Donald Trump responds to Britain’s stunning decision to leave the European Union, but only after he promotes one of his golf courses.
- Trump predicts that the so-called Brexit will turn out to be for good over the long term
- Here’s what Britain’s vote to leave the EU tells us about the U.S. presidential election
- Bernie Sanders says he’ll cast his ballot for Hillary Clinton and cannot imagine voting for Trump
- Trump forgives his $50 million loan to his campaign
Trump makes a fundraising pitch off Brexit
Here’s what Britain’s vote to leave the EU tells us about the U.S. presidential election
The Britons who voted to take their country out of the European Union were predominantly white, working class, older and deeply upset about immigration.
Their leaders drew scorn from the university-educated elite as nativists, borderline racists and occasional buffoons. Backing them was too risky, opponents said.
Sound familiar?
In the U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump draws strength from many of the same frustrations, fears and voting blocs that powered the “Leave” campaign to victory in Thursday’s British referendum.
How Hillary Clinton’s campaign labels Donald Trump’s ‘Brexit’ response: ‘Pathological self-congratulation’
Top aides to Hillary Clinton slammed what they called Donald Trump’s self-interested response to Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, calling it the latest sign he is unfit to serve as commander-in-chief.
On a conference call with reporters Friday, top campaign officials also rejected the idea that voter sentiments driving the outcome in the United Kingdom, such as anxiety about the economy and immigration, bore familiarity to ones in the American electorate.
“It is really important to recognize that a vote on whether the United Kingdom stays in or leaves the European Union is profoundly different than a vote for who should be president and commander-in-chief of the United States,” senior policy advisor Jake Sullivan said.
Sullivan said the presumptive Republican nominee’s response to the vote was consistent with what he called the “emerging Donald Trump playbook.” In moments of crisis, Sullivan said, Trump engages in “what can only be termed as pathological self-congratulation.”
Rather than seek the counsel of experts, Trump “consults only with himself,” and either gets facts wrong or “just makes things up.”
While Clinton was concerned about the economic fallout for Americans, Trump “actually rooted for this outcome,” and “put his golf business ahead of the interests of working families in the United States,” Sullivan said.
Officials said Clinton has, for more than a year, heard Americans talk about their frustration with the economy and the political system, and will continue to lay out detailed solutions focused on creating jobs and boosting middle-class incomes.
“She will be offering specific solutions, not slogans, not anger, not a whole lot of sales puffery of the sort you heard from Donald Trump,” Sullivan said.
Donald Trump praises Brits for taking ‘their country back,’ but only after he promotes his golf resort
Donald Trump stood on his newly renovated golf course in Scotland on Friday and promoted the sprinkler system, the drains and the luxury suites before praising British voters’ decision to leave the European Union and bashing President Obama and Hillary Clinton for urging them to remain.
Trump began the event by calling it “a very historic day for a lot of reasons, not only Turnberry,” in a bit of an understatement that placed his golf resort’s fortunes in conversation with the momentous events that will drastically alter Europe.
He delivered the comments from the greens of the resort, with a bagpiper next to him and a lighthouse in the distance, lending several minutes of his platform to his children to extol the golf course.
It was another of many striking moments in Trump’s nontraditional campaign. Britain’s vote to leave, which Trump supported, offered an opportunity for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee to capitalize on the anti-establishment, nationalist fervor that matches his own movement.
British voters who supported the exit were motivated by many of the same issues that appeal to Trump’s supporters: concerns over immigration, globalization and wages.
Trump did seize on those similarities -- declaring that Britons “want to take their country back” -- but he repeatedly sidetracked the conversation toward golf.
‘Yes,’ I will vote for Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders says
Hillary Clinton can count on a vote from Bernie Sanders come November, the Vermont senator said Friday.
“Yes,” Sanders said during an interview with MSNBC in response a question about whether he would cast his ballot for her. “I think the issue right here is I’m going to do everything I can to defeat Donald Trump.”
Sanders accused Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, of using bigotry and insults directed at Mexicans, women and Muslims to propel his campaign forward. He called a potential Trump presidency “a disaster for this country” and Trump himself a “pathological liar.”
Though he indicated his support for Clinton, Sanders did not say anything about backing out of his candidacy for the Democratic nomination. He said he plans to focus his efforts now on helping working people and standing up to big-money interests.
“... [M]y job right now ... is to fight for the strongest possible platform in the Democratic convention,” Sanders said.
The senator also responded to Britain’ s vote to leave the European Union, saying the global economy is not working for everyone.
Play the race to 270 votes
A presidential candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the White House. Most states predictably vote red or blue, but a small handful swing either way and make up the main election battlegrounds. What does it take to win the presidency?