Politico has already done one of what I imagine will be THOUSANDS of post-mortems on the 2020 campaign. I think a few things are worth noting, for better or for worse: Biden’s campaign hinged on Donald Trump’s unfailing ability to screw up and make everything into the Trump show. If Trump had shown a modicum of stability and seriousness about the pandemic, I think he probably would have won re-election. And that’s terrifying, that the Biden strategy was Let Trump F–k It Up. But then again, maybe it was the only real play this year. Anyway, you can read Politico’s full post-mortem here, which includes lots of interviews with insiders on both campaigns. It also includes a really bonkers story about Don Trump Jr’s girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was part of the campaign’s fundraising efforts this year. Some highlights:
Trump has a bigly poll commissioned to show that he was “winning”: Trump was perplexed. The economy was strong. The president had built an enormous political infrastructure and was raking in hundreds of millions of dollars. That month, Trump’s campaign conducted a $1.1 million polling project showing him leading prospective Democratic challengers even in blue states such as Colorado, New Mexico and New Hampshire.
Trump at war with the RNC: Communication between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee broke down for much of the final stretch, and the two sides clashed over strategy. The RNC thought Trump’s ads were of such low quality that it created its own commercials.
The Kimberly Guilfoyle story: Senior campaign and GOP officials vented that Trump’s finance team, led by former Fox TV host and Donald Trump Jr. girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, underperformed and was an HR nightmare. Trump couldn’t compete with Biden’s small-dollar fundraising machine, and some donors were horrified by what they described as Guilfoyle’s lack of professionalism: She frequently joked about her sex life and, at one fundraiser, offered a lap dance to the donor who gave the most money.
Trump’s Tulsa rally debacle: Trump’s sparsely-attended June 20 rally — less than half the seats were filled — marked a turning point in the campaign. The crowd-obsessed president was furious. Parscale, who had hyped a massive turnout for the rally beforehand, was suddenly on thin ice. The relationship between Trump and his longtime aide chilled. No longer did the president call Parscale “my Brad.” When Parscale left the room after a meeting ended, the president would roll his eyes dismissively.
Biden’s campaign relied on Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic: Biden’s team marveled at something else: how Trump failed to come up with a comprehensive strategy to attack the virus. This was a moment that needed a gesture like George W. Bush’s megaphone on the rubble in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, advisers mused with Biden, and Trump was whiffing it.
My God, the Kimberly story. Imagine that coked-up broad screaming into a microphone about her sex life at GOP fundraisers. There’s a lot about the Trump campaign money in the Politico piece, some of which we’ve already discussed. In January/February of this year, Trump had a billion-dollar campaign war chest. By September, the campaign had blown threw $800 million, with little to show for it besides sagging poll numbers. There are STILL hundreds of millions of dollars gone missing. And Trump is basically just keeping his campaign alive right now so he can still fundraise and retire his persona debts and the campaign’s debts.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
Human trash cans. All of them.
They really remind me of the worst people I know in my personal life, too. For example my mother has a raging case of several untreated personality disorders (because she can’t grasp the fact that anything could possibly be wrong with her, they go untreated and it’s the worst).
Guilfoyle reminds me of her in every way. Even the look in the eyes and the way she scream-talks. And this anecdote about her histrionic public behavior about sex and her sex life, making people uncomfortable like that… yup lines right up with untreated personality disorder. They find each other out there, they really do, and they live in their own circles of unreality that continuously implode then form again. I see it in these politics because I lived around it most of my life until I went no-contact with much of my family. I hope the media can go full no-contact with this whole crew. Starve them for the attention and they will move along to their next source of narcissist supply.
**listen, anyone who is getting treatment for this or any disorder deserves nothing but respect. I just want to say that. The day my mother starts real treatment and handles even a fraction of her behavior is the day I’m cautiously back in her life. It’s just the condition in its untreated form is highly destructive and easy to spot once you’ve lived through it. And I really see it with Trump, Guilfoyle etc.
I really think the press is missing the real story of the Trump years: narcissistic personality disorder and substance abuse. Better reporting on those aspects of Trump and his team would help people id and manage or avoid ppl who have those same issues, and ignoring those issues risks legitimizing their behavior. Thank you and others who have lived with NPD folks for sharing your first-person stories b/c right now, you are the best info readers have of understanding what’s really driving this group’s nonsensical and dangerous behavior.
