Donald Trump warns GOP that they could lose the House, hints at returning to presidential race

Donald Trump took to YouTube on Thursday to warn the Republicans that they are in danger of losing their majority in the House of Representatives and if they nominate "the wrong guy" they may have to deal with the billionaire.

The real estate tycoon criticized Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s GOP budget plan calling the timing and concept of the plan "so bad," referring specifically to the congressman's desire to radically overhaul the entitlement program.

“When they tamper with Medicare -- which happens to be a good program, but there’s lots of fraud and waste which we should take care of -- but when they tamper with Medicare, they have a death wish,” Trump said.

"The Democrats are laughing at the stupidity of the Republicans and this Ryan plan," Trump said.

Trump performed well in preliminary polls while he was demanding that President Obama release his long-form birth certificate. Weeks after Obama's Hawaii document was released and Osama bin Laden was killed, Trump stood down and said he wouldn't run for the GOP nomination.

But that doesn't mean he won't run as an Independent, something he hinted at in Thursday's video.

Sarah Palin plays the media like a violin: Her turn now

Sarah Palin, with her counterintuitive secret publicity bus tour, is demonstrating one of the most important rules of American politics:

There is nothing the U.S. media wants more than something it thinks it can't have. Hence the power of news leaks that manipulate the thrust of their initial presentation. Hard-to-get is a rigid rule of human behavior. Ask any teenage boy or girl.

And there are few things more sweet to Palin and her fervent supporters cheering their TV sets this week than the image of a hungry know-it-all "lamestream media" caravan of 15 or more vehicles traipsing along behind her red-white-and-blue bus enroute to they-know-not-where to do they-know-not-what.

To make it worse, each one of the frustrated, confused chasers knows that Fox News' Greta Van Susteren is....

Donald Trump and Sarah Palin have a pizza summit in New York

Donald Trump and Sarah Palin dined on cheese and pepperoni pizza Tuesday evening in Manhattan, flanked by reporters and several loved ones.

According to news reports (yep, this is news), Palin invited the real estate mogul and his wife to La Famiglia, a pizza chain that can be found in several airports around the country and even at Six Flags.

The former Alaska governor, who had spent the day traveling in a bus from Pennsylvania with some of her family, arrived at the tycoon's 30,000-square-foot penthouse via a chauffeured SUV.  After a short visit, the pair emerged with Palin's daughter Piper, husband, Todd, and Trump's wife, Melania.

Once at the eatery, a section of the restaurant was cordoned off for the Palin-Trump party.

Palin ate her pizza with her hands, the billionaire used a fork, it appears, in photos snapped by NBC.

Other than how they eat pizza, the media-savvy Republicans say they have a lot in common in regards to improving the country.

"What do we have in common? Our love for this country, a desire to see our economy put back on the right track," Palin told reporters. "To have a balanced trade arrangement with other countries across this world so Americans can have our jobs, our industries, our manufacturing again. And exploiting responsibly our natural resources. We can do that again if we make good decisions."

Would Trump, who recently announced that he would not seek the GOP nomination, give his support to Palin if she ran?

"She's a great woman, a terrific woman and a terrific friend. I'd love her to run," Trump said.

In April, Palin defended Trump's questioning of President Obama's birth certificate.

"He's merely answering reporters' questions about his view on the birth certificate, and then reporters turn that around and say that's all he's got," the former Alaska governor said on the "Hannity" show.  "Donald Trump is running on the issue, bottom line, that President Obama is so far over his head."

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-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

No laughing here over Obama's latest travel gaffe

Just watch, sometime soon -- maybe even this morning -- some lamestream journalist will start collecting all the gaffes from President Obama's latest foreign jaunt.

The funniest so far was his not knowing what day or year it was in London on Tuesday when he signed the guest book at Westminster Abbey. Obama reportedly asked someone nearby what the date was and they told him "May 24," assuming incorrectly that the leader of the free world would know what year it was (2011).

Instead, Obama wrote in his leftist scrawl "24 May 2008."

Understandable in a way. Those were heady days back then when the ex-state senator was not crawling along with approval ratings in the 40s and he was fixing to tie up the Democratic nomination and make Oprah Winfrey cry off her false eyelashes in Denver.

Although, to be accurate, on May 24 2008 Hillary Clinton had yet to ....

Late-night's best: Obama's sunken approval rating bad news for Kadafi

As The Ticket's 65,000-plus Twitter followers here and 6,800 Facebook fans here know, we regularly share our daily picks of the late-night jokes of interest, usually before broadcast each night. Feel free to pass them on to friends using the Share buttons above. Normally, we publish these on Monday mornings.

Letterman: On Monday no more smoking in New York City public places. So after today if you’re holding something smoking in New York City, it better be a gun.

Leno: President Obama wants Israel to go back to pre-1967 borders. Now, Native Americans are demanding Obama go back to pre-1492 borders.

Leno: You heard about that whole world-coming-to-an-end thing, right? Look, I love Oprah too. But it was just a TV show.

Letterman: Oprah has taped her last show. I hope to God she's taken care of her money. I do. Because I think Steadman may be sucking her dry.

Leno: President Obama's approval rating went up after the SEALs....

John Phillips: How Chris Christie will be drafted to run for president (The Secret Plan like one before it)

It's now official, the only body with a higher dropout rate than the Los Angeles Unified School District is the 2012 Republican presidential field.

