Donald Trump News for June 21, 2016

(Trump.news) Neck and neck: Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump has been criticized by Republican hierarchy and the pundit class for wasting time after it became obvious he was going to win the party’s nod by not campaigning in so-called swing states. By now, though, you have to wonder just how long the pundit class – which has been wrong repeatedly about Trump since he jumped into the race – will ever get it right.

Trump may not yet have established a traditional base of operations in swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio but thus far it hasn’t mattered. As of this morning, based on the RealClearPolitics average, Trump and his likely Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, are neck and neck in Pennsylvania (Clinton up by 1 point, well within the statistical margin of error) and the two are tied in Ohio. See the polling data here.

The thing that Trump likely knows that his oft-criticizing GOP pundit class doesn’t yet is that his “Make America Great Again” message of putting American labor front and center in any future trade deals, while working to cut regulations and other impediments to job creation and economic growth, has legs and has had them since his campaign began. Job losses – especially manufacturing job losses – have hurt most in labor union-heavy swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, where many long-time Democratic voters are beginning to look askance at their party’s continued outsourcing of their jobs. And while they don’t necessarily trust “a Republican candidate” to bring jobs back, they trust Trump to do so, and he just happens to be atop the GOP ticket.

Time will tell – and there is no doubt that Trump will soon get some organization into these states – but so far after Clinton has already built an organization there and begun pouring millions into attack ads, the polling should be more to her favor, and yet it isn’t. Republican leaders need to continue offering Trump suggestions and ideas, of course, but at the same time they also need to take a breath, relax and understand – finally – that this year’s GOP candidate is not typical, nor are the results he has achieved thus far.

‘Keep it lean:’ Speaking of Republican leaders and pundits, the usual suspects are also now worried about Trump’s apparent funding shortfall. Starting the month with only $1.2 million in his campaign account, that is just a fraction of the $42 million in Clinton’s coffers. But Trump seems unfazed by the deficit.

“We want to keep it lean. I’m not looking to spend all this money. You know, I hear people spend a billion dollars. I’m saying, how do you spend a billion dollars? It’s impossible. Politicians are the only ones who can spend a billion dollars,” Trump said. “Hillary Clinton will spend a billion dollars of Wall Street money and money from the Middle East. She’s got a lot of money from the Middle East. She’s got money from people you don’t want her to have money from, but she’s going to spend more than a billion dollars. I don’t want to do that.”

Trump has more to say on the issue of campaign cash, and it’s here at Politico.

Rebranding? As many Trump supporters know, the candidate fired his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, yesterday, touching off much speculation about what may be happening inside the campaign itself. Some believe Trump when he said on Fox News last night in an interview with Bill O’Reilly that it is just a matter of shifting gears and focus and that Lewandowski did not seem like the right man for the job moving forward, though Trump had nothing but praise for his former campaign chief.

Others thing the change could be a rebranding of sorts – the kind that the GOP leadership and pundit class has been waiting for – as the candidate gears up to take on Clinton in the general election. Time will tell.

Quote of the evening: During the O’Reilly interview Trump was asked if he regretted referring to Left-wing hypocrite hack Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as “Pocahontas” over the latter’s bogus claims of being some degree of Native American (to advance her academic career). “Yes,” Trump replied, “I am. I’m sorry because it was an insult to Pocahontas.”