Hmm Trump’s hundreds of millions of dollars in debts loom and the campaign somehow misplaced hundreds of millions of dollars?? You don’t say?
As for KG? That’s so gross
pretty sure she was fired from Fox for sharing dirty pictures of herself as well as sexual harassment.
so the lap dance thing is on-brand for her.
She is pure skanky loud trash. Actually a great fit for DTJr.
Her asst also filed a sexual harrassment complaint against her. She cited examples of Kim walking around naked in front of her and making her feel her thighs. I am not kidding. There is an article floating around somewhere about that.
Ah, that’s why he confused poles and polls!
You just won the Internet!!! Well played!! 👏🏻👏🏻 And your name is the name of my hometown! How ironic is that??
I’m still stunned that she was once married to Gavin Newsome. She is just gross
Agreed. I was living in the Bay Area when she was married to Gavin Newsom. She seemed normal then, even had decorum. Who would’ve thought she’d turn into this crazy, witchy looking, sex crazed ladder climber? (To be honest, she was always a calculating ladder climber.) Look for a break up from Junior soon. Or maybe not, come to think of it.
She’s attracted to power and will clearly say or do anything to get it.
She has likely always been this way but power, money and coke have turned her in the monster we see before us. She is just as trashy and messy as Jr is – both are coke heads.
Plus that story about the lap dancing etc.. make it sound like isn’t very mature and things she fund raising for the local frat house.
I didn’t know that! So of course I looked at photos and wow. wow. She looks nice and sane and pretty in photos with Newsom.
And photos of Kamala and Gavin are just pure joy, you just know that they liked each other very much.
There is an article floating around when was still married to Newsome that claimed she made crude comments about blow jobs at an LGBTQ community fundraiser. So she definitely showed who she was back then; she has just become more emboldened in recent times.
Yup. There’s video of that speech if you care to Google it.
Cocaine is a hell of a drug.
I know, I was shocked when I found out she was married to Newsom! I did a quadruple take when I read her bio on Wikipedia, racking my brain. “Isn’t that the current governor of CA???” She was with him when he was sworn in as mayor of San Francisco. How did that work?? She does look relatively sane in her pictures with Newsom. She’s been married twice now and neither marriage worked out. So I dunno how long this thing with Don Jr. will last.
Also I guess I shouldn’t expect anything else from a low-class like her.
he started rehab shortly after they split –
totally agree – don’t understand why he married her –
Well, sort of. He “started rehab” after he was outed for having an affair with his best friend/campaign manager’s wife. I voted for him and likely will again, but the man has terrible judgment when it comes to his personal life.
(By all accounts his current wife is intelligent and sane, though.)
should say crappy lap dance for the highest donor.
Next to Four Seasons Landscaping, this is my favorite story of the last several days. The idea that these two coked out freaks want to take over the RNC because they think it was mishandled-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
The best is yet to come?😂
I’m just so freaking excited for political headlines to be normal again. Good lord.
“Cocaine is a hell of a drug.” These people are their henchmen are pure, evil trash.
Damn, I didn’t see your comment and also posted the cocaine line!
They really are trash, aren’t they? All this shit that they do…if a Democrat woman did these things, she’d probably be crucified.
LOL I didn’t see it either and posted the same thing.
Kimberly was a different person when she was married to Gavin Newsom. Still can’t get over the lap dance part.
She wasn’t doing drugs then, esp not with a numbskull like Jr.
Did you see the article about why she was axed from Fox? They had to pay out $$$ for her sexually harassment and creation of hostile work environment. She is so gross.
I’m wondering, because no real time line is given, if KG did all this inappropriate behavior before or after the headlines that came out months ago abt her sexually taking advantage of her assistant (getting them to massage her thighs…LMFAO). I’m guessing she did this AFTER this awful headlines came out abt her behavior with her assistant… which makes it even worse for her. This woman… really takes the cake. OMG, & her unhinged speech @ the RNC. She fits right in with the Trump clan.
Fox News paid 4 million dollars to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit against her, so I absolutely believe all this weird overtly sexual news about her.
I never knew that about her! Jesus, can anyone in this administration keep their damn hands to themselves?