Just this weekend we learned that two first-tier GOP contenders decided to take a pass on making a run at the White House. One of them is a hokey entertainer who hosts a boring television show featuring washed-up celebrities –- and the other is Donald Trump.

Polls consistently showed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and multimillionaire businessman Trump at the top of the GOP heap. Huckabee's support, specifically among Southerners and Evangelical Christians, was real...while any vote for Donald Trump was a vote for 'none of the above' – if 'none of the above' had clownish hair and Tourette's syndrome.

Despite what many political observers may think, the departure of Huck and Trump is a good thing for the Republican Party. It gives the GOP a chance to hit the reset button.

Let's face it, to say the GOP field is 'problematic' is the understatement of the year -– this....

The secret lesson within Newt Gingrich's botched campaign launch

There's an important, hidden lesson in Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign kickoff for all the other Republican White House wannabes:

Take your time.

There's no rush.

It's only May.

Why set yourself up as a target any sooner than necessary? President Obama would be delighted to have Republicans fighting among themselves ASAP, so he can look calmer, more presidential by comparison, while his opponents try to prove their conservative bona fides to that raucous crowd on the right side.

Obama announced early to get going on his billion-dollar campaign fund, which is $255 million more than he needed last time as a nobody. A billion dollars is a really impressive number -- unless you're falling short, say, because of the economy or this time your less enthusiastic base is saying, "Yes, we won't."

Interestingly, only one month into his campaign Obama aides are already trying to walk back that billion-dollar boast and the first quarter's report, due out in early July, that was supposed to blow away everyone else's money haul.

The president will do two Boston fundraisers tonight after his ....

Donald Trump folds -- will not to run for president

Donald Trump marched in like a lion and on Monday backed out like a lamb, announcing that he would not seek the Republican nomination for president. Indeed, the man who called himself the Democrats' worst nightmare has gone quietly into the night.

"After considerable deliberation and reflection, I have decided not to pursue the office of the Presidency," the boisterous billionaire said in a statement Monday morning.

"This decision does not come easily or without regret; especially when my potential candidacy continues to be validated by ranking at the top of the Republican contenders in polls across the country," Trump said, adding that he believed that if he were to have thrown his hat in the ring, he would probably have been the next president of the United States.

"I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election. I have spent the past several months unofficially campaigning and recognize that running for public office cannot be done half heartedly. Ultimately, however, business is my greatest passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector," the real-estate tycoon said.

The announcement (full text below) comes a little more than a month after Trump tied Mike Huckabee in the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey. Although each man garnered 19% of the nods in that poll, neither chose to jump into the race. Huckabee announced Saturday that he'd rather not try to take on the GOP hopefuls and the increasingly popular President Obama.

Mike Huckabee out for 2012, citing lack of divine support; Trump, of course, takes a victory lap

Mike Huckabee.

Credit where due, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee knows how to tease viewers to stay for the whole show -- and leave them with a little surprise.

The governor interviewed several guests -- including former "Saved by the Bell" star and "Dancing With the Stars" runner-up Mario Lopez -- and jammed with Ted Nugent on "Cat Scratch Fever."

Huckabee then took the last few minutes of Saturday's episode of his Fox News talk show "Huckabee" to reveal his decision about being a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012.

In short, no.

He said he would have been an awesome candidate; money wasn't a problem; the wife and kids were all in; and he's terribly sorry to dash the hopes of all his ardent supporters.

But the Lord told him to sit this one out (not in so many words, of course, but during moments of solitary reflection).

As soon as he finished talking, a "Huckabee Alert" graphic flashed, and there was will-he-or-won't-he GOP contender Donald Trump, saying (with typical Trumpian bombast and a hint of humor) how Huck's a great guy and all, could've been a contender, but don't let the door hit your arse on the way out ... oh, and enjoy your money and the new house in Florida (Trump already has a house in Florida, the fabled Mar-a-Lago).

This tag-teaming of Huckabee and Trump will no doubt set pundit tongues a' wagging -- but, both are FNC regulars, so it could have been just a bit of home-team back-slapping.

(Imagine if it had been FNC commentator and repeatedly rumored GOP candidate, former vice-presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin ... liberal and conservative blogs could have dined out on that one for a week.) But it again proves that, while Trump's actual viability as a candidate is yet to be determined, there's no doubt he's a ....

Donald Trump's rough run: Now he's being sued by hundreds of property investors

 

Donald Trump has not had the best few weeks.

His slide began when President Obama called the Trump's bluff by releasing his official long-form Hawaii birth certificate. Then, after a Navy SEALs team killed Osama bin Laden, the president's live announcement cut into the the end of "The Celebrity Apprentice" on the East coast.

In an attempt to distance themselves from the unseemly world of politics, the bigwigs at the Indianapolis 500 decided to replace Trump, who has hinted at running for president, with racing legend A.J. Foyt as the driver of the Chevy Camaro pace car during the opening lap of the 100th anniversary of the car race.

And now the New York Times is reporting that hundreds of people are suing Trump and his associates, alleging deceptive real estate practices in which buyers believe they are investing in Trump property only to discover the billionaire had "rented his name to the developments and had no responsibility for their outcomes."

"In each case, he yanked his name off the projects, which were never completed," Michael Barbaro wrote in an article titled "Buying a Trump Property, or So They Thought" that appeared on the front page of the paper on Friday. "The buyers lost millions of dollars in deposits even as Mr. Trump pocketed hefty license fees," Barbaro reported.