Subject: First Draft on Politics: After a Victorious Trump, Many Wonder, ‘What Do We Do Now?’
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Date: Thu, 5 May 2016 07:15:45 -0400

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Thursday, May 5, 2016

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Thursday, May 5, 2016

Robert Redford as Bill McKay in the 1972 film “The Candidate.”

Warner Brothers/Getty Images

After a Victorious Trump, Many Wonder, ‘What Do We Do Now?’

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

Good Thursday morning.

In the 1972 film “The Candidate,” a first-time contender played by Robert Redford is drafted by Democrats who can’t find a veteran politician to run against a popular Republican senator in California. So Mr. Redford’s character runs a lark of a race, liberated to say exactly what he wants because he assumes he can’t win.

But, improbably, he does win, abetted by a sometimes-credulous political press corps. In the movie’s closing scene, a blanched Mr. Redford asks an adviser, “What do we do now?”

In the 24 hours after Donald J. Trump abruptly became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, the candidate himself did not ask that question publicly. The rest of the party, on the other hand, asked it all day.

Mr. Redford’s character did not get an answer before the credits rolled. And the Republican Party is also waiting for one, as donors, activists and elected officials try to make sense of a world in which their nominee has no political experience, has historically high negative ratings, has offended sections of the electorate and has contradicted central planks of the party’s platform.

Mr. Trump’s rise has exposed the degree to which the Republican Party was already facing difficulty winning national elections with its mostly white, older, aging voters in a country that has experienced large demographic shifts.

And yet.

Mr. Trump has also exposed the degree to which the party’s leaders, elected officials and donor class were out of sync with its base. The party’s standard-bearer was the only one to home in on all three issues that Republican primary voters cared most about: trade, immigration and an evolution away from the foreign policy of George W. Bush. And he did it without a pollster.

But primaries are not general elections, and Mr. Trump now faces voters with fixed negative opinions and the least incentive to be drawn to him. If the Democratic Party’s bet that demography is destiny holds, then Mr. Trump’s fate could be sealed against Hillary Clinton, particularly as his party devours itself and threatens to splinter. But for now, at a moment of voter anger and instability, objects in Mrs. Clinton’s rearview mirror may be closer than they appear.

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What We’re Watching Today

•

Mr. Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont will hold events in West Virginia, which votes on Tuesday and whose coal industry makes it unfriendly terrain to their common rival, Mrs. Clinton.

•

Mrs. Clinton will hold an organizing event and fund-raisers in Los Angeles.

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

‘President Trump?’ Here’s How He Says It Would Look

By PATRICK HEALY

The presumptive Republican nominee has already been giving some thought to what he would do in his first 100 days in office.

Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

Donald Trump’s Victory Has Some in G.O.P. Agonizing — or Bolting

By MICHAEL BARBARO

Some Republican operatives are so disgusted with their presumptive nominee that they have publicly declared their support for Mrs. Clinton.

Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

John Kasich Suspends Campaign for President

By THOMAS KAPLAN

The departure of the Ohio governor leaves Donald J. Trump as the only candidate remaining in the Republican race.

Eric Thayer for The New York Times

Donald Trump Reaches Out, Quietly, to Republican Establishment

By ASHLEY PARKER AND MAGGIE HABERMAN

Mr. Trump is trying to reassure party officials that he knows there are norms even he has to follow, and that he can sustain a costly general election campaign.

No Trump Effect, Yet, on Supreme Court Stalemate

By CARL HULSE

Some conservatives joined calls for a hearing for Judge Merrick B. Garland, arguing that Donald J. Trump would lose in November to a candidate who might nominate a less preferable Supreme Court pick. But Senate Republicans remained unswayed.

First Draft

Donald Trump Discusses How He’ll Select a Running Mate

By MAGGIE HABERMAN AND ASHLEY PARKER

Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that he expected to reveal his vice presidential pick sometime in July — before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Stay tuned throughout the day: Follow us on Twitter @NYTPolitics and on Facebook for First Draft updates.

The Electoral Map Looks Challenging for Trump

By WILSON ANDREWS, JOSH KATZ AND ALICIA PARLAPIANO

Polls show an uphill battle for Donald J. Trump should he and Hillary Clinton face off in the general election.

Ty Wright for The New York Times

First Draft

Hillary Clinton Widens Lead Over Donald Trump in Poll

By GERRY MULLANY

The Democrat holds a wide lead in a CNN/ORC poll published shortly after the Manhattan businessman became the presumptive Republican nominee.

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What We’re Reading Elsewhere

•

Though Mr. Trump has relied on an unconventional, if loose, team of foreign policy advisers, Jewish Telegraphic Agency writes that Mrs. Clinton’s team is “a who’s who of the last 20 years of national security policy” and therefore “stands out for not standing out.”

•

The Wall Street Journal offers an analysis of “How Trump Happened,” while The Washington Post lists three reasons Mr. Trump could defeat Mrs. Clinton.

•

ABC News tracks how Appalachia has shifted from favoring the Clintons to being firmly Trump territory.

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