I think it came out not too long ago. Fox did their best to keep it quiet at the time. No, I don’t think anyone in that group can control themselves. It’s just gross. And I feel sorry for all the people like maids and servers and such that have to work around them. Ick.
She sounds like a woman who wants you to know how she is “so totally down” with discussing personal things like your sex life and grabs people and assaults them thinking it’s “friendly” and she’s a woman who knows what she wants and is so comfortable with sex! SEX! Sex is awesome! She has tons of it! Obviously we are all just jealous of her and her sensuality. We can’t handle it.
Ma’am, there are ways to be comfortable and proud of your sexuality without harassing people or offering lap dances. (Nothing wrong with lap dances but maybe don’t offer one at a GOP fundraiser?)
I was once an uncomfortable witness to a woman drunkenly complaining about losing her job. She cried and said that she had been accused of sexual harassment. I can still hear her whining voice claiming how insulted she felt, and since when is it a crime to be a loving, giving friend? KG must be a little too giving.
I can’t even keep up with the ewwwwwwwwwww factor in this. It just skeeves me out.
That whole group oozes sleeze
@ MerlinsMom1018, I know!! From now on, due to the inability to listen or read the news due to it causing me to lose sleep and be in a state of perpetual anger/disbelief/WTF, I am now aligning my loyalty to you Celebitches. I will not survive Nov/Dec unless I soak you guys up on every article and every fabulous response that are always witty, spot on and delightfully delicious!!
You guys are the best!!
@Lady
I love this group! The discussions are always interesting and thought provoking.
Hang in there, it’s almost over! I admit that I unplug from the “mainstream” news frequently in order to not bang my head on the floor constantly
I know what you mean, sanity here, madness like the some of the DM etc. etc. readers make me ill.
Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.
During the 2016 election, the Russians used honey traps and bribes too.
Whenever I see her name, my mind automatically interprets her last name as “Gargoyle”
Sean I was literally about to type this. Kimberly Gargoyle.
Sean and Dephine, you gave me my first smile of the day! Thank you!
Some websites do make it a point to call her that, so let’s all support that.
Just like for the past four years, every time I think it can’t possibly get any wackier, it DOES.
Cocaine is a helluva drug…
I wonder what she was like married to Gavin Newsome. You have to think a lot of it has to be addiction related, right? It just seems too coincidental that Junior’s wife dumped him a few years back, and then he hooks up with this chic and shows up everywhere looking like he’s on the third day of a bender. But on the other hand, people don’t change their stripes that much. They just wind up in environments that encourage them to stop withholding the inner trash.
Jr has always had addiction issues from what I can tell – he’s moved from being a booze hound to a coke head. I think that entire family has addiction issues.
As toxic as that family is, no surprises there. A prime coping mechanism. Heck, after these four years, it’s amazing we all aren’t addicts.
The woman was fired for sexually harassing staff by parading around naked in front of them, discussing her sex life graphically, and showing them pictures of her partners’s genitals. And they don’t understand why they had HR problems in the campaign?
This woman has a child. I do hope he spends most of his time with his father. Junior seems to not see his kids at all since the Father’s Day expedition when he repeatedly wrenched his youngest boy’s arm when the kid was trying to catch a large fish.
I want to know if any drama happened between this creepy woman and Lying Lara, Eric’s scheming wife.
I understand her second divorce was acrimonious too. Since we never see her child, I assume her ex takes care of him.
She held it together better when she was married to Gavin, but she was still pretty trashy. As one example, she gave a speech while First Lady of SF that referenced Gavin’s penis size. I like Gavin’s politics but the fact that he married her in the first place has always given me pause.
What, no BJs?
Oh absolutely. That comes after the lap dance when she drags em by their ties to a standing ovation (those who can ‘get up’ and stand).
If they ever do a “bad Munsters” remake, here is a leading candidate for Lily.
I always thought Yvonne DeCarlo was too pretty to play Lily. However, if they did a remake with loud, obnoxious, seedy family characters, KG could nail it. Junior resembles an adult Eddie, so there you have it. Can’t unsee it now.
We musn’t insult Lilly.
The Munsters characters are warm, loving people who have positive, healthy relationships with each other and with their neighbors (those who show tolerance and friendliness towards them). They wouldn’t invite these ghouls to their happy BBQ parties (featuring roast bats and deep-fried worms ofc).
