Trump attends his first major fundraiser with the RNC in Los Angeles. The campaign says the event raises $6 million. Trump appears on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live." He says he’d debate Sanders, if proceeds went to charity.
Day 24: Thursday, May 26
Shortly after midnight on the East Coast, Sanders agrees to debate. “Game on,” he writes on Twitter.
AP declares Trump has formally won a majority of delegates, bound and unbound, clinching the nomination. In an event in Montana, Trump offers some insight into his general-election strategy. "What I'm going to do is I want to focus on 15-or-so states" that go “either way.” He includes New York and California on the list.
Trump complains about the Times’ story on women that went online 12 days earlier, saying five times the paper was “discredited.”
Manafort tells the Huffington Post Trump probably would not pick a minority or a woman as his running mate: “In fact, that would be viewed as pandering.” Trump says Manafort was misquoted. “He’s been misquoted actually a lot,” Trump says.
Day 25: Friday, May 27
Trump campaigns in California ahead of the state’s primary. He declares, “There is no drought.” The state recently endured the driest four-year period in its history.
At a rally in San Diego, Trump spends more than 10 minutes attacking the judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University, calling him a “hater” and bringing up his ethnicity. “The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that’s fine.” Trump says. The judge, Gonzalo Curiel, was born in Indiana.
Trump announces he would not, in fact, debate Sanders.
Day 26: Saturday, May 28
The New York Times reports tensions are so high inside Trump’s headquarters that some aides worry the offices are bugged. Trump tweets, “Don't believe the biased and phony media quoting people who work for my campaign. The only quote that matters is a quote from me!”
Trump responds to Weld’s earlier “Kristallnacht” accusations. “I don’t talk about his alcoholism,” Trump tells the Times, “so why would he talk about my foolishly perceived fascism? There is nobody less of a fascist than Donald Trump.”
Day 27: Sunday, May 29
Trump holds a Lincoln Memorial rally for thousands of motorcyclists. Trump says he expected a bigger crowd. “I thought this would be like Dr. Martin Luther King, where the people would be lined up from here all the way to the Washington Monument,” Trump says.
Lewandowski is asked if Trump’s offices are bugged on Fox. “I think that’s a lot of speculation. I don’t think that’s going on at all.” Manafort is asked the same on ABC. “Do I believe it? No, I don’t believe it,” he says, adding, “But I don’t know who said that.”
Day 28: Monday, May 30
Trump wishes his Twitter followers a happy holiday, “I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day!” Memorial Day is the holiday to remember those who died while serving in the armed forces. Trump renews his attacks on the judge in the pending Trump University case. “Very unfair. An Obama pick. Totally biased-hates Trump,” he tweets.
Day 29: Tuesday, May 31
Trump holds a combative news conference in New York to answer questions about the $6 million he had said he’d raised for veterans groups since January. Trump feigns of the nationally televised event, “I wanted to keep it private because I don’t think it’s anybody’s business if I wanna send money to the vets.”
The AP reports some of the checks — including $1 million from Trump’s personal account — were dated May 24, the day the Washington Post had interviewed Trump about the missing donations. “Most of the money went out quite a while ago,” Trump says. “Some of it went out more recently.”
Trump calls one reporter, Jim Acosta, a “real beauty” and another “a sleaze.” Asked if the White House press briefing room would be similar under a President Trump, he says, “Yes, it is. It is going to be like this.”
Meanwhile, unsealed documents in a federal lawsuit against Trump University reveal internal concerns about the legitimacy of the program. “I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme,” wrote a Trump University sales manager.
McConnell calls on Trump to release his tax returns.
Trump goes on Hannity. Trump had congratulated him on his “tremendous increase in television ratings” earlier in the day. Hannity’s first question is for Trump to explain why the media should be ashamed of themselves.
Day 30: Wednesday, June 1
Trump still has not campaigned in a traditional swing state since becoming the presumptive nominee, but he holds a rally in California, whose primary is the next week. “We’re going to work California hard” in the fall, he predicts.
News breaks that the head of Hispanic media relations at the RNC, Ruth Guerra, is resigning because of her discomfort with working to elect Trump. The RNC announces her replacement is Helen Aguirre-Ferré. Aguirre-Ferré deletes old tweets critical of Trump.
