Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:23 am
As Hillary Clinton is piling up endorsements from political heavyweights, Donald Trump claimed boxing promoter Don King endorsed him, only to have King call out Trump’s lie.
Trump tweeted:
The great boxing promoter, Don King, just endorsed me. Nice!
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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 10, 2016
King told The New York Daily News that he wasn’t endorsing anyone, “No. “I’m endorsing the people. I’m not a Republican or a Democrat, I’m a Republicrat, and I go with the will of the people. The only reason Trump exists is because of the will of the people.â€
Hillary Clinton gets the endorsements of President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, while Donald Trump can’t even score the endorsement of an ethics-challenged boxing promoter who did time in prison for beating a man to death.
The Don King flap wouldn’t have mattered if Trump hadn’t made such a big deal out of it, while trying to defend his racism. Trump told The Washington Post, “Well, I am not a racist, in fact, I am the least racist person that you’ve ever encountered. I’ll give you an example. It’s funny, I just got this, it was just sent to me by Don King. Now, Don knows more about race than anybody. He owns this newspaper, you know –Don’s made a lot of money. He just sent this to me, look at this.â€
While the Republican Party is actively running away from him, even Trump’s own friends deny endorsing him.
One of the developing storylines of this presidential election is going to be how outmatched the Trump campaign looks to be against Clinton.Trump is refusing to raise the $1 billion for the GOP that the party told him it needed for the election. Trump isn’t going to have the money, organization, and surrogates needed to compete with Clinton.
There is a growing body of thought in American politics that endorsements no longer matter, but endorsements remain an indicator of a campaign’s organizational strength. The Clinton campaign had key endorsements lined up for immediately after she clinched the nomination, while Donald Trump is personally announcing endorsements that do not exist.
Republicans knew it would be bad with Trump at the top of the ticket, but it is turning out to be worse than they ever could have imagined.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