It would have to be a super-seedy version of the family. A true horror show instead of the warm comedy of the original series.
What gets me is that people think Cheeto and his team are competent enough to stage a coup but apparently not competent enough to win an election.
Yes, I will agree they are dangerously stupid and will do their level best to cause damage on their way out but no coup is happening.
And I also wonder, what percentage of those who voted for baby fists are of the Nazi rally, MAGAt worship kind, and how many are the secret, yeah he’s a jackass but my 401K and bank account have never looked better so I’m willing to look the other way kind. Because, I’m inclined to think if people’s economic fortunes remain stable and/or improve under Biden, they’ll calm down and just get on with their lives.
I think what both the rich MAGAts and the poor/middle-class MAGAts have in common is racism. Economics aside, I think they all voted for white supremacy to prevail in this country.
But I think fear is what binds them. Isn’t that the foundation of white supremacy anyway? Cater to the fears of your people and you will amass great numbers. Sad.
With respect to Trump’s mishandling of pandemic – I’m just right now listening to Cuomo’s book, and it’s amazing to hear him describe how Trump took the states’ requests for PPE and ventilators personally, even though no one was blaming him for it. And then he describes this shift where Trump just makes it all political and let’s the states fend for themselves. There was a very clear moment for Trump to step up, and he didn’t. He couldn’t look past the imagined slights. He is such a petty man. As for Kimberly…geez girl, read the room.
Shuddering at the thought of a conservative’s idea of a lapdance, hahaha.
Plot twist, Melania leaves, Kimberly leaves the son and marries the father.
Would not surprise me. At all. And would definitely be in keeping with Don Jr’s entire life.
KG is actually one year older than MT. KG is 10 years older than DTJr.
She come from media. Folks would be surprised how vulgar they can be, even local media. I attended an event a few years back with Katie Couric as the keynote and she had one of the filthest mouths I’ve ever heard. So called America’s Sweetheart was worse than a stand up comedian. I still believe Kimberly is trash but professionally I’m sure she knows no different behavior since it’s commonplace from her previous world.
And she was head of finance? Really? And I thought De Vos and Carson’s appointments were bad!
She hired a young female assistant – it was her first job out of university – who was traumatized so badly by KG that she had to get therapy and hasn’t been able to work since. KG would invite her to her apartment, demand that she spend the night, parade around nude, make her watch porn and show her nude photos of men she’d slept with, demand massages and probably more that wasn’t revealed. This woman is a total sicko.
WHAT?! OMG
Wait, whaaat?
Da fuq???
That poor assistant.
This. It doesn’t make voting for baby fists OK (and I still don’t understand how anyone could vote for him), but it gives me hope that the vast majority that voted for him were voting for their pocketbooks and don’t care about baby fists (or his proposed “comeback”) at all. God willing.
I knew there must be a reason I feel like I desperately need a shower every time I look at her.
Gross. Just gross.
Gonna be honest, I would not want a lap dance from anyone but definitely not from…. bleh 🤮. She is as sick as the rest of the lot. Just so so gross and an HR nightmare come to life
It sill boggles my mind that Gavin Newsome was married to her.
Someone needs to tell that square faced, screeching cartoon villain, that she is 50, and the ONLY men wanting a lap dance from her are over 80, with one foot in the grave…
Someone needs to tell that square faced, screeching cartoon villain, that she is 50, and the ONLY men wanting a lap dance from her are over 80, with one foot in the grave…
So all I got out of that is that someone used ‘threw’ instead of ‘through’.
Must read it again.
I know ppl are surprised she was married to Gavin Newsome, but didn’t she get into trouble back then for going to some fundraising event with the LGBTQ community and spending her time talking abt her husbands dick to a room full of gay men? Yeah.
I wonder, did she just have a better grasp on her paper thin veneer of normal-ness before, and she’s let it drop now bc she doesn’t have to have it up, or she’s always been this way, and just never had a chance to let that side of it shine in front of the cameras for all to see? And is there even a worthwhile difference between the two?
I absolutely do not know what happened to Kim. How do you go from working as an atty in the DAs office, being SF’s first lady to that? Maybe she was always like this and she hid it well but I find her behavior horrifying. Gavin really dodged a bullet with that one.