The PGA Tour announces it is leaving the Trump National Doral Miami course that had hosted tournament events since 1962 and replacing it with an event in Mexico City. “I hope they have kidnapping insurance,” Trump mocks.
ABC digs up a Trump interview from 1994, when he said, “I think that putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing.” He said “that was the single greatest cause of what happened to my marriage with Ivana” because “a softness disappeared” when she went to work. “During this period of time, she became an executive not a wife.” Trump also said in the 1994 clip, “I have days where I think it's great. And then I have days where, if I come home -- and I don't want to sound too much like a chauvinist – but when I come home and dinner's not ready, I go through the roof.”
The Hollywood Reporter asks Trump about “Brexit,” the looming vote for Britain to leave the European Union. "And Brexit? Your position?" the reporter asks. "Huh?” Trump says. "Brexit," the reporter repeats. “Hmm," says Trump. Eventually, he says, “I think they should leave.”
Day 31: Thursday, June 2
Ryan endorses Trump.
"It’s no secret that he and I have our differences," Ryan writes in an op-ed in his hometown paper. "I won’t pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, I’ll continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement."
The disagreements would return the following day.
McConnell, meanwhile, says he wouldn’t draft legislation banning Muslims if Trump becomes president. “I'd say no. I think that's a really bad idea.” McConnell also criticizes Trump for continuing to attack fellow Republicans. “What he ought to be doing now is trying to unify the party, and I think attacking people once you have won, is a time, if you can, to be gracious and to try to bring the party together,” he says.
Clinton delivers her most blistering anti-Trump speech to date, calling Trump “temperamentally unfit” for the presidency in San Diego. “Donald Trump’s ideas aren’t just different,” she says, “They are dangerously incoherent.”
In San Jose, California, there are violent protests outside a Trump rally. Anti-Trump protesters egg and punch some Trump supporters. Police in riot gear are dispatched. Inside, Trump’s campaign team and security remove a POLITICO reporter for practicing journalism without permission.
Day 32: Friday, June 3
The Labor Department releases its worst jobs report in almost six years, with 38,000 new jobs in May. It is not a focus for Trump.
Instead, Trump ratchets up his attacks on Judge Curiel, telling the Wall Street Journal he had “an absolute conflict” because “of Mexican heritage.” “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest,” Trump says.
Ryan, a day after endorsing, distances himself from the nominee, saying the judge comments, already a week old, are “out of left field.” “He clearly says and does things I don’t agree with, and I’ve had to speak up from time to time when that has occurred, and I’ll continue to do that if it’s necessary. I hope it’s not,” Ryan says.
McConnell says he is worried Trump’s rhetoric could push Latinos from the GOP for a generation, as Barry Goldwater did to African-Americans in 1964.
At a rally in California, Trump pointed out a black supporter in the crowd. He declares, “Look at my African-American here!”
Day 33: Saturday, June 4
Trump sits down for an interview with Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro. Asked why he referred to Curiel’s ethnicity, Trump says, “Well, because his heritage is Mexican.” When she asks if he needed to dial back his rhetoric, Trump says, “I have to be what I have to be.”
Trump tweets, “Many of the thugs that attacked the peaceful Trump supporters in San Jose were illegals. They burned the American flag and laughed at police.”
Day 34: Sunday, June 5
Trump continues to question the fairness of judges based on ethnicity, saying that it might not be possible for a Muslim judge to rule impartially because of his proposed Muslim ban. “It’s possible, yes. Yeah. That would be possible, absolutely,” he says on CBS.
When CBS’ John Dickerson asks Trump to explain his claims that he opposed intervention in Libya when he spoke in favor of deposing Muammar Qadhafi, Trump justifies, “I was for doing something, but I wasn't for what you have right now.”
Trump’s allies begin to criticize his comments on Curiel. “This is one of the worst mistakes Trump has made and I think it’s inexcusable,” Newt Gingrich says. McConnell is asked three times whether Trump’s attacks are racist; three times he declines to answer.
Prominent Republicans continued to express hope Trump would “evolve” or “change.” “I think that he’s going to have to change,” Corker says on ABC. Priebus tells the Washington Examiner, "I do think Donald Trump understands that his tone and rhetoric is going to have to evolve in regard to how we're communicating to Hispanics across the country. I think he gets that.”
Trump hires a new national political director, Jim Murphy, a week after firing Wiley.
Day 35: Monday, June 6
Republican denunciations of Trump’s judge attacks accelerate. “It is flat-out wrong,” says Kasich. “Absolutely unacceptable,” says Maine Sen. Susan Collins. New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte calls it “offensive and wrong.” Rubio says he was “very disturbed.”
Sasse, the most outspoken GOP senator against Trump, tweets, “Public Service Announcement: Saying someone can't do a specific job because of his or her race is the literal definition of ‘racism.’ ”
Trump holds a conference call with surrogates and urges them to attack the media asking questions as the real racists. He urges surrogates to dispose of a strategy memo sent by Trump’s own staff. “Take that order and throw it the hell out,” he says. “… That's one of the reasons I want to have this call, because you guys are getting sometimes stupid information from people that aren't so smart.” He is referring to his own campaign team.
The Associated Press declares Clinton has won the Democratic nomination. Trump tells Bill O’Reilly he is the real glass-ceiling breaker. “I was the one that really broke the glass ceiling on behalf of women more than anybody in the construction industry, and my relationship, I think, is going to end up being very good with women.”
Day 36: Tuesday, June 7
Ryan calls Trump’s judge attacks “the textbook definition of a racist comment.” He reiterates his endorsement of Trump.
Graham says Trump’s continued challenging of a judge’s objectivity based on his ethnicity is “the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy” and that, “if anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it.” He adds, “There’ll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary.” Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois becomes the first Republican to withdraw his endorsement: “I cannot and will not support my party's nominee for president.”
Trump issues a lengthy statement saying his comments on Curiel had been “misconstrued.” “I do not intend to comment on this matter any further,” he says.
Clinton claims the Democratic nomination in a speech in Brooklyn. “Thanks to you, we’ve reached a milestone, the first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party’s nominee.”
Trump delivers a subdued election night speech using a teleprompter. “I understand the responsibility of carrying the mantle and I will never, ever let you down,” he tells his fellow Republicans.
The general election has begun.
Day 37: Wednesday, June 8
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough says Trump is acting like a “racist,” a “bigot” and a “big-league loser.” “Nobody is watching @Morning_Joe anymore. Gone off the deep end - bad ratings. You won’t believe what I am watching now!” Trump tweets in response.
Trump gives a series of interviews in Trump Tower. To Bloomberg, he rejects needing to raise $1 billion. “I just don’t think I need nearly as much money as other people need because I get so much publicity. I get so many invitations to be on television. I get so many interviews, if I want them,” Trump says. He expresses to Time magazine frustration that GOP leaders criticized him for his Curiel comments. “I didn’t think it was necessary. But you know, they have to say what they have to say. I’m a big boy. They have to say what they have to say.”
To Cal Thomas, a conservative columnist, he speaks about repentance. “I will be asking for forgiveness, but hopefully I won’t have to be asking for much forgiveness,” Trump says.
Charles Koch, one of the Republican Party’s biggest financiers, joins in the criticism of Trump. “It’s either racist or it’s stereotyping,” Koch tells USA Today of the Curiel comments. “It’s unacceptable, and it’s taking the country in the wrong direction.” Koch also reveals Trump’s campaign has reached out for a meeting with some of Koch’s political aides.
Clinton’s super PAC releases its second ad attacking Trump. It features him mocking a disabled reported.
Day 38: Thursday, June 9
Obama endorses Clinton. Trump mocks it on Twitter: “Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary.”
“Delete your account,” Clinton responds. It is soon her most retweeted tweet ever.
The back-and-forth continues. “How long did it take your staff of 823 people to think that up--and where are your 33,000 emails that you deleted?" Trump replies.
Both Vice President Joe Biden and Warren also endorse Clinton. They both call Trump a <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/elizabeth-warren-donald-tr